Top 10 reason the Steelers will beat the Jets
This Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Jets will play in the AFC Championship game. This will be the second time these two teams will meet this year. The Jets won the first game 22-17.
Fortunately, the results of this game are going to be very different. Here are 10 reasons why the Steelers will beat the Jets in the AFC Championship.
#10) History. Prior to the Jets’ win in December, they had NEVER defeated the Steelers in Pittsburgh. It’s time to return to the natural order of things.
#9) Heinz Field. The Terrible Towels are not the only thing that’s terrible in Pittsburgh. The turf (and wind) at Heinz Fiend is equally terrible. But it usually proves to be more terrible for the opponent than for the Steelers.
#8) Steeler Nation. If the conditions at Heinz Field don’t work against the Jets, I’m sure that 65,000 Terrible Towel waving Steelers fans certainly will.
#7) Special Teams. The Steelers’ special teams allowed the Jets to score a touchdown on the very first play of the game last time the two teams met. Those points proved to be crucial in a game in which the Steelers lost by 5 points. It is highly unlikely that the Steelers special teams will have a similar mishap this game.
#6) Young receivers. In their last game against the Jets, Mike Wallace, Emmanuel Sanders, and Antonio Brown each had outstanding games. The three of them combined for 16 catches and almost 200 receiving yards.
#5) Defense. The Steelers’ defense held the Jets to only 170 net passing yards in their last meeting. They held LaDainian Tomlinson to only 49 yards rushing. Had it not been for that kickoff that was returned for a touchdown, and a safety late in the game, everyone would have been bragging about how thoroughly the Steelers shut down the Jets’ offense.
#4) Rashard Mendenhall. Mendy rushed for 100 yard the last time he faced the Jets. He averaged 5.9 yards per carry during that game. I’m sure the Jets remember that, and are trying to figure out how to keep it from happening again.
#3) Ben Roethlisberger. Ben passed for 264 yards and a touchdown the last time he faced the Jets. And that was without one of his favorite targets.
#2) Heath Miller. Heath Miller didn’t play the last time the Steelers faced the Jets. Instead, Matt Spaeth started in his place. Spaeth failed to catch 5 of the 8 passes that were thrown to him. One of the passes that he dropped was a potential game winner. Heath Miller will catch those passes.
#1) Troy Polamalu. Like Heath Miller, Troy didn’t play the last time the Steelers faced the Jets. He will be playing this time. Need I say more?
(If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment by clicking on the square at the top right of this article. Also, please subscribe to our blog by pressing the orange button below. You can also follow us on Twitter by clicking the bird doohicky below. Also consider following us on Facebook. Thanks.)
You had me pumped at #10! By the time you reached #1 I was out of my seat with my towel waving! Great list with nothing missing!
1#11
Adam Shefter just said on ESPN that the Steelers may be too beat up after their game against Baltimore.
Someone needs to get through to the Steeler Bulletin Board and let them know that they are too beat up to win.
2LOL @ #11
They are healthier now than they were against the Jets the first time! Bulletin Board material.
3I like number 5: defense! If Dick LeBeau tells the men on his defense to take apart the opposing offense and wrap up a game, they will. They will kill for that man. (Reminds me of when the team rallied around Bettis to win Superbowl 40.) Examples: Look at what happened to Vince Young and the Titans in the second quarter of the September game when LeBeau blew his lid over the number of penalties being called against the Steeler defense. Also, look at what happened to the Ravens during the entire second half of their game last week.
4I love all 10 and I love the Steelers and I am sure they will give those Jets a BIG RUN FOR THEIR MONEY. Our guys have worked too hard to go down now…They are not spent or tired …THEY ARE THE STEELERS! STEELERS ARE STRONG AND MADE OUT OF PURE STEEL AND ENERGY. GO STEELERS
5My, my, my…..
I feel I must bring the other side to the story once again. First, I will say that I look for the Steelers to win this game. Bottom line.
Having said that I got to question the top 10. Special Teams being anywhere near a list of reasons for a Steeler win is a joke! Once again our special teams this year has been a liability. Maybe we havent let everyone run it back for tds this year like last year but something that might be considered worse happened all year long…..We return kicks to the 20 and opponents run it to the 35 over and over. We return punts for 0-5 yards and opponents at least 10. Field position, field position, field position!
Also, if the logic is because the jets returned a kick for td last time they won’t have the edge in special teams this time….then, all the points being made about our defense doing well last time, ben playing well last time, mendy playing well last time, and young receivers playing well last time should follow in the same logic. Can’t have it both ways. Be consistant.
I know we are big fans and we see through black and yellow lenses but lets have a realistic look at this game.
My thoughts: The Steelers need to play the whole game not just the 4th quarter. We do that…we win hands down and it is as simple as that. We are better. But we may not play better Sunday. I know Rex will have his boys ready to play all four quarters. I hope Tomlin does the same. But honestly, there have been few games where I’ve seen them play all four.
But again, I see the Steelers winning this game 20-13.
GO STEELERS!!!!!
6Tony,
I think you misunderstood the point. I never said that the Steelers’ special teams were a strength. I said that they won’t give up another TD on a kickoff return. And I stand by that prediction. Last year, I held my breath on every return. This year, they’ve been solid. Not great, but solid. Solid enough that they don’t tend to let teams return kicks and punts for touchdowns any more.
Can special teams get better? Sure. But lets not forget that they are playing with a kicker AND a punter who both started the season sitting at home on their couch. So I don’t expect them to give us great field position. If they could do that, they would have been on someone’s roster.
BTW, weren’t you supposed to pick the Jets to win?
7Well if you noticed I did pick the steelers last week so I thought I started another tradition. Plus, I really do think they win.
Punter and Kicker are only partly responsible for field position. I’m mainly talking KOs though. Suisham is kicking as good on kickoffs as reed was. And our kickers are not on the field when we are receiving kicks and that determines much of our field position.
And I didn’t misunderstand. If I don’t knock what you say it just wouldn’t be the same. It has worked for our team all year long. Why stop now?
8I know you were looking more at the Steelers side of the ball, but I think the really big thing about this game that overshadows everything else is Mark Sanchez. You could say the Steelers and Jets are pretty even across the board in the matchups department, until you get to Sanchez. “The Sanchize” gets a lot of positive press, but in passer rating, completion percentage, and yds/pass Sanchez ranked between 26th and 29th in the league during the regular season. Sanchez is the quarterback equivalent of William Gay. In four games during the regular season, Sanchez completed less than half his throws; in six games he had a passer rating of 60 or lower. He’s coming off consecutive games against some pretty leaky defenses, but this week faces probably the toughest defense he’s ever seen. The Jets defense and running game have dragged Sanchez a long way, but he is still completely capable of single handedly losing a game, and the Steelers defense will be doing everything necessary to help him lose it Sunday.
The key to this game is really about covering up or exploiting Sanchez’ deficiency at quarterback. For the Jets to win, their defense and special teams need to score points, keep the Steelers score low, and give Sanchez great field position to work with. This was true without Polamalu in the game, and even more true with him in. If the Steelers offense and special teams avoid mistakes and keep the Jets average starting field position inside the NY 40, the Steelers likely win this 13-3 or so.
9Matthew,
10Great comment. I agree with you that Sanchez could be the Jets’ Achilles heel. Lets hope that Dick LeBeau sends the dogs after him early and often.