It's a New Season (2015) but The Patriots Still Own the Steelers

Our long national nightmare is over: that debacle which shall not be named has passed and the 2015 NFL regular season finally began tonight at Gillette Stadium as the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots beat the Steelers 28-21. Typical of an opener, there were plenty of highlights for both teams but also a boatload of mistakes and things to correct in the weeks to come. New England (1-0) used a near flawless performance by Tom Brady (25 of 32 for 288 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs) to propel them past Ben Roethlisberger (26 of 38 for 351 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) and Pittsburgh (0-1).

Brady passed Brett Favre for the most wins as the QB of one team (161). Rob Gronkowski tied his career-high with three touchdown catches as he picked up where he left off: he's scored in seven straight games (including playoffs) dating back to last season. For whatever reason, New England typically shreds Pittsburgh's defense and this was no different despite the fact that Dick LeBeau left and former assistant Keith Butler took over as the defensive coordinator. Cheech (LeVeon Bell) & Chong (LeGarrette Blount) each missed the game for their weed infraction last season while Martavis Bryant sat for the first of his four-game suspension for a similar sticky icky icky offense. DeAngelo Williams surprisingly was very effective, gaining 127 yards on 21 carries for Pittsburgh. Each club was also shorthanded on the offensive line since centers Maurkice Pouncey and Bryan Stork were out with injuries.

One of the newest Patriots Dion Lewis (15 carries, 69 yards; 4 catches, 51 yards) took advantage of his temporarily expanded role with Blount out. James White never saw the field and Brandon Bolden (5 carries, 1 yard; 1 catch, 12 yards) might as well have stayed home too because this game belonged to Lewis when it came to the patchwork running backs for the Pats. He is listed at 5-foot-8 but he's probably closer to 5-foot-6, regardless he looks shifty and hard to take down despite his small size. He won't get nearly the same touches with Blount back next week at Buffalo but he could become Shane Vereen's replacement at least when it comes to the short passing game that Brady loves to utilize. Lewis even fumbled in the fourth quarter near the goal-line after making a 19-yard catch but head coach Bill Belichick didn't put him in the doghouse like you'd expect (his hand might have been forced by the lack of depth).

The biggest weakness of New England this season figures to be their secondary. Malcolm Butler theoretically looks ready to be a No. 1 corner but it is scary with no real dependable guy beside him (veteran castoffs Tarell Brown and Bradley Fletcher could have sizable roles). Antonio Brown is perhaps the toughest wide receiver to cover in the NFL so Butler had a real test right out of the gate. Brown had nine catches for 133 yards and a touchdown but those numbers are slightly misleading since he caught an 11-yard touchdown with two seconds left in the contest. You know that the Patriots offense will put points on the board so all they need from the defense is the occasional stop and timely turnovers. Tonight they had three sacks and an interception by Duron Harmon after Roethlisberger threw into double coverage in the fourth quarter when the Steelers trailed by 14 points.

After a scoreless first quarter, New England went up 14-0 in the second quarter on a pair of touchdown catches by Gronk (16 yards and 6 yards respectively). Josh Scobee had a rough first half in his Pittsburgh debut: he missed two field goals before hitting a 44-yard kick with three seconds left in the second quarter. Scott Chandler's first catch as a Patriot was a 1-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter making it 21-3. Pittsburgh cut it to a two-score game with a 1-yard run by something named Will Johnson while Markus Wheaton caught the two-point conversion. The Steelers got stuffed in the red zone early in the fourth quarter and settled for a 24-yard field goal which cut it to 21-14. Gronk's hat trick was completed with a one-yard touchdown catch on the ensuing drive.

The Patriots get a few extra days to rest and prepare for the Bills next Sunday (1, CBS) in Orchard Park, NY. Buffalo hosts Indianapolis this Sunday in what should be an interesting matchup. Say what you will about Rex Ryan but he always seemed to get the most out of the Jets and they usually gave the Patriots tough games. On the other side, the Steelers will host the 49ers next Sunday in their home opener. Unless their defense improves drastically (which I can't see happening), I don't think that the Pats will see Pittsburgh again this season. Actually, I hope that they meet in the playoffs since I think I know how that will turn out (in New England's favor of course).

