Let's be real here, barring anything insane, the Patriots (1-1 overall, 1-1 road) are not going to win the Super Bowl this season. With that said, coming off an utterly depressing 20-7 loss in last weekend's season-opener at Miami (2-0), today's 17-14 victory at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh (1-1) was a huge step forward by a team that has been in crisis mode since this bizarre summer began. Even if you didn't see the game, you can probably guess just by looking at the final score that it was not a work of art by any means but if the Pats are going to win more than a couple games this season, odds are that they will have to look like this since their offense is a work in progress to say the least.
New England quarterback Mac Jones (21-for-35, 252 yards, TD, INT) had another shaky outing but he was better than Steelers stiff I mean quarterback Mitch Trubisky (21-of-33, 168 yards, TD, INT) so there is that. The Pats defense carried the day while the Steelers-who were missing All-Pro linebacker and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt-could not stop New England's final drive of the contest and the visitors were able to successfully run out the clock. Ironically one of the biggest plays came from former Patriots great Gunner Olszewski who muffed a punt allowing new Pats special teams hero Brenden Schooler to pounce on it. That led to incredible field position for New England which ended with a two-yard touchdown run by running back Damien Harris (71 yards rushing, 16 yards receiving). Kicker Nick Folk's extra point made it 17-6 Pats late in the third quarter.
Those turned out to be the final points for the Patriots as they held on despite an eight-yard touchdown catch by Pittsburgh's tight end (and MA native) Pat Freiermuth to open the fourth quarter. The Steelers cut it to a three-point game as wide receiver Diontae Johnson (6 catches, 57 yards) made a spectacular diving catch for the two-point conversion trimming New England's lead to 17-14. Pittsburgh drafts and develops wideouts as well as any franchise in the NFL but today, the Patriots outproduced them thanks to Nelson Agholor's (6 catches, 110 yards) best performance for the club along with Jakobi Meyers' (9 catches, 95 catches) usual reliability.
Folk's 28-yard field goal were the only points in the first quarter and Steelers kicker Chris Boswell's 36-yard field goal answered that midway through the second quarter. Each quarterback made a major mistake as for the second week in a row, Jones forced a deep ball to wide receiver DeVante Parker (who has one catch in two games) that was deflected and intercepted by Jones' former Alabama teammate Minkah Fitzpatrick. Trubisky threw a pass over the middle that was deflected by linebacker Mack Wilson and picked off by cornerback Jalen Mills. Agholor turned in a highlight reel 44-yard catch and run for a huge touchdown with 22 seconds left in the first half. He was not open by any means but he was able to snatch the ball away from the defender then outrun him to the end zone. Where the hell did that come from? Folk's extra point gave New England a 10-3 lead at halftime.
Folk actually missed a 52-yard field goal attempt on New England's opening drive of the third quarter and Boswell hit a kick of the same exact distance to cut it to 10-6 Patriots. New England has the furthest thing from an explosive offense at the moment so they are going to have to play these grind it out, keep the clock running type of games to survive. The good news is that they are over quickly in like three hours or less which is fast by NFL standards in 2022. The Pats defense had three sacks, by defensive tackle Christian Barmore, linebacker Matthew Judon and some linebacker named Jahlani Tavai who had I had never of before this afternoon.
You never want to read too much into early season results in the NFL because they are always wacky but at least the Patriots' loss in Miami didn't look so bad as the Dolphins rallied for an incredible 42-38 win in Baltimore (1-1) at the same time as the Patriots-Steelers tractor pull. Seeing Cincinnati (0-2) lose 20-17 to Cooper Rush and the Cowboys also proved that maybe Pittsburgh's Week 1 overtime triumph against the defending AFC Champions was not as impressive as we were led to believe. Still, the Ravens are going to be fired up and rightfully pissed off after they blew a 21-point lead and were outscored 28-3 in the fourth quarter on their home field. That means that New England's home opener against Baltimore on Sunday (1, Fox) at Gillette Stadium will be a tough task but hey, at least there is a little joy around this team after so much deserved negativity for the past few months.
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