Obviously wrote:
2007: Patriots 34, Steelers 13 - the infamous Anthony Smith game. A precursor of trash-talking to come during the Tomlin era.
Disagree. As I recall, that was more a case of a reporter looking to create a story and leading Smith to use the G word than trash talking on Smith's part.
Obviously wrote:
2015: Patriots 28, Steelers 21 - the season opener, and they actually started strong but got cute with idiotic trick plays and dumbshit penalties as Tomlin's teams are wont to do. Tomlin went on an idiotic rant about headphones issues at Foxboro.
There were headphone issues that day. And the Steelers aren't the only ones to have experienced headphone issues at Gillette.
Obviously wrote:
- Shanahan's Broncos (2005)
- Dungy's Colts (2006)
- Coughlin's Giants twice in the Super Bowl (2007 & 2011) - the first time, Big Blue prevented a Patriots' perfect season
- Harbaugh's Ravens twice (2009 & 2012) both games in Foxboro, by a large margin. Led by Joe Flacco (what's your name, little girl...)
- Ryan's Jets (2010) Yeah, Rex Ryan
- Fox's Broncos (2013)
- Kubiak's Broncos (2015) Led by a weak-armed Peyton Manning
- Pedersen's Eagles (2017) in the Super Bowl.
Why not Tomlin? Surely the apologists think Tomlin is better than the head coaches listed above. AMIRITE?
Better than Ryan, better than Fox. Maybe Kubiak. Why would I necessarily think he was better than the others? He doesn't need to be better than the others to win the super bowl.
In recent years, I don't think our defense has been near good enough to play with the Pats. Yes, as part of talent acquisition, Tomlin can be criticized for that, but they looked better against the Pats last year, so we'll hope they continue to improve and finally beat the Pats.