What the Steelers have to do on Sunday

What the Steelers have to do on Sunday

By Patriots Insider Staff

1) Run, run and run some more.� The Patriots have had trouble slowing down the run in each game they�ve place during the regular season as well as the preseason.� In uncharacteristic fashion the New England has shown the inability to stop the run early in a game. Although the team is ranked 12^th overall against the run, they have allowed their opponents to exploit this weakness for drive sustaining ruins on 3^rd down. Against the Raiders, they allowed LaMont Jordan to rip off runs of 7 yards nearly half a dozen times before slowing him at all.� Against the Panthers, it was a near repeat performance until Rodney Harrison came up to provide safety support.� The Steelers have one of the best rushing attacks in the league with Willie Parker.� Parker�s 5.8 yard per carry average is tops in the league for backs with at least 20 carries.� His 272 yards in two games has him second in the league behind only Cadillac Williams.� With the Steelers ability to run, coupled with an efficient passing game, the Patriots injury-depleted secondary will be more vulnerable to the play-action, and the Steelers will have better control the clock.

2) Stack the line and prevent the deep ball.� If the Steelers can stack the line to slow down and stop Corey Dillon, they�re going to get Tom Brady in second and long or third and long situations. That would play right into Pittsburgh�s tough blitz schemes designed to disrupt the timing of plays such as are the main staple of the Patriots 3-step drop and throws.� With Dillon and the Patriots ground game contained, the Steelers can unload on a susceptible Brady in the pocket, a tactic that Carolina employed with devastating results.� Stopping the run enabled Carolina to limit the plays available to the Patriots offense, something that they needed to do in order to prevent Brady from using TE�s Ben Watson and Dan Graham in the medium passing game.

3) Exploit special teams.� The Patriots haven�t been able to slow any kick returners down to the point that is acceptable thus far in the season, and it doesn�t look like they�ve made enough adjustments to think that will turn around any time soon.� They currently rank 26^th in the league in kick return coverage.� If the Steelers can break a couple long returns and add that to the momentum they�re sure to have with a ball-control rushing game, they should rack up some points while keeping the Patriots off the field and limiting their ability to keep pace.� Patriots� head coach Bill Belichick has voiced his disgust with the special teams performance, this week and the team has frantically been bringin in players for tryouts in a quest to find help.� When good teams start drives on the 30 yard line or better, as has been happening regularly against the Patriots, that�s going to lead to points. Any points are already going to be hard to come by against a very solid Pittsburgh defense.

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