Patriots, Steelers to face off once more in AFC Championship Game
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – As if the New England Patriots needed any extra motivation. As if cementing legacies wasn’t going to be enough to keep their juices going. As if the thought of taking the Lombardi Trophy from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell – who imposed the four-game suspension that sidelined quarterback Tom Brady to start the season – wasn’t enough to keep the fire burning.
Instead, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown provided a treasure trove of the proverbial bulletin board material in his 17-minute video following Sunday’s win over Kansas City in the AFC divisional game and posted on Facebook Live showed head coach Mike Tomlin using profanity to describe the Patriots and lamenting the extra day of preparation New England had after beating the Houston Texans on Saturday.
In the early aftermath, the Patriots weren’t taking the bait.
"That's against I think our team policy,” quarterback Tom Brady said Monday morning on his weekly interview with WEEI sports radio. “I don't think that would go over well with our coach."
Yes, it’s fairly certain Patriots head coach Bill Belichick would not approve.
Before the video, the two teams had enough bad blood to motivate them. Consider:
The Patriots are 2-0 against the Steelers in AFC title games, both at Pittsburgh, including following the 2002 season when then head coach Bill Cowher irked the Patriots by giving his team time off to prepare for travel to the Super Bowl.
In the regular season, since the start of the Brady/Belichick era, the Patriots are 7-3 against the Steelers.
The Patriots have never lost to the Steelers in New England in the Brady/Belichick era. (The Steelers did, however, beat the host Patriots in 2008 when Matt Cassel was at quarterback while Brady was hurt.)
The Patriots beat the Steelers, 27-16, at Pittsburgh in Week 7 this season, when quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was sidelined with an injury and backup Landry Jones was at QB.
The Patriots beat the Steelers, 28-21, in Week 1 of 2015 at Gillette Stadium, when the communication system for Pittsburgh coaches was beset by malfunctions
The Patriots’ joy following a win at the end of the 2007 season after Pittsburgh second-year safety Anthony Smith guaranteed his team would win.
Spygate and Deflategate.
The Patriots, winners of eight straight games, and Steelers, winners of nine straight, can add to that history on Sunday, when they face off in the AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium. One or the other -- or both – has appeared in 14 of the past 16 AFC title games.
The Patriots, who are 4-1 in conference title games at home, earned their trip to a record sixth straight AFC title game and Brady padded his already-impressive postseason credentials – his 11th conference championship game, the most in NFL history, extending his record with 32 postseason games and 58 touchdown passes – with a win over the Texans on Saturday.
In the end, the scoreboard read exactly how most thought it would – with the heavily favored Patriots pummeling the underdog Houston Texans, 34-16, covering the all-important point spread.
The road to that end, however, was much bumpier than most thought it would be. If the Patriots had been facing any team other than the offensively inept Texans, perhaps the outcome would have been much different.
And that is what the Patriots will focus on this week. You can be sure, the Steelers – who had issues of their own in their win at Kansas City on Sunday -- will give the Patriots much more of a well-rounded fight than the Texans did.
Led by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, running back Le’Veon Bell, and Brown, the Steelers offense will present much more of a challenge.
“They’re really good,” Belichick said. “They’re a tremendous offense. Kansas City was able to make some plays in the red-area, but, I mean, they could’ve easily been up in the 40s (Sunday) night. They do a lot of things well -- can run it, can throw it. Brown’s the main guy, but all of the receivers, tight ends, backs, I mean, they’re all a problem. [Ben] Roethlisberger is really good, can make all of the throws. It looks like his mobility is good. They’re doing a great job. They’re a good offense.”
The Patriots’ win over the Texans was a very un-Bradylike game. The sure-fire future Hall of Famer was 18-for-38 with two touchdowns. But his 47.4 percent completion percentage was the worst of his career in the postseason. His two interceptions matched his total for the regular season.
In several aspects it was also a very un-Patriotlike game, sloppy and undisciplined, with three lost turnovers – including two fumbles by running back Dion Lewis, who became the first player in NFL postseason history with a rushing TD, a receiving TD and a kickoff returned for a TD in a single game – and several dumb penalties.
The Patriots allowed the Texans to dominate the clock, and then were stopped on the Houston 1 yard line on two straight plays. New England had to punt three times in Houston territory.
“I think we’ve just got to learn from it,” Brady said. “It was a lot of things and then when you add our poor execution of top of that, then you add our turnovers on top of that, it doesn’t feel great because we worked pretty hard to play a lot better than we played. I give (Houston) a lot of credit, but we’re going to have to play better on offense. We expect to go out and have a good week and try and fix the things that we saw (on Saturday) and then try to play better (on Sunday).”
Lewis, despite a career game, was tough in his assessment.
“I did OK,” Lewis said. “There are some things I could do a lot better on – protect the ball (because) I put my team in jeopardy. I’ve got to work on that this week.
“We have a lot of work to do. We made a lot of mistakes. I’m glad we got a win, but in order to advance next week, we’ve got to play a lot better than we did (on Saturday).”
You can credit Houston’s stellar defense – No. 1 in yards allowed this season, 11th in points allowed -- but the Patriots know they have work to do this week.
“We ended up making enough plays to win,” Belichick said.
“But a lot of mistakes we had. We had penalties, we had dropped balls, we threw the ball right to them, we fumbled it. Give (Houston) credit, but we’ve got to do better than that. We’re going to play against another good defense (on Sunday).”
And if the Patriots don’t make adjustments, they know the Texans have given the Steelers a veritable game plan to beat New England.
“You know other teams are going to watch the tape and try and go after you on the things that you didn’t do great,” said linebacker Rob Ninkovich. “I think there is definitely room for improvement. I like the challenge of wherever the ball is, our defense has to step in and bend but don’t break.”
“It’s tough when you’re in the playoffs and you turn the ball over against a good football team,” said wide receiver Julian Edelman, Brady’s favorite target who became the franchise leader in postseason receptions, with 76. “We weren’t on the field that long in the first half. I think we ran like 20 plays, so it’s tough. We made plays when we had to, but if we want to keep winning and move on, we can’t play like that. We’re going to have to have a really good week and preparation this upcoming week and learn from the stuff we didn’t do well.”
Regardless of what’s on the bulletin board.
