Patriots coach Bill Belichick thinks you can give the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award to Steelers receiver Antonio Brown.
Or Le’Veon Bell.
Or Ben Roethlisberger.
On a conference call with reporters Wednesday morning, Belichick heaped praise upon the surging Steelers offense that will do battle with his Patriots on Sunday at Heinz Field.
“They excel at their positions,” Belichick said. “They excel every week. Even though everyone knows they’re the best guy and they’ve got to target those players in the running game and passing game … they do it every week. They’ve been doing it for several years now.
“To get that kind of attention and continue to have the extraordinary production that all three of those players have … it’s so unusual to have players of that caliber all on the same team. They’re all great players and all deserving of any recognition they get. I wouldn’t argue with any of that.”
A few weeks ago, Steelers coached Mike Tomlin promised “fireworks” when the Steelers and Patriots met. And they very well could be of the offensive variety.
The Patriots are first in the NFL in passing offense, second in total offense and fourth in scoring. Tom Brady, ageless at 40, leads the league in passing yards.
The Steelers, after a slow start, are fourth in total offense, second in passing offense and eighth in scoring. They’re coming off their most impressive game of the season when they scored 39 points and put up 545 total yards against the Ravens.
Belichick had special praise for Bell, who leads the NFL with 1,684 yards from scrimmage — 1,105 rushing and 579 receiving yards.
“He’s a great player,” Belichick said. “He’s almost impossible to stop. He does everything well. He runs well, great power, quickness, vision, excellent receiver, hard to tackle. The guy is a great player. You have Brown … those two guys are as good as anyone we see. Then they have a lot of other great players to go with them. It’s a very talented group, their quarterback and offensive line, it’s an outstanding team with a lot of weapons and good balance. They really do everything well.”
Ray Fititpaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: December 13, 2017, 5:55 p.m.
