Game recap: New England capitalizes on Pittsburgh mistakes
Jeff Bezos owns Amazon, Elon Musk owns Tesla, and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick owns the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Patriots have now won seven of their last eight games against the Steelers. In the playoffs, Belichick has three wins and zero losses versus Pittsburgh, ending their seasons in 2001, 2004, and 2016.
Four of the last five regular season matchups have been held in Pittsburgh’s fearsome Acrisure Stadium, but that has had no effect on New England’s performance.
Even though the Patriots did pull off the win, they did not look like the historic worldbeaters that they once were in the Belichick-Brady era. In fact, the 17-14 game was quite ugly and defensive heavy. New England relied on special teams plays and Pittsburgh’s defensive miscues in order to win.
First Quarter: A shaky start
Pittsburgh’s first punt almost ended in disaster for New England. Cornerback Miles Bryant bobbled the football out of the back of the endzone. However, because it was ruled that Bryant never had possession of the football, the play resulted in a touchback rather than a safety.
Normally, the punt returner would be veteran wide receiver Ty Montgomery. However, since Montgomery is on the Injured Reserve list, the Patriots gave many players a chance to return the ball. Safety Kyle Dugger, running back Pierre Strong, and cornerback Miles Bryant all had a chance to return the ball. This inconsistency within special teams is a rare occurrence for the Patriots, who are usually near the league leaders in Special Teams DVOA.
Much like their first drive in Week 1, the Patriots offense again appeared competent on their opening drive. Quarterback Mac Jones threw two completions on two early 3rd downs. The thirteen-play seven-minute drive ended in a field goal because of a delay of game penalty. New England never surrendered the lead.
During Pittsburgh’s following possession, one the Patriots’ new acquisitions, linebacker Mack Wilson, tipped a long pass of Pittsburgh’s quarterback Mitch Trubisky. Cornerback Jalen Mills scooped the ball out of the air and returned it for a short distance.
While the Patriots were generally able to take advantage of Pittsburgh’s mistakes, they could score points off of Trubisky’s lone interception. Mac Jones returned the ball back to the Steelers, throwing the football to star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick on an attempt to throw deep. Both of Jones’s interceptions this season have come on long balls.
Second Quarter: A big-time grab
After Mac Jones’ interception, Trubisky led the Steelers on a methodical march downfield. The drive lasted well into the second quarter. Pittsburgh held the ball for sixteen plays over a seven minute span. New England’s defense bent, but did not break as they were able to limit the Steelers to a field goal after a very long possession, which tied the game at three per side.
The only other score in the first half came in the final minute. Mac Jones tried another long throw. This time his target was wide receiver Nelson Agholor. Agholor did not get much separation away from his defender Ahkello Witherspoon and Mac Jones’ throw was a little short. However, since Witherspoon never turned around, Agholor was able to make an athletic leap for the ball and then he dashed into the endzone.
This momentary lapse in coverage was one of the little mistakes that the Patriots were able to exploit this week and that they struggled to exploit against Miami.
Third Quarter: Special teams mistakes
The Patriots offense had a successful possession to start the second half. Consistent motion and less telegraphed play-calling helped New England move the ball forward. Yet, the Steelers stuffed the Patriots around forty yards away from the endzone. For the first time this season, kicker Nick Folk missed a field goal attempt.
The Steelers scored a field goal on their next drive, bringing the score to 10 – 6. On the next Patriots possession, Mac Jones forced an ugly throw through the Steelers’ defense. Cornerback Cameron Sutton had the football drop right in between his hands, allowing a crucial opportunity for Pittsburgh to retake the lead to literally slip through his fingers. In stark contrast, Pittsburgh could not punish New England for their mistakes.
Then, on a fourth down, Jake Bailey punted the ball directly to Pittsburgh’s punt returner Gunner Olszewski. The punt was so direct that the ball bounced off Olszewski’s face mask and into the arms of New England’s undrafted special teamer Brenden Schooler.
The short field made it very easy for the Patriots to score their game-sealing touchdown. After three Damien Harris’ runs, the Patriots scored again and successfully capitalized off of the Steelers’ mistake. This single special teams error made all the difference in this very close match.
Winning because of special teams counts as much as any other win, but one cannot help to think about how easily the result could have been flipped. Today’s Patriots victory felt like a pick-up basketball game where your opponents missed half of their free throw attempts. You can credit yourself for being competitive and putting in the effort when it mattered most, but deep down you know consistent success requires a higher level of play.
Still, for the most part, the Patriots’ defense looked more coordinated and organized than last week. Middle linebacker JaWhaun Bentley has taken over play-calling responsibility from the legendary ten year veteran Donta Hightower.
When Bentley briefly left the game in the third quarter due to injury, the Patriots defense seemed to be in a much softer coverage. Backup linebacker Jahlani Tavai could not fully replace the leadership and run defense that Bentley provided.
During this period, Trubisky was able to carve up the Patriots defense. Pittsburgh scored their only touchdown on an eight yard pass to tight end Pat Freiermuth.
Pittsburgh took a risk going for a two-point conversion, but wide receiver Diontae Johnson’s toe-tap catch in the back of the endzone made the risk worthwhile. The two-point conversion ended up being the final score of the game, which was 17 – 14.
For the second week in a row, the Patriots defense held their opponents to a single touchdown.
Fourth Quarter: Running game comes in clutch
When Bentley re-entered the game, he was an integral part of the effort to hold the Steelers to two consecutive drives without any first downs. With six minutes remaining in the game, the Patriots re-gained control of the ball. The Steelers never got the ball back.
New England’s running game allowed the team to run out the game clock. On a critical third down, Mac Jones intelligently saw a silver of open space and slid for the new set of downs. Following this, running back Rhomondre Stevenson charged up the field for two first downs and running back Damien Harris then earned two first downs of his own.
Belichick and the Patriots managed the game clock well down the stretch. After the fifth first down of this drive, the Patriots were able to go into victory formation for the first time in 2022.
Looking ahead
The Patriots (1-1) have their home opener against the Baltimore Ravens (1-1) next week. In their most recent game in 2020, the Patriots prevailed through stormy conditions in a 23-17 slugfest.
Historically, the Ravens and Patriots have played very close and intense games. In a six year period between 2009 and 2014, the teams played each other four times in the playoffs. Both sides won two matches.
After Week 2, Baltimore’s offense has looked miles ahead of New England’s. The Ravens have scored an average of 31 points per game, which is more than New England has scored in total (24) across two games.
When the Ravens played the Dolphins in Week 2, they had two plays of over 75 yards. The first was a pass to wide receiver Rashod Bateman and the second was a 79 yard run from quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Even though Baltimore does not have any stars in their receiving corps, New England’s secondary will have to significantly improve in order to match the explosiveness of Baltimore’s offense.
