As poorly as the Pats played in their loss to the Browns last week, they looked equally impressive in their 39-26 win over the Steelers this week. It's not every day that you see a team out-physical the Steelers but the Patriots did just that. Some of the hits may not be textbook legal but it was good for the Pats to show that they would not be intimidated.
Offense
Brady played great in this game. He threw for over 300 yards, 3 TDs, no INTs, and rushed for another TD on a QB sneak. His throws were accurate and on-time.
It was so good to finally see some long passes. Hopefully other teams will start to respect Tate a little bit more down the field. And it was good to see Welker get out on deeper routes. I've felt that opposing defenses have started to jam him more at the line and cheat up on the short stuff so he may continue to have success on some deeper patterns.
No one said that rushing the ball would be easy against the Steelers but the Pats rushed the ball effectively and ran often enough to open up play-action plays. It seems like the Steelers are always rushing toward the line to stuff the run and it leaves them very vulnerable on play-action.
The pass protection was great in not allowing a single sack. The hardest shot that Brady took all game was when BJGE accidentally ran into him on a botched hand-off.
Gronkowski rebounded from his worst game with a stellar effort this week. He was the featured TE in this game and he finished with 3 TD grabs. He made a great athletic catch on the first TD on a skinny post up the right seam.
Speaking of TEs, where was Aaron Hernandez? Let's hope he just not part of the overall game-plan and not sitting in Belichick's dog house.
Defense
The defense played aggressively all night and it showed! I don't remember the last time I've seen the Pats blitz this often but I was glad to see the team bring the heat. They rushed defenders from all angles with inside stunts and LB and CB blitzes. It definitely tested the make-shift offensive line of the Steelers and the Pats were able to sack Roethlisberger 5 times. The Pats would have gotten at least a half-dozen more sacks but the Steelers got away with holding all night long! There is such a double-standard with the refs.
The game got a little ugly toward the end as the Pats went into their prevent defense. Roethlisberger padded his stats by passing mostly to speedy WR, Mike Wallace and ended up passing for 3 TDs in the 4th quarter. In addition to soft coverage, the Pats also didn't help their cause with poor tackling late in the game. They allowed 23 4th quarter points and need to do a better job of closing out games.
Another thing I wanted to mention was it was a great play by Chung to tip a pass and Sanders to gather the INT and return it for a TD. However, the group celebration afterward was stupid and resulted in a penalty on the following kickoff. This allowed Pittsburgh to start with great field position and they quickly drove down the field to score a TD of their own.
Special Teams
As I foreshadowed last week, long snapper Jake Ingram was replaced by Matt Katula. Hopefully he continues to go unnoticed.
The same can't completely be said of Gostkowski's replacement, Shayne Graham. He missed an extra point which forced the Pats to go for 2 late in the game to make up for it. In the end, the Pats could have put up 41 points against the Steelers. Graham was perfect on his 2 FG attempts but his 2nd attempt knuckle-balled its way through the uprights. Graham did okay on kickoffs but did not get any touchbacks.
Other Thoughts
I find it ironic that WR Hines Ward, one of the dirtiest players on a team full of head-hunters and cheap-shot artists, had to be taken out with a concussion.
Another observation was the Pats seemed to have Polamalu guessing all night. He would rush to one side of the line as the ball was snapped just to either overrun the play or watch it go to the opposite direction. He is a tremendous instinctive player but you can see how his freelancing sometimes leaves a huge hole in their pass coverage.
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