Click here to see all recaps on a single page
| Other Week 14 Game Recaps | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARI at SEA | CAR at JAX | CHI at WAS | CLE at NYJ | DAL at DET | IND at BAL | KC at DEN | MIA at BUF |
| MIN at SF | NO at ATL | NYG at PHI | OAK at GB | PIT at NE | SD at TEN | STL at CIN | TB at HOU |
Week 14 Game Recap: Pittsburgh Steelers 13, New England Patriots 34
What you need to know
| Pittsburgh Steelers |
For the first half of this game, it looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers had a shot at ending the Patriots' chance at an undefeated season. They went into half time only down one point and had maintained a couple of long drives which had culminated in field goals. New England looked beatable, again. Unsurprisingly, however, the Patriots made the proper half time adjustments and held the Steelers scoreless the rest of the way on their way to victory number thirteen in what might have been their last real test of the regular season.
All of the pre-game focus was on Steelers' DB Anthony Smith who guaranteed victory for Pittsburgh earlier in the week. Smith was beaten numerous times by the New England receivers and was shown up and embarrassed throughout the game. Hopefully the young player has a learned a lesson -- don't give a team which has essentially clinched the conference any more reason to beat you. In the first half, after the Patriots took the lead, QB Tom Brady found Smith on the field and apparently let him know that the Patriots had not forgotten about his guarantee.
RB Willie Parker ran the ball well for Pittsburgh. He added on to his conference leading rushing totals but his efforts were not enough for the Steelers.
QB Ben Roethlisberger played adequately but wasn't able to do enough in the face of the seemingly improving Patriots defense. He was hit hard a few times throughout the game and faced enough pressure to keep him on his toes throughout the contest.
Defensively, the Steelers were without star DB Tory Polamalu. He was dearly missed as the Patriots were able to throw the ball deep with success on a couple of occasions.
| New England Patriots |
It was the same old story for New England in this victory. They only ran the ball only nine times while QB Tom Brady threw the ball all over the field in yet another dominating win.
Brady had success with both the short pass and the long ball in this game. On one play, he tossed a quick pass to WR Randy Moss who was waiting at the line of scrimmage. Initially, the play appeared to be botched as Brady's pass was a few yards behind the line and Moss had to pick the ball off the ground. However, Moss lateraled the ball back to Brady who threw the ball 56 yards to Jabar Gaffney who was waiting wide open downfield for a touchdown.
In the second half, the Patriots focused on quick passes and screens in order to combat the Steelers effective pass rush. The strategy worked, as the Patriots moved the ball down the field with ease --eating up clock and putting the game out of reach. At one point, Brady threw the ball to WR Wes Welker for five consecutive completions.
In a somewhat startling trend, Patriots receivers once again had butterfingers as Wes Welker, Randy Moss, and Jabar Gaffney all had balls bounce off of their hands for incompletions.
The running backs for New England hardly saw any action as the Patriots once again eschewed traditional play calling and passed and passed despite their lead.
Defensively, the Patriots defense was stout, especially later in the game. They forced the Steelers to settle for field goals on two long drives, and stopped them on a fourth and goal on the one yard line in the fourth quarter.
What you ought to know
| QB Ben Roethlisberger, Pass: 19 - 32 - 187 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 4 - 24 - 0 |
Roethlisberger gave it his all in the loss, but he was unable to put any points up on the board in the second half despite moving the ball well against the Patriots defense in the first half. He faced constant pressure throughout the game and was forced to take a couple sacks because he was unable to get rid of the ball in time. On one third and ten play the Patriots fielded six defensive backs and Roethlisberger ran the ball up the middle and dove headfirst for a nine and a half yard gain. He then hit WR Cedric Wilson over the middle for the first down. At times, he was inaccurate which hurt his team on key third downs.
| RB Willie Parker, Rush: 21 - 124 - 0, Rec: 4 - 23 - 0 (5 targets) |
Parker was one of the only bright spots for the Steelers in the loss. Parker added to his conference leading rushing totals and ran hard and with purpose. He hit the seams with speed and fought hard for the extra yards.
| RB Najeh Davenport, Rush: 6 - 33 - 0, Rec: 1 - 32 - 1 (2 targets) |
Davenport was a key component of the Steelers offense, converting a fourth and one situation and then later on a third and one. He also caught a 32 yard touchdown pass in the end zone for the Steelers' only touchdown of the game.
| WR Hines Ward, Rush: 1 - 0 - 0, Rec: 5 - 39 - 0 (9 targets) |
Ward carried the ball on a fourth and goal situation and was stopped at the one yard line after bumping into his own blocker. Two plays earlier he took a shovel pass from QB Ben Roethlisberger to the one yard line, as well. However, as a receiver Ward was on his game and caught all the balls he could put his hands on.
| WR Cedrick Wilson, Rec: 2 - 23 - 0 (2 targets) |
Wilson caught a screen pass on the sideline from QB Ben Roethlisberger and made a skilled dash down the sideline for eight yards, but otherwise was very quiet in the loss.
| WR Santonio Holmes, Rec: 1 - 13 - 0 (4 targets) |
On a key third down, WR Santonio Holmes dove forward to catch the underthrown ball from QB Ben Roethlisberger but the ball hit off the ground before he could reel it in and the team was forced to punt. He has battling an injury lately, and was not a contributing factor for the Steelers.
