Though every team wants to have its starting DBs healthy, in some ways I think it matters less who the opposing team (in this case, Pittsburgh) has at corner when scheming against New England. The passing offense is very timing oriented and thus disruptions of the pocket affect it a lot more than the coverage. Hurry Cassel, hurry the throw, and the secondary guys will all have a better shot at making the play, so the front four are really the key in my eyes.

While Matt was learning the system, we saw our opponents minimize Randy’s impact early this season if not neutralize him outright, and we faced a pretty broad spectrum of secondary talent in that time, not just elite guys. As Cassel’s gotten better at making fast decisions, the window of time the d-line has to get to him has gotten smaller, but as with any QB it’s still always going to be there.

Seymour is definitely huge this game, but I was more wondering if it is a real issue or not. Mike Tomlin and Bellicheck both have a penchant for dicking with injury reports.

For a couple of weeks straight big ben practiced maybe once during the week and was always listed as questionable. We’ve had other players not practice all week but we knew they’d be good to go, so I guess I’m mainly wondering if this is one of those issues where Seymour will be good to go and fine, or if this is actually a legitimate injury where he might actually be out.

And don’t let our seemingly innocuous injury report fool you, we’re very banged up on offense. If the CBs go our defense will be the healthiest it has been since the first few games.