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Patriots Come Up With an Old-Fashioned Ass Whooping of the Steelers

Blowout wins like today for the Patriots have been few and far between the last few seasons which reminds us how good we had it for the better part of a decade. New England (7-2 overall, 5-0 home) went into their bye week in style with a 55-31 win over Pittsburgh (2-6 overall, 1-4 away) at Gillette Stadium. The 55 points were the most allowed by the Steelers in franchise history, can you say dumpster fire?

The Patriots' defense has carried the team most of this season so it was nice to see the offense return the favor in this game. Tom Brady (23 of 33 for 432 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs) had a vintage performance as Rob Gronkowski (9 catches, 143 yards, 1 TD), Aaron Dobson (5 catches, 130 yards, 2 TDs) and Danny Amendola (4 catches, 122 yards, 1 TD) became only the six trio of teammates to all go over 100+ receiving yards in one game. KenBrell Thompkins was a surprise inactive but that didn't matter by the time this was over.

Stevan Ridley (26 carries, 115 yards, 2 TDs) had an early fumble, mostly a great play by Troy Polamalu to knock it loose, but instead of stapling him to the bench Bill Belichick tried to build his confidence by sticking with him. What a concept! New England's most talented running back responded with a great game which hopefully will propel him into a much better second half.

You won't see any sympathy here for scummy Ben Roethlisberger (28 of 48 for 400 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs) or his hapless squad. Pittsburgh is a proud franchise that's almost always solid so it is surprising to see them fall so low this fast. With so many injuries and a lack of gamebreakers/young talent, they could be in trouble for a while (relatively speaking).

The funny thing about this offensive explosion is that nobody could have seen it coming after the Pats only led 7-0 following Amendola's 34-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter. Gronk caught a 19-yard touchdown (he's starting to look like himself again) for a 14-0 lead in the second quarter before Shaun Suisham kicked a 30-yard field goal. Stephen Gostkowski's 20-yard field goal restored New England's two touchdown lead (17-3). Antonio Brown's 24-yard touchdown cut it to 17-10 late first half but Ridley's 1-yard touchdown run with 10 seconds left in the second quarter was huge.

Jericho Cotchery (7 catches, 96 yards) played like it was 2009 with the Jets in the third quarter with a pair of touchdown catches (20 and 8) that tied it up. Luckily for New England, they still managed to forge ahead on Gostkowski's 27-yard field goal with 2:39 left in the third quarter setting the stage for a beatdown in the fourth (28-7).

Dobson started it off with a pretty 17-yard back shoulder touchdown catch. Ridley's five-yard touchdown run made it 41-24 before Cotchery had one more touchdown grab, from five yards out. Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau weeped while Dobson caught an 81-yard bomb for a score then LeGarrette Blount closed it out with a 5-yard touchdown run.

Plenty of people will take too much out of what turned out to be a lopsided win for the Pats. I simply look at it as them putting it together against one of the worst teams in the NFL. Look at their upcoming schedule, there is no automatic win like Pittsburgh on the horizon. New England will use their break wisely as they return for two consecutive primetime games against playoff contenders: at Carolina for a Monday Night game (11/18) then hosting Denver on the following Sunday Night (11/24). How the Patriots fare in those difficult matchups should tell us much more about them than this. Still, they are pointed in the right direction especially if Aqib Talib ever returns this season.

UPDATE 11/5: The Patriots had some moves before they go into the bye week for real: they released Austin Collie and signed WR LaQuan Williams to take his place on the 53-man roster. Additionally, they signed RB Cierre Wood to the practice squad while Steve Gregory has a broken thumb and he could miss a few weeks. Stay tuned on that injury although truthfully, it doesn't mean much since he's a bum.

UPDATE 11/8: Logan Mankins was fined $10,000 for clipping vs. Pittsburgh.

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Steelers Offer The Latest Blueprint To Stopping New England's Offense: Don't Let Them Have The Ball

Scores in NFL games can be very misleading and look no further than Sunday's Patriots-Steelers game from Sunday afternoon to illustrate that gambler's truth.

Pittsburgh (6-2, 4-0 at home) won 25-17 at Heinz Field over New England (5-2, 2-2 on road) so at first glance, you think well it was a one-score game so it must have been close. Theoretically this was true since the Pats got the ball back down six points late in the fourth quarter.

