Let’s begin by getting some of the applicable numbers out of
the way, and keep in mind that all of these are verifiable, for those who find
they defy belief. Rob Gronkowski caught two passes for 21 yards. Two of Tom
Brady’s completions covered 97 yards, and the other 23 covered 182, which works
out to an average of 7.9 yards. The Patriots were 0-for-3 in the red zone,
0-for-1 in goal-to-go situations, and 3-for-11 on possession downs (27.3
percent).
The next item of business is an explanation of the scenario
that Coach Mike Tomlin chose for his team in the final two-plus minutes of a
game the Steelers were leading at the time by a precarious 14-10.
With 2:41 remaining in the fourth quarter the Steelers faced
a third-and-6 from the New England 31-yard line. The Patriots were out of
timeouts, and so the only automatic stoppage of the clock would come at the
two-minute warning. One strategy would have been to run the ball on third down
to cut into the 6 yards necessary for a first down while also getting the clock
down to the two-minute warning. Then, go for it on fourth down, and if
successful, it’s time to take a knee three times and go home with a victory. If
unsuccessful, the Patriots take over on downs inside their own 30-yard line
with no timeouts and less than two minutes to score a touchdown to win the
game.
What Tomlin instead decided had the Steelers go for the end
zone on third down – Ben Roethlisberger’s jump-ball attempt to JuJu
Smith-Schuster inside the 5-yard line was incomplete, which stopped the clock
at 2:34. On fourth down, Tomlin opted to trust Chris Boswell to attempt a
48-yard field goal that if missed, like his 32-yard attempt had earlier in the
game, would’ve given the ball to Brady at the Patriots 38-yard line with
something more than two minutes remaining to score the touchdown that would
send the Steelers to their fourth defeat in a row and likely end any realistic
hopes they had to make the playoffs.
It’s also worth noting that Boswell had been so unreliable
this season that the Steelers were moved to hold an open tryout for his job in
the days leading up to this game, but the combination of no better available
options and the fresh memories of the magic Boswell authored last season combined
to keep him employed. But Boswell came through on this 48-yard attempt to up
the Steelers’ lead to 17-10, and the Patriots would get the football one final
time after the touchback on the kickoff at their own 25-yard line with 2:30
remaining.
Tomlin has shown faith in his defense in some similar
situations this season only to have his heart ripped out by a failure to make a
play to end the game, but this time he seemed to be making the same decision
only with more evidence that it would succeed.
Usually preferring to defer if winning the coin toss, Tomlin
this time elected to take the football, seemingly a sign he didn’t want his
team to find itself in an early 7-0 hole. Instead, the Steelers found
themselves with a 7-0 lead when Ben Roethlisberger found Vance McDonald for a
5-yard touchdown just slightly more than six minutes into the game. But when it
was 7-7 less than two minutes of game time later following a 63-yard Brady pass
to a wide-open Chris Hogan it seemed as though this was going to be a re-run of
a movie Steelers fans had watched too many times over the past decade.
But that’s when the Steelers defense stiffened, and it was
pretty much a constant state of being for the balance of the game. New England
– with Brady at the helm and with Gronkowski deployed in various spots within
the formation – punted on each of their next five offensive possessions, and
none of those possessions penetrated the Steelers’ 45-yard line. They sacked
Brady only once, but mounted sufficient pressure to register seven hits on the
quarterback; they broke up four passes, intercepted another, and they were
close enough to receivers and physical enough to entice close to a handful of
drops.
After that first quarter big-play touchdown, all the
Patriots managed on the scoreboard was a red zone field goal, with their final
two possessions ending with a Joe Haden interception and a turnover on downs,
respectively.
Gronkowski did nothing, and it’s likely the Steelers
concentrated on achieving that at the expense of their run defense, but Sony
Michel and Rex Burkhead combining for 84 yards over the course of a whole
football game wasn’t going to get them beat. And for all those observers who
love to attribute the outcome of this particular matchup to one coach having
his way with the other, well, have at it.
Maybe start with New England committing 10 more penalties
(14-4), or perhaps it’s more illustrative to examine Bill Belichick’s curious
clock management/timeout usage at the end of a first half in which the Patriots
twice elected to absorb 10-second runoffs rather than utilize timeouts they
then took into the locker room during a six-play possession that netted no
points.
Whatever, because it’s still going to be portrayed as one
coach being a genius disciplinarian and the other being lucky his cockamamie
decisions didn’t blow up in his face, but in the end the Steelers earned a
victory they absolutely had to have over a long-time nemesis they were given
little chance to defeat.
It was a victory that saved their season. How they achieved
it was even more significant than that.
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