Pony

They were first in defense.

The Patriots are the second scoring offense and the fourth scoring defense.

They also played an unbelievably easy schedule.

I am aware of that.

Still, though, the Steelers, who played a harder schedule, obviously, than New England, didn't really beat any of the good teams that they played, it turned out.

If you want to call Baltimore a good team, I guess you could squint, but they finished behind the Steelers and were a decidedly middle-of-the-pack group.

as far as just rankings and virtually everything.

They're also older than both of those teams, which is probably the biggest part of this for me.

Art says we're not that far away.

Man, the defense that you still probably want to hang your hat on to some degree is counting on players who are 30 or older, which is just not really a sustainable recipe for success or a common recipe for success.

Chris, I don't disagree with anything that you said there.

How could I?

The numbers are the numbers.

This is where those teams rank.

This is how old their players are.

This is what their quarterbacks have done.

And this is what the Steelers' rankings are, their record, or their quarterback play.

All that's right.

But the thing that, I mean, the number one tiebreaker in all of sports is head-to-head.

What happens when two teams play?