Steelers legends accuse Patriots of cheating in AFC Championship blowout

Today's episode of sour grapes is brought to you by the belly-achers known as the Pittsburgh Steelers, specifically franchise legends Jerome Bettis and Ben Roethlisberger.

On an episode of Roethlisberger's podcast, Footbahlin, he and his former running back reflected on the 2004 AFC Championship Game. The end result of that game was a 41- 27 loss to the New England Patriots.

They did not recall being outplayed, nor out-coached in the loss. Instead, they speculated that something more nefarious led to their defeat.

"To be fair, The Patriots cheated." said Roethlisberger, followed by Bettis chiming in with, "For sure they did. There’s not even a question mark. It’s not even a question in my mind."

Bettis continued to spin a yarn about a mysterious timeout that led to him fumbling the football, and subsequently, the Patriots throwing a touchdown pass.

“It was 4th-and-1, they call a timeout," Bettis said. "Who goes to the sideline when it’s a timeout? The defensive captains. [Ted] Washington, the nose guard, they pulled him to the sideline. ... They stopped us on fourth down. That’s a critical play in the game. They had our signs and they called a timeout to get ready for that play because they knew it was coming."

Steelers legends allege Patriots cheated in 2004 AFC Championship Game

Want a little cold water poured on that conspiracy theory? Ted Washington was not on the 2004 Patriots.

If Bettis can't remember who he saw that day, then how can we possibly trust anything he remembers about that game? Here's what I remember about that game, and it's backed up because it was logged for posterity in the annals of football history.

Tom Brady, who averaged 231 passing yards per game on the season, threw for merely 207 yards against the Steelers that day. That is a 30% decrease. Running back Corey Dillon also experienced a 30% decrease in his production. He ran for 73 yards, instead of his per-game average from the 2004 season, 109 yards.

On the other side of the field, Bettis stayed at his average, running for 64 yards on 17 carries (he averaged 63 yards per game on the season). Roethlisberger saw a 21% increase in his passing yards, from 187 during the regular season to 226 yards against the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.

During the season, the Steelers averaged 5.1 yards per play, but during the AFC Championship in 2004, their offense gained 389 yards on 51 plays, for an average of 7.6 yards per play. Looking at just the numbers, if you had to guess which team knew the plays coming at them, which team would you pick?

It's time for people to stop all this nonsense. The Patriots did not cheat to beat the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game in 2004. They just outplayed them. They were better prepared, and they made plays when they needed to. The Steelers did not fail because they were bamboozled by some evil genius.

They simply weren't good enough to execute when it mattered.