Truthfully, without any timeouts and under the two-minute warning plus pinned way back in their territory, the Patriots had no chance. Mercifully, it ended soon after as the Steelers forced a fumble that went out the back of the end zone for a safety. This came after Bill Belichick chose to try an onside kick rather than pin the Steelers deep following the score which trimmed Pittsburgh's lead to 23-17.

Despite having insane results every week (see today: the winless Rams beating the Saints), every NFL expert loves to make conclusions after each game (as stupid as that tends to be) since ESPN's family of networks has a lot of programming slots to fill. Today's lesson: keep the ball away from Tom Brady (24 for 35, 198 yards, 2 TDs, O INTs) and New England's offense.

Even without a great running game (98 yards), the Steelers were able to own time of possession: 39:22 to 20:38. Rashard Mendenhall paced Pittsburgh with 70 yards on 13 carries while Kevin Faulk led New England with 32 yards on six carries (plus 5 catches, 20 yards) in his first game back in 13 months.

Ben Roethlisberger (36 for 50, 365 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT) did his best Brady impression by spreading it around to nine different receivers. Heath Miller (7 catches, 85 yards), Mike Wallace (7 catches, 70 yards) and Emmanuel Sanders proved to be better than Rob Gronkowski (7 catches, 94 yards), Wes Welker (6 catches, 39 yards) and Deion Branch (4 catches, 36 yards) If Pittsburgh was a little better in the red zone (2 for 5), this one wouldn't have been so misleadingly close.

When passing around the blame pie for the Patriots, it's hard to say who's more responsible: the defense that couldn't get off the field or the offense that started each half with 3-and-outs? It's the boring answer but I'd say they're equally culpable. New England's defense actually did some nice things (5 sacks, 10 tackles for losses) but as usual, their secondary looked awful and the entire team tackled about as well as your local Pop Warner B team.

For whatever reason, the Pats abandoned the running game (43 total yards) pretty much right away and instead relied Gronk who was the only receiver who constantly got open and fought for extra yards after the catch. Pittsburgh shut down Welker and Branch save for 2-yard score from Branch.

The Steelers' first drive of the game foreshadowed the rest of the contest as they went 11 plays, 69 yards in 5:52. Roethlisberger hit Mewelde Moore for a 5-yard touchdown which was way too easy, 7-0 Steelers.

New England had the first of their aforementioned 3-and-outs before Pittsburgh closed out the first quarter with another lengthy drive. Vince Wilfork sacked Big Ben on 3rd-and-Goal from the 9 to limit the Steelers to a 33-yard kick by Shaun Suisham.

The Pats' next drive at least got into Pittsburgh territory but Lamar Woodley (2 sacks) ended it with a 14-yard sack on 3rd-and-15. Roethlisberger made one of his typical bonehead mistakes (residual effects from that motorcycle crash?) as he threw an easy interception to Gary Guyton three plays later.

Guyton returned it 17 yards to Pittsburgh's 8-yard line. After two plays, Brady hit Branch for a 2-yard TD and the Patriots were seemingly right back in it trailing 10-7.

Impressively, the Steelers weren't fazed and they went on another long drive: 10 plays, 76 yards, 5:39. Roethlisberger found Antonio Brown (9 catches, 67 yards) for a 7-yard touchdown. New England got some points on its abbreviated last drive of the half with a 46-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski. Pittsburgh led 17-10 going into halftime.

By failing to score let alone pick up a few first downs to begin the second half, New England started to let this game get away from them. The Steelers had another decent drive (14 plays, 55 yards, 7:06) but they had to settle for a 21-yard field goal and a 20-10 lead.

The Patriots were moving the ball and seemingly getting into a rhythm but it stalled as they tried to pass on every down. Even worse, Gostkowski's 42-yard field goal went off the goalpost. Not making excuses because Gostkowski is one of the NFL's better kickers but Heinz Field has always famously been a hard place to kick.

Believe it or not, the Steelers had another long drive (11 plays, 69 yards, 5:54) but yet again, they had to take a 23-yard field rather than a touchdown that likely would have ended it early in the fourth quarter.

The teams traded punts before Brady and his receivers channeled their two minute drill against the Cowboys from two weeks ago. Aaron Hernandez caught a 1-yard TD to cut it to 23-17. A 3-and-out by the Pats' defense would have given the offense the ball back but they were gassed and they couldn't stop Isaac Redman on the 3rd-and-1 run that iced it.

