The Steelers and Patriots rivalry has plenty of juice already. It lost some luster when Pittsburgh lost Ben Roethlisberger for this week, but these are still two of the top teams in the AFC doing battle.
Anything lost might have been made up by defensive coordinator Keith Butler, who threw some strong shade in the direction of the Patriots offense, saying they don't do "anything special" but might operate in a questionable manner.
Appearing on an episode of Coordinators' Corner on Steelers.com, Butler said the Pats offense does things that "might be on the edge of being legal."
"I don't think they're doing anything special," Butler said, via Phil Perry of CSNNE.com. "I think sometimes they do things outside the box sometimes, you know, that might be on the edge of being legal or not legal.
"They've done a couple of things in the past ... putting an offensive tackle out as ineligible but he's not really. And so sometimes the emphasis by the NFL in terms of what they call and what they don't call, they use that a little bit. And they've been accused of doing a lot of things. But the thing we've got to do is ignore that and play, and hopefully we can give them something they haven't seen from us."
Some of this stems from the January 2015 game between the Ravens and the Patriots, in which John Harbaugh accused the Pats of using illegal plays during their playoff game. Tom Brady kindly instructed Harbs to "study the rule book" after he complained.
The NFL would later confirm the formations were legal, the Patriots would later troll the Ravens over them and the Ravens would later practice them on their own.
But really, this is the highest compliment you can pay an NFL offense. Everyone has to play within the rules, but the teams who are the best at this game -- or any game in any sport -- are the teams who are best able to push the boundaries of what is legal without crossing over (or at least without getting caught).
No one's better than the Patriots at it, and it's something one of their biggest rivals recognizes.
