Patriots-Steelers Preview: Will Steelers' defense be too much for Matt Cassel, Patriots' offense?

Patriots need a healthy Richard Seymour today...

Today’s game will be the biggest test of the season for the New England Patriots. The Steelers bring with them to Foxboro an 8-3 record and the most dominating defense in the NFL.

They’ll also be bringing along some players they weren’t sure they'd have with them coming into the week.

It looks like the Steelers will have Willie Parker for today’s game. Great news for the Steelers, not so much for the Patriots.

Cornerback Deshea Townsend looks like he’ll be playing as well, despite a bad hamstring. Expect Cassel and the Patriots’ offense to test his hammy early and often.

The Patriots, meanwhile, have their own injuries to worry about.

Richard Seymour is expected to play Sunday despite a knee injury. Ty Warren is still having issues with his strained groin, looks like a game time decision. Tedy Bruschi and Ellis Hobbs were both limited in practice, but should play on Sunday.

Adalius Thomas, still not on IR, is the only player the Patriots have listed as Out for today’s game.

Keys to the Game

Match the Steelers’ physicality

The Patriots, both offensively and defensively, will need to match the Steelers’ physical play. When they’ve done that in the past, they’ve been successful.

When they haven’t, the results have been disastrous.

Spread them out and wear them down

The Patriots have had success running a spread offense against the Steelers in the past. Their secondary, if you can keep your quarterback upright long enough, can be beaten. The Patriots need to come out, run the no-huddle, don’t allow Pittsburgh to change personnel, spread them out, and run them all over the field.

The Patriots won’t be able to run against this defense. But if they can use the short passing game to control time of possession, they have a shot.

No mistakes! All drives end in kicks or touchdowns.

The Steelers thrive off forcing their opponents to make mistakes. They force a ton of turnovers. But their offense will make mistakes of their own. And their offense doesn’t put up a ton of points.

Three and outs are fine. Punting is OK. You can win a field position game against the Steelers. But don’t turn the ball over and give their relatively mediocre offense a short field to work with.

The Official New England Patriots Examiner Prediction

Normally, the Patriots’ defense matches up pretty well with the Steelers’ offense because of their big, physical defensive line. But if Warren can’t play and Seymour is limited, advantage Steelers. Big time.

I love what Matt Cassel and the offense has done the last couple of weeks. But this Steelers’ defense is light-years better than the Dolphins or the Jets.

The Patriots will be game, but in the end the Steelers defense will be too much.

Steelers 17, Patriots 10

Patriot Sunday Links will be back next week. I had them all typed up, but lost them due to a computer glitch. I suggest checked out our friends at Patriots Gab, NE Patriots Draft, and Bleacher Report's Patriots section.

Also, you can check Plaxico Burress: Today's Stupidest Person in the World, My B/R NFL week 13 preview, this week's Power 10, and my Sports Central Thanksgiving column.

Have a great NFL Sunday. We’ll be back after the game with some post-game thoughts.

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner. You can email him at scrowe@gmail.com. Check out some of his other work on his blog.