Roethlisberger Leads Way As Steelers Defeat Brady, Patriots 25-17
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) -- With the New England Patriots heading into town for a Week 8 showdown at Heinz Field, the Steelers were looking to build on their three-game winning streak with a rare victory over their rivals.
Tom Brady and the Patriots always seem to provide a big challenge for the Steelers, but this time around it was Ben Roethlisberger who got the better of New England for a 25-17 win.
The game wasn't without some tense moments tough as the Patriots put together a late rally, but in the end the Steelers held on for their fourth straight win following a 2-2 start.
Ben Roethlisberger passed for 365 yards and two touchdowns and the Steelers held the ball for more than 39 minutes.
Roethlisberger completed 36 of 50 passes and led the Steelers (6-2) on a series of clock-chewing drives, effectively keeping Brady and the NFL's top-ranked offense off the field.
"Any time we convert third downs and possess the ball – and obviously my stupid turnover – but I knew that we had a good group of guys that can get it down. We still have a lot of things to improve on," said Roethlisberger. "I can play a lot better, we have a little communication here and there but that comes with the territory. If we can get a win with those things going against us, then hopefully we can just continue to strive to get better."
Brady passed for two touchdowns but threw for a season-low 198 yards and couldn't get into any sort of rhythm while losing to the Steelers for just the second time in his career.
The Patriots (5-2) drew within six when Brady hit Aaron Hernandez for a 1-yard touchdown pass with 2:35 remaining, but a last-gasp drive ended when Brady was sacked and the ball rolled out of the end zone for a safety with eight seconds to play.
Click here for more photos from the Steelers-Patriots game!
It may be October, but the game had a January feel, and it wasn't just the chilly conditions.
The defending AFC champions pointed to the matchup as a litmus test after a sluggish — by the franchise's lofty standards — start. Were they the "old, slow" bunch that looked overmatched in losses to Baltimore and Houston or were they simply taking their time getting started.
The answer, it appears, is the latter, even if the Steelers solved Brady using un-Steelerlike methods.
Rather than pound away with running back Rashard Mendenhall, Roethlisberger — who never met a deep ball he didn't like to throw — did his best Brady imitation, moving the chains with a controlled passing attack that took yardage in small bits.
The Steelers didn't complete a pass over 26 yards. They didn't have to. Roethlisberger consistently found Antonio Brown (a career-high nine receptions), Heath Miller (a season-high seven grabs) and speedster Mike Wallace (seven catches) on short and intermediate routes.
The West Coast-style approach worked perfectly.
The Steelers' five scoring drives lasted 11, 16, 10, 14 and 11 plays. The Steelers converted 10-of-16 third downs and Shaun Suisham kicked three field goals as Pittsburgh kept Brady on the sidelines for long stretches.
When he did get in the game, the Steelers were able to disrupt his timing just enough. Pittsburgh sacked the two-time MVP three times and kept Wes Welker in check. Welker, on pace to set a league record for receiving yards in a season, finished with six catches for 39 yards.
Brady fell to 6-2 against Pittsburgh as the NFL's top offense was held to 213 yards, less than half New England's average of 474. The loss kept Brady and coach Bill Belichick tied with Miami's Don Shula and Dan Marino for the winningest coach/quarterback combination in league history.
The duo is stuck on 116 for at least another week while the Steelers, an afterthought early in the season, appear to be peaking.
The Steelers capped an 11-play, 68-yard opening drive when Roethlisberger found running back Mewelde Moore for a 5-yard touchdown, a lead that grew to 10-0 on Suisham's 32-yard field goal.
Click here to view the box score and game stats.
Facing their largest deficit of the season, the Patriots looked uncharacteristically out of sorts before a rare mistake by Roethlisberger allowed them to get back in the game.
Pittsburgh faced third-and-17 at its own 15 when Roethlisberger tried to hit Emmanuel Sanders down the seam. Instead, he threw the ball directly to New England linebacker Gary Guyton, who returned it to the Pittsburgh 8. It took Brady all of two plays to get in the end zone, hitting Deion Branch for a 2-yard score.
Roethlisberger bounced back to complete 6-of-7 passes on Pittsburgh's next drive, capping it with a 7-yard scoring pass to Brown, part of a half in which he put it up 32 times.
Still, the lead was only a touchdown at the break after New England's Stephen Gostkowski hit a 46-yard field goal.
Yet the momentum-swinging plays that have made Brady a nemesis for one of the league's most successful franchises never happened.
Gostkowski missed a third-quarter field goal that would have pulled New England within a touchdown and Pittsburgh responded with another lengthy drive that ended with Suisham's third field goal to put them up 23-10.
The biggest injury of the game was the hamstring pull for LaMarr Woodley. It happened as he was swooping in for what could have been his third sack of the game, but he hit the ground.
Up next, the Steelers battle the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 6 at 8:20 p.m.
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