Pittsburgh Steelers: Stock rising/falling after slaying the New England giant

Coaching – Stock: Up

The coaches have had their fair share of criticism and rightfully so, for the most part. From bad decisions to sticking with players under-performing too long, they have been under fire more often than not.

However, on Sunday, the team and coaches as a whole put their best game together in a long time. Mike Tomlin and his staff absolutely prepared hard for this game and the results showed.

Keith Butler deserves credit for (finally) figuring out what the rest of the league already knew. They finally decided to mix coverages and dial-up the pressure against Tom Brady. This is the formula for success against New England and for whatever reason it took Pittsburgh years to deploy that gameplan.

Pressure was around Brady all night and it showed as he was errant on multiple passes while in the pocket facing heat. This was extremely noticeable on the late game interception by Joe Haden as Brady was pressured and could not get enough on the ball to throw it away.

If the coaches can dial-up that game against New England, they should be able to do it every week. The team needs to perform to its potential and, in a way, this win is frustrating after watching them drop three straight to Denver, Los Angeles and Oakland.