Bring the poise
When heat cranks up, Pats deliver as usual
From Gronk spikes to fake spikes, the Patriots were again the superior team when it was winning time.
While the Steelers played a nearly perfect game for 56 minutes Sunday at Heinz Field, the Patriots were better prepared to snatch the 27-24 victory because they handled clutch situations with poise and execution. Meanwhile, the Steelers were scatterbrained and had the look of a team that believed it deserved a win, rather than a team that would earn it.
The Patriots’ experience surely matters. Tom Brady has executed 53 game-winning drives, and the core of the roster has been around long enough to experience the chaotic conclusion to Super Bowl XLIX and the historic comeback in Super Bowl LI. They’ve endured far more stressful situations than an eight-point, fourth-quarter deficit in a regular-season game, albeit one with the AFC’s top seed on the line.
For those reasons, the players recognize and appreciate Bill Belichick’s dedication to situational football in practice. They work at it so diligently throughout the week that it’s become instinctual on Sundays, and it’s shown time and again, including victories this season against the Texans, Buccaneers, Jets and Chargers.
But the trip to Pittsburgh was a whole different level. Again, Belichick will have 56 minutes of teaching points to pore through during the full-team film review — and even the final stretch was imperfect — but there will be plenty of pride during the dissection of the last four minutes.
To that point, it’s a major reason why Belichick continues to one-up Mike Tomlin and why Brady is 11-2 against the Steelers. So when the Steelers claim a playoff rematch would unfold differently because they controlled the majority of Sunday’s tilt, they’re whistling past the graveyard. This wasn’t a new occurrence.
The Patriots have a common refrain. Eleven wins (or however many they’ve got that week) won’t get them anything. And the Steelers should know 56 good minutes doesn’t translate to a win.
The Pats’ third-down defense failed for most of the day, allowing 10 conversions on the Steelers’ first 13 attempts, but they locked it down for their final three to force two punts and clinch the win with an interception in the end zone.
Even still, as the Patriots trailed 24-19 with 2:06 to play, Cameron Heyward deflected Brady’s pass at the line and Sean Davis dropped a wouldbe interception that would have set up the Steelers in field-goal position and wiped out the Pats’ final two timeouts. The hosts likely would have either run out the clock or given the ball back to the Patriots with a 27-19 lead and a minute to play.
Instead, Brady and Rob Gronkowski followed up by connecting on three consecutive passes for 69 yards. That’s when the Patriots’ talent and toughness took over while the Steelers stumbled due to some questionable coaching.
Gronk had Davis in a one-onone matchup and beat him for 26 yards on a post while Brady survived a hit from his blind side. Davis had Gronk alone on the next play, too, and the tight end beat Davis up the left seam for another 26 yards as Brady remained cool as the pocket deteriorated. And because the Steelers didn’t learn their lesson by the time Gronkowski accumulated eight catches for 151 yards, they left Davis with yet another one-on-one matchup and Gronk breezed past him on a crossing pattern for a diving 17-yard catch.
Dion Lewis closed the drive with an 8-yard touchdown run. Throughout that series, the Patriots played with a greater level of urgency than the Steelers.
The 2-point conversion was another example of high-end execution on one side and poor preparation on the other. The 6-foot-1 Davis, who gives up 5 inches and 63 pounds to Gronk, again squared him up at the line. But the killer? Both Davis and safety Mike Mitchell guarded against the slant instead of the fade.
The Patriots presumably wouldn’t have won without the conversion, either, because JuJu Smith-Schuster beat Eric Rowe for a catch that turned into a 69-yard gain due to a series of missed tackles.
If it had been 25-24, the Patriots would have used their second timeout with 34 seconds remaining and a third shortly thereafter. Ultimately, the Steelers could have taken two knees, used their final timeout and kicked about a 30yard field goal for the win at the buzzer.
Of course, that wasn’t the case, but the Steelers still nearly capitalized with Jesse James’ 10-yard catch for what was originally ruled a touchdown. It appeared James got free because Rowe stayed in a zone while everyone else was in man coverage, so that would have been a pivotal mistake if James didn’t drop the ball as he hit the ground.
Two plays later, the Steelers panicked with a running clock, and Ben Roethlisberger called out the coaching staff after the game for a breakdown in communication. The fake spike was a disaster, and Rowe righted his wrongs by breaking up a boneheaded bid for Eli Rogers that was intercepted by Duron Harmon.
If a veteran quarterback and veteran coaching staff can’t remain in sync during the most crucial sequence of the game, especially after a long stoppage for the video review of the James drop, it’s not a good sign.
And because of that, the top-seeded Patriots can enjoy home cooking throughout the playoffs if they win their final two games.