Brady can’t win from the sideline
But first it’s time for a seriously relevant flashback to Oct. 30, 2011, the last time the Steelers beat Brady, and the man who made the punctuating play to preserve that 25-17 victory remembers it spectacularly well.
“I told the team right before we went into the tunnel, ‘It’s not gonna take anything special; it’s gonna take playing with heart, that that’s what will win in the end,’” said Brett Keisel, the beloved defensive end now gone joyously into his third year of retirement and spreading motivational speeches mostly among 9-yearold Jacob, 7-year-old Grace, and 5-year old William Keisel. “And I remember the play.”
The play came with New England at its own 22, trailing 23-17. Brady had 19 seconds left on the fourth-quarter clock and 78 yards to cover, a considerable challenge even for the God-like, perhaps even for the ball-deflating gods themselves, but few doubted that he could pull it off.
“We were shuffling in outside linebackers that day,” Keisel said, “and on that play, Chris Carter came in on the same side as LaMarr Woodley, and I thought, ‘Oh no, this isn’t going to work,’ so I ran around to the other side and just at the moment, Brady snapped it. So I just used my momentum and kept going. Brady’s famous for standing tall in the pocket and he just shuffled a little bit to his left.
“I stripped Brady. Troy (Polamalu) came flying in, punched the loose ball into the end zone, and Ziggy (Hood) recovered it. They ruled it a safety because they didn’t know what to do about Troy punching it. He was forcing new rules even then.”
That’s how it ended, but by then everyone had realized the Steelers hadn’t won it with defense that Halloween Eve; they’d won it with an offense that swallowed a staggering 39 minutes of clock. Thirtynine minutes and 12 seconds to be exact.
The Bruce Arians-sculpted game plan, behind 50 Ben Roethlisberger passes, put together drives of 11, 11, 12, 15, and 16 plays, punting only once. Over the past 18 years, the span of his Hall of Fame career, many, many wonderful things have been said of Brady’s abilities, but “He can beat you from the sideline,” has never been among them.
New England’s time of possession that night was 20:38, and it’s worth pointing out that in the only other game in which Brady failed to tom-tom the black and gold, New England’s possession time was an even more constricted 17:02. That came Oct. 31, 2004, when the Steelers piled up 221 rush yards thanks to Duce Staley and Jerome Bettis.
“No one’s worried about the (time of possession) number,” All-Pro Guard David DeCastro said this week, barely averting a scoff. “But our offense has some added pressure when you’re playing against an offense like theirs. If you can keep it out of their hands, you can give your defense time to rest, keep it fresh. If you control the ball, you control the game, but we’re not trying to re-invent anything for this. You see what looks good and you run it. No one’s panicking.”
Maybe not inside the facility at 3400 South Water Street, but externally the audience has been in a barely controlled panic about this game since January, when Brady tore apart Pittsburgh’s zone coverages with a typically surgical three-touchdown, no-interception, 384-yard performance in 31:26 of clock time. Brady’s thrown 22 touchdown passes and zero picks in the past seven Steelers beheadings, 29 touchdowns against just three interceptions against Pittsburgh all-time.
Try to mount that image comfortably within the framework of the contemporary Steelers’ pass defense, the one that’s allowed seven touchdowns in the last three games, and the panic factor fairly bulges.
Mike Tomlin started to talk about the elephant in the room four weeks ago, then said when Patriots week finally arrived that he cherished being in the kitchen, so apparently the elephant is in the kitchen. The problem is, while the elephant is in his kitchen, the defense is in Tomlin’s sitting room, quietly weeping into nostalgia, sometimes reflecting all the way back to 2000, when the Steelers chose quarterback Tee Martin in the fifth round of the draft.
Tom Brady went in the sixth.
Martin never threw a pass for the Steelers. Brady, who once threw 358 in a row without an interception, has more wins (218) and more Super Bowl wins (5) than any quarterback ever.
But remain calm. Brady can be had if the defense keeps mostly to the sitting room.
On Oct. 2, 2016, the Buffalo Bills roamed into Gilette Stadium in Foxborough and beat the Patriots 16-0. I’ll wait while you read that sentence again. New England’s time of possession that day was a skimpy 23:49. Buffalo not only kept Brady on the sideline that day — ok full disclosure here — it kept him out of the stadium entirely, as that was the fourth of the four-game suspension he was serving for the great ball-shrinking conspiracy.
But look at New England’s time of possession last Monday night in a shocking 27-20 loss to the Dolphins, in which the Patriots went 0 for 11 on third down: 23:51.
This, friends, is The Way Brady is beaten. It’s the only way. By dominating the football, which is not the same as merely winning the possession battle. There are plenty of instances in which Brady had solved the Steelers quickly despite having the ball less than half the time. He won 27-16 here last year in just 27:31, 28-21 at New England the year before in 27:55. He creamed ‘em 55-31 in 2013 despite having the ball less than 29 minutes and he won 34-13 in 2007, Tomlin’s first year, while being on the field for only 25:17.
That’s why the number is 35. The Steelers will need the ball for 35 minutes Sunday.
“I agree; it’s most important,” said right tackle Chris Hubbard, who could be about to go 4-0 as a fill-in for PEDsuspended starter Marcus Gilbert. “the more you keep Tom Brady off the field and we keep the ball, that’s the way we win the game. It’s gonna be a tremendous game – two of the great quarterbacks in the league, two of the best coaches in the league.”
The Steelers have the fourth-best possession average in the NFL at 31:59. Gonna need an extra 3:01 Sunday. Gonna need 35 minutes.
“Time of possession is very important,” agreed offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who has not beaten New England in that role with Pittsburgh, “but what’s more important is to convert in situational football – don’t turn it over, things that, last time played these guys, we didn’t do. We had dropped passes, lack of execution, and to stay on the field you have to do those things.”
Haley never named a number, never said how many minutes he needs his offense to be on the field. Of course, he didn’t have to. It’s 35. Minimum.
If you can keep it out of their hands, you can give your defense time to rest, keep it fresh. If you control the ball, you control the game …” David DeCastro