| TE Heath Miller, Rec: 4 - 28 - 0 (4 targets) |
Miller caught three passes on the Steelers' first possession of the game but was not heard from again until the fourth quarter.
| PK Jeff Reed 2 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points |
Reed connected on both of his field goal attempts in the loss.
| PIT Rush Defense |
The Pittsburgh rush defense was largely untested in this match-up as the Patriots only ran the ball nine times in this game.
| PIT Pass Defense |
Early on, the Steelers were able to get pressure on QB Tom Brady. Despite allowing two passing touchdowns in the first half, the Steelers went into halftime with a good shot to pull out the victory. However, the Patriots made the necessary adjustments, forgot about a running game, and began to focus on quick, short routes in order to counter the Steelers' constant and varied pressure. The plan worked as Brady and his receivers moved the ball down the field with an all aerial attack, eating up the clock and punching the ball into the end zone with ease.
The Steelers also clearly missed DB Troy Polamalu who was in street clothes on the sidelines.
| QB Tom Brady, Pass: 32 - 46 - 399 - 4 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 1 - 4 - 0 |
Brady did what he's been doing all season -- torching defenses. Brady was the star of the show as New England only ran the ball a grand total of nine times. The Steelers were helpless against the quick paced passing attack of the Patriots. In the face of constant pressure, the Patriots switched to a short-passing game with Brady finding Wes Welker, Randy Moss, Jabar Gaffney, and Kevin Faulk on slant routes, screens, and routes over the middle.
Brady also took advantage of the absence of DB Troy Polamalu with two deep strikes of over 50 yards. After hitting Moss for the first touchdown of the day, Brady quickly located DB Anthony Smith on the field for a little chat (likely about Smith's guarantee of a Steelers victory).
| RB Laurence Maroney, Rush: 8 - 18 - 0 |
It's become clear that the Patriots are a passing-focused offense. Maroney was a complete non-factor in the victory over the Steelers, only touching the ball twice in the second half - late in the fourth quarter - as the undefeated Patriots attempted to run down the clock.
Maroney did have one nice run for a ten yard gain early in the game. He moved the entire pile with him for the final nine yards and a first down. As usual, he was not a part of the passing game.
| RB Kevin Faulk, Rec: 3 - 15 - 0 (3 targets) |
Faulk and the rest of the New England running backs were basically spectators in their team's win over the Pittsburgh Steeler. The Patriots threw the ball all game long despite leading for most of it, and Faulk was only target three times as the stable of skilled receivers for New England took control of the game in the second half.
| WR Wes Welker, Rec: 9 - 78 - 1 (10 targets) |
Welker was quiet for the first half of the game -- reeling in only one reception on three targets. Once the third quarter started, however, Welker was unstoppable. He caught eight passes in the second half including an incredible five receptions on consecutive plays. He did have one drop early in the game.
Tom Brady often hit Welker often over the middle on quick passes up the seam to exploit the Steelers blitz packages.
| WR Jabar Gaffney, Rec: 7 - 122 - 1 (9 targets) |
Gaffney found himself wide open deep down the field after an apparent botched pass play in which Randy Moss lateraled the ball back to Tom Brady. He hit Gaffney for a 56 yard touchdown. Gaffney had two passes bounce of his hands in this game.
| WR Randy Moss, Rec: 7 - 135 - 2 (11 targets) |
Moss was devastatingly open on a 63 yard touchdown pass from QB Tom Brady. Newly infamous DB Anthony Smith bit hard on the play action and Moss was open by at least ten yards as he caught the bomb from Brady and literally walked into the end zone. Moss missed a chance at his third touchdown of the day later in the game when he let a perfectly thrown pass from Brady bounce off his hands in the back of the end zone. It was his second dropped pass of the game.
Moss also helped out with blocking on RB Laurence Maroney's ten yard run early in the game.
| WR Donte Stallworth, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (5 targets) |
Stallworth was quiet in the victory over the Steelers. His single reception featured a broken tackle which will help to further solidify his reputation as a receiver with a penchant for gaining yards after the catch no matter the circumstance.
| TE Ben Watson, Rec: 4 - 33 - 0 (5 targets) |
Watson was mostly an afterthought for QB Tom Brady in the victory as the talented wide receivers for New England stole the show.
| TE Kyle Brady, Rec: 1 - 7 - 0 (1 targets) |
Brady hauled in one catch but it was a key first down conversion for the Patriots.
| PK Stephen Gostkowski 2 - 3 FG, 4 - 4 XP, 10 points |
Gostkowski had a rare miss in the victory, missing wide right on a 48 yard attempt in the first half.
| NE Rush Defense |
Again, the New England run defense allowed a seemingly large amount of rushing yards against their opponent. Willie Parker, Najeh Davenport, and Ben Roethlisberger were all able to pull of some nice runs and first down conversions. However, New England managed to hold the scoring in check and ended up with another dominating victory. The Steelers were unable to run the ball across the plane of the end zone despite having two shots from the one yard line in the fourth quarter.
| NE Pass Defense |
The New England pass defense was aided by a solid pass rush. The entire defense appeared to adhere to the cliché of bend but do not break as QB Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers were able to make some nice plays and move the ball down the field but they had trouble punching the ball into the end zone. LB Adalius Thomas nearly had the only pick of the day as he jumped up to deflect a Roethlisberger pass that bounced off both his raised hands.
The defense was especially dominate in the second half as they apparently figured out the Steelers and prevented them from putting up a single point over the final two quarters.
