Tim Benz: Can we start talking about the New England Patriots now?
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The goal was to hold this one until after Labor Day weekend.
You know, squeeze in one more preseason column after the Steelers’ 25-19 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Thursday night.
Bang out one more thought-provoking deep-dive as to who the 53rd versus 54th guy on the roster should be in the wake of the final preseason game.
Maybe detail the whole practice squad?
But with apologies to Johnny Holton, Jayrone Elliott and Tuzar Skipper, only one question matters to me: Can we start talking about the New England Patriots, please?
After all, it’s been a remarkably Pats-free offseason around these parts, especially considering that the Steelers are opening their 2019 campaign against the defending Super Bowl champions next Sunday.
The Steelers have played this Washington Generals-esque role before. Twice before they have been season-opening chum on a Patriots Super Bowl banner-raising night.
In 2002, the Black and Gold were slapped 30-14 in an AFC Championship Game rematch in the Gillette Stadium opener after New England won Super Bowl XXXVI.
In 2015, same song, different lyrics in Foxborough after Bill Belichick’s crew claimed Super Bowl XLIX. That time, the Steelers kept it closer but still lost 28-21.
And in both of those years, I remember a lot more anticipation for those contests than I have felt for this one.
In ’02, it had been the Patriots that directly stopped the Steelers the prior January from claiming just their second conference crown in 22 years.
In ’15, Steelers fans were hoping to finally get a chance to wheel out all three of the “Killer B’s” against New England.
That’s something that couldn’t transpire in 2014 because of Le’Veon Bell’s late-season knee injury. But it was something they weren’t able to enjoy the next September anyway because of Bell’s suspension.
Especially in 2015, it felt like we started doing a citywide pregame show for that contest in March or April.
Opening day of training camp that year, every third or fourth question from those of us in the media was somehow tied to the season opener in New England. And I don’t feel bad about that. It was that big of a deal.
And I don’t remember the players tamping down the hype for the game, either.
This offseason has been different, though. And I don’t think it’s been by design.
“It feels like it’s finally starting to pick up a little bit,” cornerback Joe Haden said. “Now it’s like, we really have the Patriots in Week 1.”
It’s not like there has been a team-wide anti-Patriots edict. No gag order or anything.
It’s just that, for a change, there has been so much more to focus on this offseason than the annual hand-wringing over what the Steelers could possibly do to beat the boogeyman from the northeast.
The one that always wears a hoodie.
This offseason, the spotlight was on how the Steelers were cleaning up their own backyard, moving on from talented but troublesome stars Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell.
That spotlight illuminated the perceived rise of the Cleveland Browns … the headline-grabbing exploits of Brown in Oakland … the daily media attacks (often from former Steelers) on Ben Roethlisberger and Mike Tomlin … Bell’s, uh, blossoming rap career.
It’s almost as if Pittsburgh’s bandwidth of football hate had suddenly become too flooded to access Patriots.com.
“It’s true,” linebacker Bud Dupree laughed. “There’s been a lot of distractions this offseason in our conference. The Browns added a lot of players, so you know they are going to get a lot of publicity. But for us and the Patriots, it’s always going to be great, competitive games.”
Defensive end Cameron Heyward got the ball rolling with his “Game of Thrones” reference on 102.5 WDVE this week.
“We don’t need to slay the dragon,” Heyward said referencing the Patriots. “We need to be the dragon this year.”
And while the public crescendo may just now be starting for the Steelers finally to beat Tom Brady in Foxborough, the players say that, internally, the preparation has been building for a while.
Before the team left for the preseason finale, Haden said he expected some team film preparation for the Patriots while the squad was in Charlotte. He claims to have had Patriots clips loaded in his iPad since OTAs.
“(Expletive deleted) we hop off the season with the Patriots,” Haden exclaimed Tuesday. “What else is there to talk about?”
Very happily, Joe, I can finally say…. nothing.
And (expletive deleted), thank goodness for that.