Patriots establish themselves as play-off contenders
Not known for their exploits on the road, the New England Patriots were expected to have a tough time of it in Pittsburgh on Sunday night.
Instead, they delivered a performance which sent out a clear Super Bowl message to the rest of the league. Tom Brady threw three touchdown passes and threw for 350 yards as the Patriots beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 39-26.
All three of Brady’s touchdowns were caught by rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski, helping Brady continue his impressive form against the Steelers. Brady has now six wins out of seven against Pittsburgh, four of those coming on the road.
"We made big plays when we needed to make them. It's an exciting game for us in this locker room. We haven't been this happy in a long time. We're pretty good when we execute the right way,” Brady said.
Things got off to a great start for the Patriots when on the first drive Brady orchestrated a 70 yard attack – throwing just one incompletion - resulting in the opening touchdown of the game on a 19 yard pass to Gronkowski.
Despite the efforts of Mike Wallace, who had 136 receiving yards and two touchdowns, Pittsburgh couldn’t find enough to get close to the Patriots. Hines Ward had his streak of 186 games with a reception stopped after he suffered a concussion in the first quarter. That killed some of Pittsburgh’s momentum and gave New England one less threat to think about.
"You can't get into a hole like that against a team that good and a quarterback that good," Steelers’ Wallace said.
An emotional Brady had his sixth career game with at least 350 passing yards, three TDs and zero interceptions tying Peyton Manning and for second place and two games behind Brett Favre.
Steelers’ quarterback Ben Rothilsberger was sacked five times by New England’s defence who came out with all guns blazing. Despite that Rothilsberger didn’t blame his lack of protection.
"I don't think they did anything to confuse us, that we didn't expect. They flat out beat us,” the quarterback said.
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