Patriots run past Steelers, 27-16

Landry Jones’ play for us.”

No, because others helped him lose. He threw a second touchdown pass to Heyward-Bey that would have brought them back from 14 behind into a tie in the second quarter, except Chris Hubbard was called for holding. Two plays later, Chris Boswell missed a 42-yard field goal.

“You can’t do that against good people,” Tomlin said, referring to playing against the now 6-1 Patriots.

Despite it all, New England led by just 14-13 with a little over 21 minutes left in the game when Tom Brady decided enough was enough. It was time to look for the Gronk.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski, who caught three touchdown passes in the 2015 opener against the Steelers, had just one ball thrown his way for nearly three quarters. Then, Brady hit him over the middle as he beat safety Robert Golden for a 36-yard touchdown with 6:19 to go in the third quarter.

That, and a missed point after kick, put New England ahead, 20-13. The Steelers came back with another Boswell field goal, and Brady went looking for Gronk again. The tight end beat Golden by a wider margin this time as he caught a 37yarder to the 5 and Blount finished things off there with a touchdown run on the next play.

“He made the one-on-one plays that I talked about we didn’t make enough of on the other side of the ball,’’ Tomlin said of Gronkowski.

It figured the Steelers might have the fastest linebacker in the league cover Gronkowski, but Ryan Shazier, who missed the past two games with a knee injury, did not draw that assignment. In fact, Shazier split time with Vince Williams. He said his knee was fine and that it was a coaching decision to do so.

Tomlin made a few other choices that could be questioned. Trailing by 11 with nine minutes to go, the Steelers had a fourth-and-3 on New England’s 36. Instead of going for a first down, Tomlin had Boswell try a 54-yard field goal.

“He made a similar kick over a year ago in that same spot on the same field when we tried him out,” was Tomlin’s explanation.

He sent it wide right Sunday.

In the second quarter, Tomlin challenged Gronkowski’s first catch, a 13-yarder, when replay clearly showed he had caught it, and the replay ruling confirmed it.

“We realized that our margin for error was minimal,” said Tomlin, whose team was a 7-point underdog.

Two missed field goals, an interception in the end zone and a touchdown canceled by a penalty is no way to beat the New England Patriots.

“When you are hurting yourself, putting yourself in first-and-long, second-andlong or whatever it is, it’s going to be hard to overcome that because they are good,” said Le’Veon Bell, who had 21 carries for 81 yards and 10 catches for 68.

In every loss this season, the Steelers defense has not had an interception or a sack, although they did get some pressure on Brady.

“We on defense hold ourselves to a standard,” Jarvis Jones said. “The last couple of weeks, we haven’t been that defense. We have to get it corrected.”

But they will stay in first place alone in the AFC North until at least early November. And if they do get healthy and do stay there, they may ultimately get another shot at the Patriots.

and in major roles. Hamilton had three catches for 36 yards but he wasn’t even on the 53-man roster two weeks ago.

Brown came back to play late in the game, but he did not take on his normal workload after the injury.

When asked how his leg was after the game, Brown said, “Boomin’.”

Shazier returns

Inside linebacker Ryan Shazier returned to the lineup after missing three games with a knee injury, but Steelers coaches apparently had him on a snap count limit. Shazier did not play at all on the Patriots’ first scoring drive and rotated with Vince Williams.

“The coaches just decided they wanted to rotate so that’s what we did,” Shazier said.

Shazier finished the game with two tackles while Williams contributed four.

Missed opportunities

The Steelers outgained the Patriots, 375-362, but two missed field goals and an interception in the red zone were costly.

Offensive coordinator Todd Haley attacked the Patriots with a variety of plays, many of them for running back Le’Veon Bell, who was the leading rusher and receiver. He had 81 yards on 21 carries and caught 10 passes for 68 yards.

Brown had seven receptions for 106 yards and a 13yard run on a reverse. Six other receivers also caught passes, but it wasn’t enough to offset the opportunities that went by the wayside.

“He definitely had a good game plan,” Bell said of Haley. “We moved the ball well. We got to the red zone, turned the ball over. You can’t shoot yourself in the foot. There’s a small margin of error against them. They’re good. We had a lot of missed opportunities.”

No second-guessing

Trailing by 11 points with 9:05 remaining on the clock, coach Mike Tomlin decided to attempt a 54-yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-3. It failed.

Given the game circumstances, it seemed like a curious move, but Tomlin said he felt comfortable that place-kicker Chris Boswell could pull his team within 8 points by making that kick.

“He made a similar kick over a year ago in that same spot on the same field when we tried him out,” Tomlin said. “And the weather conditions were worse than they were tonight. We were down there. We had an opportunity to make it a one-score game. I took that chance.”

Boswell also missed a 42yard field goal in the first half .