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Today in Patriots History
After raising sixth banner in front of Steelers,
Pats blow out Pittsburgh, 33-3
After raising sixth banner in front of Steelers,
Pats blow out Pittsburgh, 33-3
Sun Sept 8, 2019 at 8:20
Week 1, Game 1 at Gillette Stadium
New England Patriots 33, Pittsburgh Steelers 3
Head Coaches: Bill Belichick, Mike Tomlin
QBs: Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger
Odds: New England favored by 5½
Patriots 33-3 Steelers (Sep 8, 2019) Game Recap - ESPN
Expert recap and game analysis of the New England Patriots vs. Pittsburgh Steelers NFL game from September 8, 2019 on ESPN.
www.espn.com
The team unveiled their sixth championship banner before the game in a ceremony that included fireworks and a highlight video projected onto a screen covering much of the field.
Drew Bledsoe, Ty Law, Willie McGinest, Rob Ninkovich and Martellus Bennett brought out the first five Lombardi Trophies. Owner Robert Kraft brought out the one the team won in February by beating the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 -- the one that was dented by Rob Gronkowski when he used it for batting practice at the Boston Red Sox opener.
Kraft received a big cheer from the fans, who seemed unbothered by charges that he solicited prostitution in a Florida massage parlor. Gronkowski, who retired in March, also received a loud cheer.
Patriots Pummel Pittsburgh in Season Opener
Antonio Brown hasn’t even arrived yet and the Patriots offense is playing like a cheat code. Seven players caught at least one pass from Tom Brady, who was downright surgical in New England’s 33-3 rout of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the same night the Patriots unveiled a sixth Super Bowl banner.
www.nbcboston.com
Seven players caught at least one pass from Tom Brady, who was downright surgical in New England’s 33-3 rout of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the same night the Patriots unveiled a sixth Super Bowl banner.
New England’s most recent championship matched Sunday night’s opponent at Gillette Stadium for the most Super Bowls of all-time. Take your guess as to which team is closer to a seventh.
The Steelers were supposed to be reinvigorated. Instead, a stale offense was exposed by a Patriots defense that’s given up six points in its last eight quarters of football dating back to Super Bowl LIII.
The mismatch was even more apparent when New England had the ball, Brady finishing a methodical 24 for 36 passing for 341 yards and three touchdown passes.
Phillip Dorsett was on the receiving end for two of Brady’s touchdowns, the first multi-score game of his five-year career. He led the team with 95 yards receiving to boot.
When New England’s receiving corps is at full strength, Dorsett might be the Patriots’ fifth-best option beyond Brown, Julian Edelman, Josh Gordon and Demaryius Thomas.
Gordon, in his return to the NFL following an indefinite suspension which cost him the final two games of the regular season and all of the playoffs in 2018, broke open the game’s scoring with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Brady in the first quarter, bouncing off of two defenders around the 5-yard line before trotting in.
Edelman finished with six catches for 83 yards, his first grab of the night the 500th of his career. If you’re looking for space on the “Edelman is a Hall of Famer” train, he’s got more receptions than two of the 18 wide receivers currently enshrined in Canton (Lynn Swann, 336 and Paul Warfield, 427 and has a real chance to pass two more in 2019 (John Stallworth, 537 and Fred Biletnikoff, 589).
Coaching has always been a mismatch between the Patriots and Steelers, at least as long as it’s been Bill Belichick vs. Mike Tomlin, and Sunday was no exception. Down 20-0 early in the third quarter, facing a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Tomlin sent out his field goal unit to keep it a three-score game.
There’s going to be some 2007 chatter over the coming weeks and it’s 100 percent warranted.
Patriots 33, Steelers 3: Tom Brady drops bombs on Pittsburgh and more of the best and worst of New England’s win
Picking the best and worst Patriots performances from Sunday's season opener against Pittsburgh.
www.masslive.com
It’s safe to say no player in NFL history has ever enjoyed a better start to his 20th season.
Tom Brady connected on touchdown passes of 20, 25 and 58 yards en route to a 24-for-36 night worth 341 yards and three scores. He completed passes to seven different receivers, slicing and dicing the Steelers’ secondary in both halves. When Brady was afforded a clean pocket, the Steelers defense had no chance.
