Steelers have to bounce back against 9-4 Jags

By Hugo Guzman  |   Wednesday, December 12, 2007  |  Comments( 2 )

Pittsburgh Steelers
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As Cousin Eddie says in "Vegas Vacation," "I haven't seen a beating like that since someone stuffed a banana down my pants and set a monkey loose." The New England Patriots rode the momentum caused from two big plays largely at the expense of brash Pittsburgh Steelers safety Anthony Smith all the way to a 34-13 victory in Week 14.

But did it really matter? In the big picture, no. Consider that Pittsburgh mauled the Patriots 34-20 at Heinz Field in October 2004, snapping New England's 21-game winning streak. The next January, the Pats fought back to hand the Steelers a 41-27 loss at Foxborough in the AFC championship game. To get that revenge, the Patriots needed to rebound from the loss. They finished 14-2, and they were all but unstoppable en route to their third Super Bowl title.

The Steelers (9-4) have three games to play, starting with the AFC's fifth seed, Jacksonville, this weekend. They have a one-game lead over Cleveland in the AFC North title race (two if you include the tiebreaker), and with San Diego trailing by a game for the pivotal third seed in the conference, this is Pittsburgh's biggest contest of the year.

The 9-4 Jaguars have a similar makeup as the Steelers; they're tough defensively, and their strong running game is balanced out by an efficient quarterback. David Garrard, who took the job from former first-round draft pick Byron Leftwich in the summer, has only one interception in 10 starts.

Going into Week 15, both Garrard (103.3) and the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger (101.4) are top five in the league in passer rating, and each is on pace to have franchise-record-setting seasons for their respective teams. The former AFC Central rivals are familiar with each other, despite the story of the game changing drastically each time they play.

This makes for a more compelling game than the media-hyped Week 14 matchup between Pittsburgh and the Patriots. The Steelers cannot afford to lose another game with the charging Browns staying in their rear-view mirror, and the Jaguars want to extend their winning streak over Pittsburgh to three games.

While beating the undefeated Patriots would have gone a long way in terms of building confidence for the Steelers, the key to their regular season is how they fare over these next three weeks, and it starts with the hard-to-beat Jags.

Neal Coolong is the author of Die Hard Steel for the Sports Cartel Network, and is a contributor to Steel City Insider.
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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