New England had burned all of its timeouts and it was under two minutes when Big Ben curiously decided to drop back for passes on two straight plays. The Pats got the ball back but it was too late to do anything productive, game over.

The Buffalo Bills (5-2) shutout the Washington Redskins in Toronto earlier today meaning they lead the AFC East (by tiebreaker) even though they have the same record as New England. The New York Jets (4-3) were idle and the Suck for Luck Dolphins (0-7) continued to do what they do.

Next Sunday, the New York Giants (5-2) visit Gillette Stadium for a rematch of Super Bowl 42. The G-Men are always one of the tougher teams to predict since in some weeks Eli Manning looks good and their defensive line is one of if not the best in the league. Then other times, they almost lose to Miami (today) and appear to be their own worst enemy.

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The NFL is filled with punks and criminals but Big Ben & Jeff Reed take the cake

There's something immensely satisfying about beating a team that's fans think they're the shit. Clearly, that is why so many people outside of New England love it when the Patriots lose but is their a bigger group of frauds than Steelers fans?

Cheering for a scumbag like Ben Roethlisberger like he is a choir boy is sickening. The guy can play tackle football but yikes, the hard-working people of Pittsburgh are better than that right? No, I guess they're just like the fanboys of the Vikings who fell hook and sinker for Brett Favre. How's that going? End of rant.

After the Pats shit the bed last week in Cleveland, to put it politely, they obviously were just setting themselves up for their best performance in years: a 39-26 last night at Heinz Field.

New England (7-2) dominated this game of the AFC's best (not named the Jets) and the Steelers (6-3) scored a pair of garbage time touchdown catches by Mike Wallace (8 catches, 136 yards) to make it respectable for their fans who were already headed back to the steel mills and coal mines (stereotype much?).

Tom Brady (30 for 43, 350 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs) ridiculous hair and all (still no haircut) was the star of stars and his matchup with Big Ben (30 for 49, 387 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT) never really materialized since the Pats sacked Roethlisberger five times (I know, unreal) and James Sanders returned the pick 36 yards for the clinching score (29-10).

After a brutal game last week, rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski showed why he is such a stud, hauling in all three touchdown passes from Brady. Overall, he had five catches for 72 yards.

The playbook for New England was back to spreading the field and using all their weapons: Wes Welker had his best game of the season by far (8 catches, 89 yards), Deion Branch (7 catches, 71 yards) looked healthy again and Brandon Tate had a 45-yard catch. Somewhere Randy Moss gets released.

You can't run on the Steelers' top ranked rushed defense, except BenJarvus Green-Ellis put up 87 yards on 18 carries. His 17-yard rush in the first drive of the game was the longest given up by Pittsburgh all season.

In fact, Gronkowski's impressive 19-yard touchdown grab on New England's opening drive, was the first TD the Steelers had allowed this season. New kicker Shayne Graham added a 31-yard field goal for the early 10-0 lead.

That drunk kicker/goofball Jeff Reed hit a 22-yard kick in the second quarter which would be the game's only scoring.

Brady and the Patriots showed the first half was no fluke as once again he found Gronk for a 9-yard touchdown early in the third quarter. Brady even ran for a 3-yard touchdown late in the third quarter, putting New England up 23-3 late in the third quarter.

Steelers rookie wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders (in for a concussed Hines Ward) gave the Steelers some hope with a 6-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter but then Sanders iced it.

The last four scores for strictly for fantasy football purposes: Wallace's 15-yard TD catch, a 25-yard touchdown catch by Gronk - completing his hat trick according to Al Michaels - a 33-yard score by Wallace and a 36-yard kick by Graham.

Patrick Chung was back in action for the Pats and he made his presence felt with 11 tackles, six solo including a couple serious pops. Devin McCourty continued to ball with 11 tackles, nine solo. Finally, Jerod Mayo had nine tackles, four solo.

It will take another effort like this next week as Peyton Manning and the Colts (6-3) come to Gillette Stadium. As much as Brady (6-1 career record against them) has the Steelers' number, Indianapolis has seemingly always beat the Patriots the last few seasons. Should be another good one.