Saturday Morning: Time for a New Game Plan

Joey Porter's Pit Bulls are sick and tired of the Patriots breezing into Pittsburgh and leaving town with wins over the Steelers. It's time the Steelers stopped being out-coached and outplayed.

Pittsburgh's coaching staff knew last spring the Patriots would be on the schedule. Coaches don't do this, but hopefully Mike Tomlin, Dick LeBeau and Bruce Arians spent time this off-season devising a special game plan just for the Patriots -- completely different looks, play calls audibles, etcetera; and then, in the second half, an entirely new set of offensive and defensive game plans with brand new schemes, terminology, etc. That's what it's going to take to beat these guys. Give them something -- a bunch of things -- they haven't seen before.

Each game, the Patriots seem to know what the Steelers are going to do on both offense and defense. Stop doing it! Stop playing zone coverage on defense. Stop letting the Patriots dictate the pace of play. Stop allowing them to force our linebackers into pass coverage. Stop allowing Bill Bellichick to make halftime adjustments based on what we did in the first half. Stop allowing the Patriots to pick up audibles, anticipate snap counts and read defensive formations.

Stop reacting to what they do, and make them react to what we do.

Do something completely different -- like beating the Patriots.