Steelers can’t hang on to beat New England
New England rallies for key road win
Overturned TD catch, end zone interception clinch win for Patriots
PITTSBURGH – It seemed like a nolose situation for Ben Roethlisberger. Find a target in the end zone for a game-winning touchdown or throw the ball away and set up a chip-shot field goal to force overtime.
But think again.
These were the New England Patriots that Roethlisberger was trying to beat. It is never that simple.
After Roethlisberger took the snap on third-and-goal from the 7, he began with a fake spike. And fooled no one on the other side. Uh-oh. The Patriots were ready for this.
Traffic was heavy when the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback tried to squeeze a pass over the middle to Eli Rogers that Eric Rowe deflected into the waiting arms of safety Duron Harmon.
The end-zone interception sealed yet another New England victory 2724 and was maybe more heartbreaking than other Steelers setbacks in this one-sided series because they sure had them on the ropes for much of this encounter.
“We saw it on film,” Harmon told
USA TODAY, referring to the fake spike. “It just goes to show what good film study will do for you.”
There you have it. Pittsburgh (11-3) has been spectacular this season with its knack for winning in crunchtime, but the Patriots (11-3) wore fresh AFC East championship gear on Sunday because they were better than the Steelers when it came down to executing situational football in the clutch.
Maybe this has been apparent for some time, but we had to see it again in the AFC showdown at Heinz Field because, well, it’s a different season.
Fool Bill Belichick’s team with a fake spike?
“We see it every day in practice against our offense,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty told USA TODAY as he left the visitors locker room. “But every team uses fake spikes. It’s more of a situational thing than a team thing.”
Situational football. That is Belichick to the core, a term that he preaches repeatedly as the ultimate swing factor. And with five rings and now 15 division titles with the Patriots, we’ll take him at his word.
Still, if the Steelers were ever going to topple their nemesis, the prospect seemed so ripe this time.
With star receiver Antonio Brown knocked out of the game in the second quarter with a calf injury that leaves his immediate status uncertain, Pittsburgh had other weapons step up to complement the typical production from Le’Veon Bell (165 yards from scrimmage). Rookie JuJu Shuster-Smith caught six passes for 114 yards, including a 69-yard jaunt that set up the final opportunity. Rogers and Martavis Bryant scored touchdowns. They hogged the clock, with more than 35 minutes of possession.
And a defense that kept the heat on Tom Brady actually collected an interception — Pittsburgh’s first against the New England quarterback since 2005.
But New England won anyway and now is in the driver’s seat to claim home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
Brady, whose unit had just 18 snaps in the keep-away of a first half, rallied the Patriots to two fourth-quarter scoring drives as the momentum switched in the manner in which we’ve seen so many times.
The Patriots got a touchdown, a field goal, a two-point conversion and a lot of Brady-to-Gronk in the fourth quarter, while the Steelers got zero points in the fourth quarter, punted twice and had that big blunder at the end.
In other words, another ho-hum comeback win from the team that rallied from 25 points down to win the last Super Bowl.
“There is nothing ho-hum about this one,” Brady, sensing the sarcasm, told USA TODAY as he left the locker room. “It just goes to show that you’ve got to keep grinding. That’s football. The ball bounces a lot of weird ways. I’m glad we got a few bounces.”
There was nearly no chance for Harmon’s last-second magic. Two plays earlier, Roethlisberger found tight end Jesse James over the middle for an apparent touchdown. James went to his knees as he grabbed the pass and untouched lunged for the end zone. As he fell to the turf, though, the ball came loose and the score was overturned by instant replay.
This was Pittsburgh’s Dez Bryant moment. As difficult as it was to stomach and as murky as the rulings can be on what constitutes a catch or not, this case was ruled by the book and correctly overturned. James didn’t control the football as he fell to the turf.
No wonder Mike Tomlin, the Steelers coach, maintained after the game that he wasn’t crying over spilled milk. He had no excuses for another stinging loss against the team that has represented such a huge roadblock in Pittsburgh’s efforts to get back to the Super Bowl.
The Patriots provided the Steelers a hard lesson for how it’s done in the clutch.
They didn’t flinch.
As Harmon put it, “You just have to keep fighting. Live to play another play.”
Until it’s over. Which is situational football at its best.