Did the Patriots single out Anthony Smith?

[tony hipchest]

the question has already been raised. could the patriots be so talented and diobolical that they put a target on his back for the sole purpose of teaching him a lesson in humility for his boisterous prediction?

dont buy into the hype.

what the patriots did was elementary and wouldve been done regardless of the mouth of a young'n. sure he stepped into a pile of doo and put a target on his back. sure he put immense pressure on his sholders, despite being on a team where no single defensive player needs to carry that burden.

but when the media tries to convince you the patriots can snatch up any player they want and put him over their knee, dont buy in.

the steelers came in with the leagues #1 defense. the weakest link of that unit was 2nd year starter anthony smith. there are no other starters with less than 3 years in the league on the steelers d. not only was he the weakest link and sure to be a target of the veteran patriots, he was also the one immature enough to start poppong off at the mouth to a team who was gonna target him in the 1st place.

his mistake wasnt his confidence. his mistake was his ego wanting to shoulder the load when there were 10 other players capable of splitting the burden. especially when you are the teams weakest (most inexperienced) link.

no shame though, and hopefully he learns, moves on, and puts it behind him. the patriots burned pro bowler troy polamalu in almost the same fashion in his sophmore year.

and he didnt even guarantee a victory to earn such "punishment".

[SteelCityMan786]

Nope, I don't think they singled him out. They just did their thing, and well, they won.

[jjpro11]

they didnt.. but you know damn well they were thinking about him when brady got in his face after the first td.. so much for them brushing him off as a 2nd year nobody shooting off his mouth... but they didnt pick on him because of it.. if casey hampton said the same thing last week, they wouldnt be running the ball up the middle every other play trying to get back at casey. smith is the weakest link on our D right now.. they exploited the weakness.

[IslandSteeler]

They throw it deep every game. The first td was a bad one for smith. The other one's were just well executed. Harrison knocked Ike off of coverage of Moss. As for the trick play, that was pretty clever. Right out of the Steelers old playbook.

I'm not worried. That's not the way the rematch will go.

[SteelersMongol]

They didn't single him out. But we're (the fans) are singling him out for our loss. Shame shame shame!!!

[MACH1]

Nope...He is young and inexperienced and a weak link today.

[Borski]

Originally Posted by jjpro11

they didnt.. but you know damn well they were thinking about him when brady got in his face after the first td..

A little off topic, but did anyone else notice how fast Harrison came to back up Smith? I liked seeing that

[Edman]

Two deep bombs were the result of young Anthony Smith blowing his coverage. He was right there both times.

The Patriots didn't out-physical the Steelers, they out-finessed and outsmarted them. Seriously, do you know how many consecutive pass plays were called by NE?

[Galax Steeler]

Smith wasn't the only safety burnt by the patriots this year they have done it to just about everybody.

[geo123]

I wouldn't be sursprised if they intentionally went after him. I think the Pats knew we were vunerable to that play after the Jet game!