New England Patriots trash Pittsburgh Steelers 34-13
Top Line: New England Patriots blew out the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-13 at home, improving their regular season record to 13-0. Tom Brady tossed four touchdown passes, including a 63-yard play-action bomb to Randy Moss and a 56-yard bomb off a double lateral with Moss to Jabar Gaffney. Patriots ran the ball only nine times as Brady completed 32 of 46 passes for 399 yards. Outside linebacker Mike Vrabel pressured Pittsburgh’s quarterback throughout the game and safety Rodney Harrison had a great game for the second week in a row. Nose tackle Vince Wilfork had a solid game.
Offensive Line: Left tackle Matt Light, left guard Logan Mankins, center Dan Koppen, Russ Hochstein in for Stephen Neal at right guard, and right tackle Nick Kaczur. As is usually the case when Hochstein or Billy Yates play right guard, the two rotated at the position.
Brady took some hits but was never sacked. Koppen had one shotgun snap that was a bit weak but otherwise he was solid in that department once again.
Back-up offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan got to play tight end on a short-yardage play in the first quarter.
The Gist: As usually is the case the Patriots opened with a plethora of formations but eventually settled for the four wide-receiver shotgun package as the weapon of choice. Steelers did a decent job of keeping Brady off balance, but they couldn’t get off-target much. The Steelers had their moments, though. On third and ten on the Patriots fourth drive – which was kept alive after a Steeler touched a Patriots punt – Steelers sent an overload blitz over the left side of the Patriots defensive line that forced Brady to throw a short pass to Watson who was stopped well short of a first down. On the next play Gostkowski missed a 48-yard attempt.
In spite of not having much of a running game the Patriots beat the Steelers bad on a play-action pass in the second quarter. On the first play of their third drive Patriots fielded a two tight-end formation and faked a run up the middle to Maroney with right guard Hochstein pulling to his left to help sell it. It worked like a charm as the entire Steelers defense bit on it leaving Moss wide-open for and easy catch-and-stroll 63-yard touchdown toss.
New England’s third touchdown pass was even more spectacular. Brady threw a lateral to Moss who dropped the ball, picked it up and threw lateral back to Brady. Brady secured the ball then tossed it deep to Gaffney for a 56-yard touchdown with 10:06 remaining in the third quarter..
The fourth scoring toss was a short pass to Welker late in the third quarter.
Patriots first possession of the fourth quarter ate up six minutes and twenty-seven seconds. The first five plays looked like this:
Brady to Welker for 22 yards
Brady to Welker for 11 yards
Brady to Welker for 7 yards
Brady to Welker for 15 yards
Brady to Welker for 8 yards
Always a pleasure, Mike: The numbers were pretty similar to when the Patriots sliced Minnesota Vikings 31-7 last year, when Steelers current head coach Mike Tomlin was Minnesota’s defensive coordinator. In that game Brady completed 29 of 43 passes for 372 yards and four touchdowns. The running game consisted of a mere 15 runs, including a Matt Cassel kneel down. Maroney had 8 carries for 34 yards, compared to 8 carries for 18 yards against Steelers. Gaffney played his first game as a Patriot, making one catch for four yards.
Bottom Line: If you ply your game of the season against the Patriots you might escape with a three or four point loss. If you don’t, you end up like Steelers, thoroughly outplayed and outscored.
