Steelers, Patriots validate the hype
But officials won’t allow James’ catch at critical moment
Whether in the warm promise of winter or the cold reality of winter, whether it’s hard by the Three Rivers or emanating from some remote dateline, the approach of any and every Steelers game is treated religiously like some looming cataclysm.
Once in a smuggler’s moon, the mandatory hyperbole will actually line up with the import of the matchup, such as when the Steelers and their tormenting New England Patriots turn up on the same acreage and you get the best football available — two teams that despise each other, two franchises drenched in National Football League success (30 divisional titles combined since 1994), two of the game’s all-time elite quarterbacks, two of the profession’s best head coaches.
So it was to no one’s surprise
Sunday that the Steelers and Patriots throttled each other to the last drop of a rainy night, just as it was to no one’s surprise that the Patriots won, 27-24, positioning themselves for home-field advantage through the playoffs, in which the Steelers can only hope to face the same familiar predicament Jan. 21 in Foxborough, Mass.
“There’s a road we have to take,” said Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward minutes after coach Mike Tomlin’s team lost for the first time since Oct. 8. “I know that we have the same record now (11-3). We have a lot of football ahead of us. We can be dejected about this, but I like where we are at.”
Though Sunday delivered a far spicier more version of an old American Football Conference recipe, the fact remains that no one tortures anybody in this league the way Tom Brady bedevils Pittsburgh, against which he’s now 11-2, with three of those victories sweeping the Steelers off the doorstep to the Super Bowl.
Unless, of course, the torturer du jour is Brady’s favorite target, tight end Rob Gronkowski, the Woodland Hills High School alum who hauled in nine of Brady’s passes Sunday for 168 yards, including 69 of the 77 yards Brady took the Patriots in only 70 seconds late in the fourth quarter on the drive that won the game.
“He’s the best tight end in the league, but we have to make plays no matter who it is, no matter where we’re at,” Steelers cornerback Artie Burns said. “He’s a big guy and he’s got Tom, one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and they have a great relationship.”
Gronkowski’s long history of Steelers abuse hit a new milestone in this episode — his massive contribution to the winning touchdown drive set up the only time in Heinz Field history the Steelers ever lost despite leading by at least eight points after three quarters. Of course, it did. Yet even that singular slice of ignominy would not exist today if it weren’t for the NFL’s confounding definition of what is and isn’t a catch, and, even more maddening, what is and isn’t a touchdown.
With a tick under 30 seconds to play, Ben Roethlisberger found his own tight end, Jesse James, free at the New England 1, where James caught Big Ben’s dart and fell across the goal line for what 68,574 eyewitnesses plus two more in striped shirts near the goal line figured was a winning touchdown for Pittsburgh. It wasn’t. In this NFL, where a catch isn’t a catch and a touchdown isn’t a touchdown until its video has been dissected like the Zapruder film, James was merely the latest victim in a lengthening litany of misguided technological justice.
Walking into the Steelers’ post-game locker room, team president Art Rooney II elected not to comment on the overturned TD that could have put the AFC title game in Pittsburgh a month from Thursday, and Tomlin may as well declined, too.
“I don’t have HD and all of that stuff, so it’s really irrelevant how I feel about it to be honest with you,” Tomlin sniffed. “It’s not going to change the outcome of the game. I’m not going to cry over spilled milk and all that crap and talk about replay. I ain’t doing it.”
The Steelers didn’t have to go outside the room to find the reasons for this missed opportunity. Alleged MVP candidate Antonio Brown dropped a pass in the end zone in the first half, costing them four points in a game they lost by three. Safety Sean Davis, somehow identified as a potential Pro Bowl safety by former Steelers coach Bill Cowher on CBS’s pregame blabfest, dropped an interception on the first play of New England’s winning drive after Heyward tipped Brady’s pass.
But Steelers-Patriots, the most anticipated regularseason game around here in years, was by any reasonable measure one fabulous football game. Roethlisberger outplayed Brady. The Steelers milked the clock for more than 35 minutes. Their special teams continued to shine. Their defense made almost enough plays to beat the best team on earth.
If the NFL could just get out of its own way once in a while, people might remember why they once loved it so.
“I know that we have the same record now (11-3). We have a lot of football ahead of us. We can be dejected about this, but I like where we are at.”
— Cam Heyward Steelers defensive end