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Super Bowl 51 Prediction: Pittsburgh over Green Bay
by Peter King
There is an old saying in coaching that you never pick up the next season where you left off the previous one. The point basically is that every season is a new one and what you did eight months ago just doesn’t matter.
Two teams would argue with that: Pittsburgh and Green Bay. They are my choices to reach Super Bowl 51 in Houston next February, and each has some memories that are helping with motivation.
On my training camp tour this summer, I sensed an unease in each camp. Aaron Rodgers is still upset with his level of play last year; he told me 2016 was his most important season. When you’re as great as Rodgers, and you have lousier stats than Brian Hoyer for a season, that tends to eat at you for a good bit of the offseason. And he’s not the only one in the Green Bay locker room who feels like some atonement must be made for how 2015 went down.
As for the Steelers, I sense a disbelief that the season ended the way it did, with a crushing loss mentally and physically in Denver, coming off a Ravens-Steelers type of vengeful match in Cincinnati the previous week that robbed Pittsburgh of wideout Antonio Brown for the AFC semifinal loss. You can’t convince the Pittsburgh offense that if Brown played that day in Colorado, it would have been the Steelers, not the Broncos, facing Carolina in the Super Bowl last February.
I’ll start there, with the Steelers. In Latrobe this summer, there was an emphasis on the small things all over their training camp. In all camps, you see receivers staying after practice to work with the Jugs machine to improve hands. Brown has taken this to another level. He catches 130 passes after each practice from the machine. Then he has an assistant mug him while he is trying to make one-handed catches and catches close to the ground. “If you’re not getting better,” Brown said that day, “You’re getting worse. I’m not the only guy around here who feels that way.”
I think Ben Roethlisberger is good enough to make up for the full season loss of Martavis Bryant and the quarter-season loss of Le’Veon Bell to advance to his third Super Bowl in 13 years. On defense, year two of coordinator Keith Butler will have the Steelers feeling more comfortable with their post-Dick LeBeau scheme.
For Green Bay, this could be the last chance Clay Matthews and 36-year-old Julius Peppers have to be impact players together on a playoff team. GM Ted Thompson is a ruthless sort, and wouldn’t feel guilty if he had to cut one or the other for age or performance after the season. It’s only a matter of time before Peppers gets that tap on his shoulder.
I love versatile defensive tackle Mike Daniels. The Packers will have to be good with some unproven players at inside linebacker (fourth-round rookie Blake Martinez needs to prove much as a nearly every-down player), which is why Peppers, even at his age, is so important.
On offense, getting back Jordy Nelson promises to cure so many ills. Nelson takes the pressure off Randall Cobb to produce beyond the way he should as a complementary receiver. And with Eddie Lacy back in reasonable shape, it’s going to set the stage for Rodgers to have his full array of weapons and to be able to be Aaron Rodgers again.
I thought about several other Super Bowl possibilities on my camp trip this summer. I almost went for the shocker and put Oakland as the AFC representative; I was sorely tempted because of the explosive offense and a defense that has a genius talent in Khalil Mack. I also was tempted by Arizona and Minnesota in the NFC and Denver in the AFC. But the quarterback situations in January for all three gave me pause.
New England’s a tempting pick(*due to my massive and bizarre man-crush on them*), because of intense motivation and a manageable schedule, as well as the fact the Patriots are still really good. Carolina I could see returning out of a weak NFC South, and Seattle could make another run with my MVP pick, Russell Wilson.
But give me the Steelers in Houston 22 weeks from now, 30-23 over Green Bay. I call it a legacy-builder for Roethlisberger and a way for a coach who gets far too little credit, Mike Tomlin, to ascend to the perch of the great coaches, where he belongs.
Super Bowl 51 Prediction: Pittsburgh over Green Bay
by Peter King
There is an old saying in coaching that you never pick up the next season where you left off the previous one. The point basically is that every season is a new one and what you did eight months ago just doesn’t matter.
Two teams would argue with that: Pittsburgh and Green Bay. They are my choices to reach Super Bowl 51 in Houston next February, and each has some memories that are helping with motivation.
On my training camp tour this summer, I sensed an unease in each camp. Aaron Rodgers is still upset with his level of play last year; he told me 2016 was his most important season. When you’re as great as Rodgers, and you have lousier stats than Brian Hoyer for a season, that tends to eat at you for a good bit of the offseason. And he’s not the only one in the Green Bay locker room who feels like some atonement must be made for how 2015 went down.
As for the Steelers, I sense a disbelief that the season ended the way it did, with a crushing loss mentally and physically in Denver, coming off a Ravens-Steelers type of vengeful match in Cincinnati the previous week that robbed Pittsburgh of wideout Antonio Brown for the AFC semifinal loss. You can’t convince the Pittsburgh offense that if Brown played that day in Colorado, it would have been the Steelers, not the Broncos, facing Carolina in the Super Bowl last February.
I’ll start there, with the Steelers. In Latrobe this summer, there was an emphasis on the small things all over their training camp. In all camps, you see receivers staying after practice to work with the Jugs machine to improve hands. Brown has taken this to another level. He catches 130 passes after each practice from the machine. Then he has an assistant mug him while he is trying to make one-handed catches and catches close to the ground. “If you’re not getting better,” Brown said that day, “You’re getting worse. I’m not the only guy around here who feels that way.”
I think Ben Roethlisberger is good enough to make up for the full season loss of Martavis Bryant and the quarter-season loss of Le’Veon Bell to advance to his third Super Bowl in 13 years. On defense, year two of coordinator Keith Butler will have the Steelers feeling more comfortable with their post-Dick LeBeau scheme.
For Green Bay, this could be the last chance Clay Matthews and 36-year-old Julius Peppers have to be impact players together on a playoff team. GM Ted Thompson is a ruthless sort, and wouldn’t feel guilty if he had to cut one or the other for age or performance after the season. It’s only a matter of time before Peppers gets that tap on his shoulder.
I love versatile defensive tackle Mike Daniels. The Packers will have to be good with some unproven players at inside linebacker (fourth-round rookie Blake Martinez needs to prove much as a nearly every-down player), which is why Peppers, even at his age, is so important.
On offense, getting back Jordy Nelson promises to cure so many ills. Nelson takes the pressure off Randall Cobb to produce beyond the way he should as a complementary receiver. And with Eddie Lacy back in reasonable shape, it’s going to set the stage for Rodgers to have his full array of weapons and to be able to be Aaron Rodgers again.
I thought about several other Super Bowl possibilities on my camp trip this summer. I almost went for the shocker and put Oakland as the AFC representative; I was sorely tempted because of the explosive offense and a defense that has a genius talent in Khalil Mack. I also was tempted by Arizona and Minnesota in the NFC and Denver in the AFC. But the quarterback situations in January for all three gave me pause.
New England’s a tempting pick(*due to my massive and bizarre man-crush on them*), because of intense motivation and a manageable schedule, as well as the fact the Patriots are still really good. Carolina I could see returning out of a weak NFC South, and Seattle could make another run with my MVP pick, Russell Wilson.
But give me the Steelers in Houston 22 weeks from now, 30-23 over Green Bay. I call it a legacy-builder for Roethlisberger and a way for a coach who gets far too little credit, Mike Tomlin, to ascend to the perch of the great coaches, where he belongs.
