From NFL.com

Have the Pittsburgh Steelers improved enough to where they can avenge their lopsided Monday Night Football loss at Indianapolis?

No.

Not a whole lot has changed since the Colts' 26-7 victory in Week 12. The Colts continue to have the quick-strike offense and big-play defense that allowed them to have a fairly easy time in that game. The Steelers are still a team that attempts to set a plodding pace with a power running game and will try and force the outcome to be decided on defense.


Ike Taylor and the Steelers DBs will be plenty busy against the Colts.
In the end, the Colts offense is simply too explosive and will quickly pile up enough points to force the Steelers to play catch up. Pittsburgh was impressive in rallying to win its wild-card game against Cincinnati. But the challenge is so much greater this time, because Peyton Manning is not going to lose a shootout to Ben Roethlisberger. Manning is likely to find more mismatches in one-on-one coverage than his younger counterpart.

Furthermore, the Steelers will try everything possible to avoid a pass-happy approach because they would be playing right into the Colts' hands. Pittsburgh will try to use its running game to wear down Indianapolis' smallish defensive front. The Colts' defensive strength is applying pressure on the quarterback, but they should be able to hold their own reasonably well on the ground with the combined efforts of defensive tackles Montae Reagor, Larry Triplett and Corey Simon and middle linebacker Gary Brackett.

Couldn't of said it better myself!

If you can't admit there was something cheap about the shot to Palmer, then you're just an ignorant homer, who lets his bias for the team make his conclusions before he puts any sort of thought into the matter.

i dont think it was and neither does any of the other nfl analysts on any show or news broadcast thought it was cheap either. it is obvious that he got blocked into him so the only cheap shot in that play would be the stupid lineman for not takin care of his blocking assignment. Besides a bengals fan, you are honestly the first person i have heard say it was a cheap shot.

I hate the steelers. And yet I still say that wasn't a cheap shot.

Im with ya man :)

I don't think it was a cheap shot either... The Guy was taken down by Cincy's line, and he sorta stumbled into carson... I remember watching it, didn't even look like he hit carson all that hard...

It was just bad luck. Honestly I don't know if it would of been enough for Cincy to win the game, but it was still one of those things that seemed really unfair to Carson... win or loose, I really would of liked to see him play his whole firstplayoff game.

Well, that sucked. But they came far...can't fault the skins for loosing there.
At least I tied with the +10 and got my bet back

that pass interference was the biggest bull**** call ive seen in the playoffs. the ref right next to the play didnt call ****.

lelie grabbed samuel for crying out loud!!

if that ends up deciding the game i will break more than 1 thing lol

....palmer said it wasnt a cheap shot

Of course commentators/players/whoever are going to say it wasn't a cheap shot....rather than risk saying anything, ANYTHING that might start a controversy....especially commentators. The hit was illegal. Tackling at the knees of a quarterback, is illegal. He was pushed and was falling towards him out of his own control, but he could've avoided his knees if he wanted, but he tried to tackle him illegaly instead.

to me it seemed from him laying on the ground he had now idea palmer had thrown the ball, and if you are low, it is not illegal to try and tackle someone. he didnt intentionally dive at his knees, he clipped his knee trying to make a tackle as he was being pushed to the ground, its different.

as for the patriots... turnovers man, thats their key, no turnovers..... sucked on that today. would have been 10 to 9 if brady threw that ball away and we kicked the field goal, instead it was 17 to 6, i know there were 2 fumbles before that but that to me was the game breaker

denver's offense was pretty bad tho, the pats defense shut them down almost completely.
denver's defense is pretty damn good tho.

i told everyone i knew that asked who i was taking "im not touching it but if i had to, id take denver"

good season patriots, especially when everyone counted them out with all the injuries and all that jazz

yup your right, analysts and news broadcasters never like to stir things up and start sh!t


as for the pats game, they did a complete 180 in this game from what they usually do...5 turnovers to 1 for denver, never would have thought it would be like that

lol you and me both, i thought denver might win, but not with all that help, i thought plummer would have had to have a great game, boy was i wrong, and denver couldnt and didnt run at all

hey good news for you steeler fans http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5249386

lol i just heard about that...what a crazy b!tch

in all honesty tho, i never even heard of him..is he a big part of the db's?

arguably their best cover corner

HA HA HA HA HA

Bye bye New England! No super bowl for you!

that game was awesome, had me and my friends cracking up the whole time!

Mistake after Mistake, and of course the looks of frustration from Brady! it was great! I can't guarentee that Indy will win tommorrow... I can gaurentee a win if they come out playing as hard as they played the season, but after a month off, who knows? I can guarentee if they beat pitsburgh, for the first time since Super Bowl V, the colts will be superbowl champs again!

Anyway yeah that game was great, entertaining as hell to watch... I love the interception in the endzone, at that point New England was on a comeback, and that one play changed the whole momentum of the game... So Tom Brady, how does it feel to lose in the playoffs?

it probably feels pretty bad for him... but then he just has to put on his 3 rings while he stares at his 2 superbowl mvps and watched tape of manning suck the last couple of postseasons to cheer him up lol

its still not bad to be a pats fan. i just wish they played their best and lost, that would have been better to handle

so you think pitt will be the easiest of the games even if indy goes on to face denver and then seattle carolina or the bears in the superbowl.... i knew there was something wrong with indy fans

pitt could possibly be the easiest (altho no gimme) of all those games

Honestly... I think pitsburgh will be the hardest game to get by...

In football the mind is what controls wins more so than physical ability... Watching that game, It reminded me of a year ago when the Colts totally broke down to New England... Peyton was hitting recievers right in the numbers and they couldn't keep their hands on the ball! the Colts were not "outcoached" they just couldn't take the pressure of "having to win" If they can get through this game, and build up their confidence, They should roll right on to the super bowl.

I don't want to downplay Denver too much though...they are a damn good team! But they aren't the Colts... The only team that can beat the Colts is the Colts... if they loose tommorrow, its because they didn't play their best game. I hope they are ready. All this off time has me a little nervous...

If they don't make it, I look for Denver to win the superbowl. Besides the Colts, who could beat Denver? The 6th seeded Steelers won't get by them, and honestly the NFC sucks... no team in the NFC is going to beat them!

the only reason denver won today was because of turnovers, period.

the refs helped too. that pass interference, and aparently many people with good angles on the watson play of the year said the ball went over the pylon... which would have been a touchback

but yeah, even if the pats only had the first 2 turnovers, they still would have one

3 scoring drives for denver were 1 play 1 play and 3 plays or something like that