Pittsburgh Steelers: Time for talk is over

The Pittsburgh Steelers enter a gigantic matchup with New England in Week 15, and it’s time for the Steelers to put all doubt to rest.

It’s no secret the Pittsburgh Steelers have pressure on their shoulders riding into the upcoming match-up with the New England Patriots. This game, which is being billed as the biggest game of the season for the entire league, has the feel of a heavyweight boxing bout. With a loss to the Miami Dolphins on Monday night, New England dropped to 10-3 on the season, sitting one game behind Pittsburgh with three weeks left.

Even with the oh-so-rare Patriots loss, the stakes remain the same heading into Week 15. Should Pittsburgh win, they emerge two games ahead of New England and likely secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs, sparring an unforeseen loss and Jacksonville runs the table. If New England wins, they tie with the Steelers and would then jump to the No. 1 seed with the head-to-head advantage over Pittsburgh.

For the better part of the last decade, New England has been the hump Pittsburgh could never get over. Whether it’s due to being out-played or out-coached is an entirely different argument in itself, the fact remains Pittsburgh has yet to truly get the Patriots metaphorical monkey off their back.

Yet, every time these two come together, it’s always the same amount of noise being made from this Steelers team. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to Jeremy Fowler of ESPN, and had this to say:

"“It’s good to be in big games. It’s better to be in big games than ones nobody’s watching… This is what we’ve been fighting for since March, to be in these types of games against these types of people. Why would you fight that? It’s an awesome thing.”"

Tomlin, to his credit, has not backed down from the spotlight this game presents. However many like him within the organization have been all talk when it comes to the Patriots, talk that doesn’t translate to wins on the field. This is exactly what the Steelers asked for: To be first place in their conference and have an opportunity to not only play New England, but to defeat them and put all questions to bed about this mythical Belichick cloud that hovers over the city of Pittsburgh.

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The time for talk is over.

This team’s offensive core is finally on the same field together, an occasion that was extremely hard to come by before 2017. Antonio Brown tops the league in nearly all statistical categories, and has built a true case for league MVP. Le’Veon Bell continues to be the workhorse Pittsburgh needs him to be, leading the league in rushing and overall scrimmage yards. With other contributions from JuJu Smith-Schuster and Jesse James, when this offense catches fire it’s hard to cool down.

Defensively rests where majority of the worry is, especially after a poor outing against Baltimore. The loss of Ryan Shazier has undoubtedly set the defense back, along with the absence of Joe Haden in the secondary. While Shazier has been put on injured reserve for the remaining part of the season, Haden is expected to take part in practice this week, a good sign for a struggling secondary. Outside of the two injuries, the rest of the defense continues to show signs of improvement as the weeks go on.

The Patriots do a great job of changing their game-plan from week to week, a challenge that will again be brought to the table when they enter Heinz Field. However, the Steelers have become all too familiar of what Tom Brady and company can do. There’s no doubts Pittsburgh can go punch-for-punch in what is presumed to be the game of the year, it’s if they will.

Next: NFL 2017: 20 Bold predictions for Week 15

Sunday presents the opportunity to put up or shut up. We have seen this team come through in times of need, but the biggest test awaits them late Sunday afternoon. There’s no need to hype this game up, the prize of a victory holds enough of that on its own. Yet for a city that prides itself on winning, there comes a point where results on the field must supersede anything else.

Pittsburgh is tired of the talk, it’s time for the Steelers to stand behind their words.