Josh McDaniels threw a small kitchen sink at Pittsburgh, rolling out six different personnel groups, various tempos and tons of misdirection. He covered for New England’s hole at tight end by deploying a second pass-catching running back on passing downs or a third receiver on several standard downs. Masterful plan by McDaniels.
Four times the Steelers faced third or fourth-and-1 Sunday night. Four times they retreated back to their sideline.
The Pats stuffed a pair of third-and-1 runs in the second quarter, then broke up a short pass on fourth-and-1 moments before halftime. In the third quarter, they turned Pittsburgh away again while backed up against their own goal line after consecutive misfires from Roethlisberger, which forced a field goal.
In a shutdown performance from start to finish, New England’s secondary earned its only interception late when Devin McCourty picked off an end-zone heave from Roethlisberger. Stephon Gilmore successfully shadowed JuJu Smith-Schuster, while no other receiver topped 55 yards.
Dating back to last season, Dorsett has converted his last 20 targets into catches. His four Sunday went for 95 yards and two touchdowns, the latter a 58-yard bomb that split Pittsburgh’s two deep safeties.
33 thoughts on the Patriots' 33-3 win over the Steelers
COMMENTARY Thirty-three thoughts on the Patriots’ 33-3 win over the Steelers … It sounds arrogant, but who cares? It’s the expectation and the accusation no matter what at this point. It’s also appropriate, and saying it after the Patriots’ systematic dismantling of the Pittsburgh Steelers...
www.boston.com
They tormented the Steelers Sunday night, first by unveiling a sixth championship banner, matching Pittsburgh for the most all-time, then proving on the field that they are much, much closer to a seventh. The Patriots held the Steelers to 3 points, Ben Roethlisberger to 276 yards and no touchdown passes, and James Conner to 21 rushing yards, and they did it without stalwart linebacker Kyle Van Noy.
Thoughts on the offensive line: Isaiah Wynn, last year’s first-rounder who was making his NFL debut at left tackle, was excellent, allowing just one rush of Brady (per NBC) in his first 33 drop-backs. Ted Karras, trying to fill the void left by David Andrews, did a fine job blocking, though his shotgun snaps had a little bit of hang time. Right tackle Marcus Cannon, one of the more underrated Patriots, left with a shoulder injury after battling T.J. Watt for three quarters. And the guards, Joe Thuney and Shaq Mason, were rough and relentless as usual.
Jonathan Jones, the fourth-year cornerback who agree to terms on a three-year, $21 million extension Saturday in the second most-noteworthy transaction of the day, started at cornerback as the Patriots went with five defensive backs right away. His development almost makes you wonder whether his absence from the Super Bowl LII loss to the Eagles was a bigger deal than Malcolm Butler’s in retrospect.
Let the record show that the first touchdown of the Patriots season was scored by someone we weren’t even sure would play a snap this year. Josh Gordon, reinstated in mid-August after violating the conditions of a previous conditional reinstatement for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, scored from 20 yards out with a little over 4 minutes left in the first quarter.
Gordon hurdled one would-be tackler and rammed through another to get into in the end zone. But it might not have been his most impressive play. Gordon had a 44-yard catch in the second quarter in which he took a huge pop from Pittsburgh’s Terrell Edmonds and still made a difficult grab. Didn’t look rusty to me.
Van Noy was a surprising inactive for a good reason – his wife had gone into labor. Cris Collinsworth said on the broadcast that Van Noy was the best defender in the playoffs last year. I’d vote Stephon Gilmore there, but the versatile Van Noy was excellent, especially in the Super Bowl. It’s impressive that the defense didn’t miss a beat without him.
Gilmore, currently the best cornerback in the NFL, had five tackles and neutralized Steelers star receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster until garbage time (he ended up with 78 yards). He does honor to that number 24.
Box Score, Stats and Full Play-by-Play:
Pittsburgh Steelers at New England Patriots - September 8th, 2019 | Pro-Football-Reference.com
Pittsburgh Steelers 3 at New England Patriots 33 on September 8th, 2019 - Full team and player stats and box score
www.pro-football-reference.com
