A win over the Pittsburgh Steelers is a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. It wasn’t pretty at times, but it was an effective win on the road. The Patriots were sloppy, but it didn’t matter. The return of the “Bend-Don’t-Break” defense made sure the lead held up and now the Pats are 6-1, and hold a significant tie breaker in the race for homefield advantage.
Ultimately what matters most is that a) no one left the game with a significant injury, b) you can slow Brady-Gronk down, but it cannot be stopped for 60 minutes, and c) the Patriots now have a two-game lead over the Bills in the AFC East. The defense has, in the words of Mike Lombardi, “issues” but here in late October the Pats are positioned well atop the AFC and have time to iron those issues out.
But yup, the Patriots are running away with this thing early.
More on it all in them Posits…
Defense
— Starting with the defense again this week and I’m sure they’ll be the punching bag this week. But really this was a vintage 2010s Patriots defensive performance. Despite giving up 375 yards of offense, the defense held to 1-4 in the red zone, their best performance of the season. That was the difference in the game.
When the Pats raced out to a 14-0 lead, the defense got even more conservative, content to rush three and force Landry Jones to find the holes. Often he did. Add Jones to the long list of backups and nobodies who have carved up Belichick’s defense for a bunch of yards and a bunch turnovers in a losing effort.
The defense’s problems this season has been on third down and in the red zone. Against the Steelers the defense went 5-16 on third down, their best performance this season as well. Love it or (probably) hate it, the Bend-Don’t-Break is effective when you’re getting off the field on third down and getting red zone stops. This was just a departure from what we’ve seen previously out of the 2016 defense.
— Bell ended up 21 carries, 81 yards and no touchdowns. That’s an impressive stat. And really, had they just tackled better Bell would’ve had far less yardage. He and Brown (7-106) are two of the best offensive weapons in the league and the Patriots defense largely contained them as well as anyone. That’s something to hang your hat on.
— Malcolm Butler is legit. He had the interception and three more passes defended. He lost some battles with Antonio Brown and got a break when Brown got hurt, but Butler can go toe to toe with the best of them. He’s knocking on the door of the best corners in the game.
— Patrick Chung was another monster in this game, racking up 11 tackles and two passes defensed. He’s become such a valuable piece, especially against strong running teams. He’s a force and what a story with him leaving and then coming back to become a heart-and-soul guy. He was an early favorite of the blog.
— I feel like they were just giving Rowe a look. He has good length and seemed really up and down. But safe to say they haven’t been thrilled with Logan Ryan. Cyrus Jones needs to explode when he returns. I like Rowe’s length as a matchup guy, but I still think Logan Ryan is the better overall player. Something to monitor.
— Seemed like there weren’t a whole lot of plays being imposed by the defense. They had no sacks and just two QB hits. Mostly it was just about tackling because it seemed like this was more zone than we’ve seen since 2012. That’s why this game looked so familiar in many ways.
— What I did like was how the defense responded to some quick changes with the two fumbles. They gave up zero points on them (thanks to a missed FG, but still).
— But Sheard/Long/Ninkovich/Johnson were all very quiet. That’s a large group of pass rushers to all have a quiet game. How much coverage they were in, as well as overly concerned about stopping Bell, are things to look at in the film this week.
— My current defensive free agent ranking — 1. Hightower 2. Butler 3. Collins
Offense
— LeGarrette Blount (24-127-2) got going early and that’s always a good sign for the offense. At one point it was just Blount and James White rotating in and out, that shows how diverse the offense is. White continues to be a useful weapon, he contributed with a screen touchdown. It will be very interesting to see the heights the offense could reach with Dion Lewis back near 2015 form.
— Rob Gronkowski continues to exert his will. He simply cannot be stopped for an entire game at this point. It’s only a matter of time till he’s stretching the top off the defense. The connection between him and Brady is special (Gronk tied the Patriots touchdown record already) and it’s hard to remember Brady without Gronk.
TB12
+ @RobGronkowski
= @Patriots TD!Unstoppable. #Patriots #NEvsPIT https://t.co/sdvAfPrI3U
— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2016
— The fumbles by Hogan and Edelman were terrible and I’m sure no one feels worse about them than those two hyper-competitive psychos. For all the talk of Edelman decline or whatever, he ended up with nine catches on 10 targets for 60 yards. Hogan bounced back with a key catch himself.
— The overall sloppiness also included a dropped pass by Brandon Bolden on a third down. Sloppy games happen. The fact that the Patriots just won in Pittsburgh with one is a good sign. Good teams can win games when they’re not at their best. When they have to overcome themselves. And yes, I still hate Bolden playing RB and wonder why he’s in there just coming off an injury, especially on a key third down.
— I can’t follow the wormhole this season by finding whoever is not contributing to this offense and wondering “what’s up with him?”. There are a lot of talented pieces and there’s only one ball to go around. So quiet games for Marty, Hogan and Mitchell are not worth worrying about. Their time will come too.
— Can’t wait for Jules’ first TD.
— Brady is just merciless to the Steelers. An efficient performance with TFB looking every bit as comfortable in the pocket as we’ve seen him. The Steelers were doing the same thing to Brady that the Pats were doing defensively. Brady picked his spots with the three first down rushes, which were key plays.
— Is this going to just be the year that Tom Brady runs roughshod over a QB-less and coach-less NFL? I certainly hope so.
Special Teams
— Yes, I am worried about Stephen Gostkowski. But there’s really no other option than to ride him out and hope he doesn’t miss a meaningful one with the season on the line (like he did last year). After the season they can assess their options, but some guy off the street is not going to upgrade the position or ensure post-season perfection. Gostkowski also is still excellent at the new kickoffs.
— Not Ryan Allen‘s best game either. Looking forward to reading more about his day from our special teams contributor Sam Hollister.
We’re going to get a locked-in Patriots team in Buffalo on Sunday. Belichick’s gonna turn the screws after this one and there’s plenty to address, but a win next week pretty much puts a stranglehold on the division title before October is out.
I remember this point last season, just before the bye, thinking how stacked the Patriots were, that they could be 2007-levels good. Then Nate Solder got hurt and just about every other significant player after him and the Pats had to limp into the AFC Championship only to just miss out overtime.
It’s the same thing now. NOBODY GET HURT. That’s really all that matters. We can debate strengths and weaknesses of this particular edition of the Belichick Patriots Football Machine, but if they stay healthy it’s a near-guarantee that this team ends their season with a make-or-break play at the end of the Super Bowl.
Maybe that’s the boring way to look at it but it’s the truth. Could someone upset them in the playoffs? Oakland? Buffalo again? Denver? Unlikely if it’s in Foxboro.
That’s where we’re at now. Another game without someone getting carted off and it’s the biggest win of all. They might not be perfect but the 2016 Pats have every bit the spunk of previous Belichick teams. If fully healthy it will be a total disappointment if they don’t march to the Super Bowl.
So now we go to Buffalo to put a big nail in Rex and the Bills’ AFC East coffin. It will be fun re-introducing the Bills to one-thumbed Jacoby Brissett’s replacement, Mr. Brady.
Agreed – with or without Big Ben it was a nice win for the Pats against the Steelers.