76 Steelers vs 07 Patriots

[frankie025]

I have been having a argument with my friend about who would win in a game, 76 Steelers vs 07 Patriots. Me being a die hard steelers fan said steelers but my friend still thinks tom brady would have a field day. What are the the thoughts on this game?

[steelerdave1969]

I love our Steelers as much or more than you, and I know that todays atheletes are much Faster and Bigger than they was in the 70's man. I think this game would be very out of hand by half time. Mike Webster at 270 lbs soaking wet would have no chance vs the likes of Wilfork. Stallworth and Swann were burners in their hey days and they just ran 4.7 40 yard dashes . . Come on man ! ! !

Patriots 38
Steelers 10

Sorry, just the Cold Hard Facts . . todays players are worlds ahead of those guys in all phases.

[lionslicer]

Back in the 70's there really wasn't any players as quick as Welker, which is the only person Brady would have to throw to, especially since Blount would take Moss out of the game. Welker would get beat up by Ham and Lambert all day, he probably would start dropping passes because he would be afraid to get hit.

The front 4 would keep the Patriots from getting any running game going, so they would have to be predictable and pass every down and the 76 defense would win the battle.

But the Steelers offense would struggle. The Patriots would make sure to stop the running game, and back then defenses weren't that confusing, they were pretty straight up, but the Patriots zone blitz would terrorize Bradshaw. It would be a low scoring game, no way Brady would have a field day. And the Steelers would outlast then Patriots and probably get a defensive touchdown late in the game to finish it off. (or the patriots get a defensive touchdown)

[zulater]

The 76 Steelers were a better team than the 07 Patriots. You can't compare teams of different era's in the respect of how they would line up because too many things have changed to get a valid comparison. The only way you can compare them is in relation to their own era. And by that basis the 76 Steelers are a much better team because it took a great Raider team to beat them, whereas the 07 Pats lost to a mediocre ( relatively speaking) Giants team.

[LVSteelersfan]

Silly argument to get into. There is no way to figure out how this would turn out. Whose rules are they playing by? 76 rules or 07 rules? With 76 rules the Steelers might have a chance. With the pussified 07 rules, the Pats would win in a romp.

[sharkweek]

Modern players are faster, bigger, stronger, the coaching is smarter, and the rules are harder. An average or even poor team in today's NFL would likely obliterate the absolute greatest of teams from that far back.

[lionslicer]

Originally Posted by LVSteelersfan

Silly argument to get into. There is no way to figure out how this would turn out. Whose rules are they playing by? 76 rules or 07 rules? With 76 rules the Steelers might have a chance. With the pussified 07 rules, the Pats would win in a romp.

76 rules would make it harder to pass block and run block.
Modern rules still allows defensive backs to totally destroy recievers at the line. Blount would just shove down Moss, you are allowed to do that but cornerbacks in todays game are not strong at all. But 07 patriots did use a spread set, there would be too much speed on the offense for the Steelers to deal with. They'd be getting beat by 4th and 5th string recievers.

If you argued that if you slowed the patriots down to match the speed of the fastests players in the NFL back then, maybe you could make a better arguement that the Steelers would win. And if 07 patriots had to wear the huge pads players had to wear back then, they wouldn't fair well just because players today are not used to pads being that big.

[zulater]

Originally Posted by sharkweek

Modern players are faster, bigger, stronger, the coaching is smarter, and the rules are harder. An average or even poor team in today's NFL would likely obliterate the absolute greatest of teams from that far back.

You see the thing is maybe if you put everything in a vacuum like that it would be. but my opinion is that the best of any generation would probably be the best of any other generation if you could transplant them into a different era. For example if Joe Greene had been born in 1980 intead of 1948 he would have had the advantages that todays athletes enjoy. He would have benifit of the same weight training, diet's and supplements, and even surgical procedures. So instead of being 270 pounds he'd probably be 300 or so.

[steelerjim58]

Originally Posted by zulater

You see the thing is maybe if you put everything in a vacuum like that it would be. but my opinion is that the best of any generation would probably be the best of any other generation if you could transplant them into a different era. For example if Joe Greene had been born in 1980 intead of 1948 he would have had the advantages that todays athletes enjoy. He would have benifit of the same weight training, diet's and supplements, and even surgical procedures. So instead of being 270 pounds he'd probably be 300 or so.

Ding ding ding ding, we have a winner. Everyone seems to think that these guys are bigger , faster and whatever else because of some great genetic makeup. Now days there are probably some high schools that have as good or better training facilities than some NFL teams had in the 60's and 70's. To me all there is to talk about is football playing ability. There is no comparison as far as pure talent between the patriots of 07 and the Steelers of the 70's.

[sharkweek]

Originally Posted by zulater

You see the thing is maybe if you put everything in a vacuum like that it would be. but my opinion is that the best of any generation would probably be the best of any other generation if you could transplant them into a different era. For example if Joe Greene had been born in 1980 intead of 1948 he would have had the advantages that todays athletes enjoy. He would have benifit of the same weight training, diet's and supplements, and even surgical procedures. So instead of being 270 pounds he'd probably be 300 or so.

Except you fail to factor in ever increasing popularity and talent pool size. The NFL and football in general gets more and more competitive as the years go by. There was a time when you could be a walk-on to a professional team, something that is not really possible today and is extremely hard to do and be a standout player for the better college teams.

Joe Greene was awesome for his time but we have to consider he was likely playing against a smaller talent pool and thus while he stood out in the 70s its likely he might be average or worse today, even with today's advantages, the coin flips both ways.

Fact of the matter is that we simply cannot accurately compare teams from different eras.

Originally Posted by steelerjim58

Ding ding ding ding, we have a winner. Everyone seems to think that these guys are bigger , faster and whatever else because of some great genetic makeup. Now days there are probably some high schools that have as good or better training facilities than some NFL teams had in the 60's and 70's. To me all there is to talk about is football playing ability. There is no comparison as far as pure talent between the patriots of 07 and the Steelers of the 70's.

You're right about the training, but as I just said earlier, that means the talent pool is much larger.

If I invent a new sport with my best friend and we're the only ones that have ever played it, I have a 50/50 chance of being the best player ever in that sport. The more people that learn how to play, the less chance I have at being an elite player.

Elite players from the 60s and 70s might be bumped to average or worse simply because in the 60s and 70s there were less people trying to play football.