ZAPPE PUSHES PATRIOTS PAST HOST STEELERS
Bailey Zappe threw three first-half touchdown passes, and the New England Patriots snapped a five-game skid while damaging the playoff hopes of the Pittsburgh Steelers with a 21-18 victory on Thursday night.
Zappe passed for 240 yards in his second start for the Patriots (3-10), who became the second two-win team in five days to hand the Steelers (7-6) a potentially season-altering loss at home.
The Patriots raced out to an early lead behind the second-year quarterback out of Western Kentucky and didn’t look back.
Zappe guided the Patriots to their first openingdrive touchdown of the season when he hit Ezekiel Elliot in the flat and the running back raced in from 11 yards out.
Patriots 21, Steelers 18
Two plays after Jabril Peppers stepped in front of Trubisky’s pass into triple coverage, Zappe found Hurst in the back of the end zone to give the Patriots their biggest lead of the season.
“Like Coach Belichick always says we can’t get anywhere until I get rid of the ball . ... Just going with my first read, not trying to do too and just getting rid of the ball,” Zappe said.
Hunter Henry had two touchdown catches for New England. Elliott had 140 yards from scrimmage — 72 receiving, 68 rushing — and caught a TD for the NFL’s lowest-scoring offense, which reached the end zone three times for the first time since October.
“We were just trying to take advantage of matchups,” said Henry, who celebrated his 29th birthday. “(Zappe) did a great job of distributing the ball.”
Mitch Trubisky completed 22 of 35 for 190 yards, passing for a touchdown and running for another while filling in for injured Steelers starter Kenny Pickett. Trubisky also threw an ill-advised pass in the first half that was picked off to set up the first of Henry’s two scores, and he inexplicably threw deep to a well-covered Diontae Johnson on fourthand-2 at midfield with just under two minutes left.
The Pats’ advantage swelled to 21-3 when Hurst made a diving grab at the goal line for a 24-yard score that had some in the blackclad crowd chanting for backup quarterback Mason Rudolph, who has been on the bench for two years.
The switch to Rudolph never came, and while Trubisky got the Steelers within striking distance behind a 25yard touchdown pass to Johnson late in the second quarter and a 1-yard sneak with 11:44 to play that brought Pittsburgh within three, it wasn’t enough.