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I'm (obviously) pulling for the Pats, and I think they can do it but it won't be easy. Pittsburgh has a good team, you don't win 15 games by accident, and they are at home, but if they slow down the run enough to make Ben throw, I think they will have some problems. Roth has been nothing short of average in the second half of the season, throwing about as many picks as TD's, less YPA etc., and he was pretty bad last week. If he tries to come out and prove that last week was an abberation he may be a little over-anxious and make some bad decisions. My guess is that if anyone tips the scales towards Pitt on offense it will be Staley not Bettis. I think the Pats are too quick and tackle too well to let the Bus have a big game against them in the playoffs.
Every team in the league has been affected by injuries, but any impartial observer would acknowledge that the loss of Dillon at game time and Law and 40% of their O-line during the game greatly affected the outcome of the Oct 31st meeting. The only thing that I would take out of that game is that the two teams are pretty evenly matched so whoever is able to execute their game plan better will likely be the winner.
BTW Sion, your bias is showing if you think that the Pitt O-line vs. the Pats front seven favors the Steelers. The Pats are deep and talented at almost every position with diciplined, versatile, veterans. Their LB's and "hybrid" edge players, like Mcginist and Vrabel are exactly the reason teams have difficulty game planning and matching up against the Patriots. I say Pats by six.
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"Religion is the one area of our discourse in which it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about"
--Sam Harris
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