Forget, if you can, for just a few minutes about how much you loathe Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the reigning Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. No matter your opinions or beliefs, or mine, they were the better, more complete football team on Thursday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
With all of the focus on the many alleged cheating tactics used over the years, it is not likely these 2015 Patriots participated in any illegal acts on that wet field in this game. Brady, the pesky Julian Edelman and the gargantuan Rob Gronkowski simply spread the ball all over the field, picking apart the Steelers defense like tender pork at a late summer barbecue. New Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Keith Butler had few answers for his unit full of new faces and unproven personnel. It was much of the same from what we saw last year – Cortez Allen and Mike Mitchell in a disorganized and often over-matched secondary, a mostly non-existent pass rush and a general lack of playmakers from top to bottom.
But even allowing Brady to complete more than 75 percent of his passes and throw four touchdowns — three to Gronkowski — it was not just the defense that should be blamed for this loss. Offensively, the Steelers out gained New England by more than 100 yards and DeAngelo Williams’ big night allowed Todd Haley’s crew to control the clock and limit Patriots possessions.
So what went wrong?
The wildly frustrating first half netted only three Pittsburgh points, scarred by two missed field goals, penalties and miscues that stalled drive after drive. Josh Scobee will, to put it lightly, not be welcomed kindly at the neighborhood Primanti’s. His two misses kept six points off the board but, frankly, let us blame the entire offense for failing to keep pushing forward to shots at the end zone rather than settling for the field goal attempts.
Pittsburgh mostly took care of the ball, save for the one turnover in the game that came on a Roethlisberger interception on a deep pass attempt somewhat late in the game. New England was lucky to avoid what would have been a costly turnover when Deon Lewis fumbled near the goalline. It was, however, recovered by Gronkowski and after a replay denied the Patriots the touchdown right then and there, they would score it seconds later.
Just when you think karma is due to bite a team like New England, the Brady-led champs looked crisp and it seemed like they won by more than just the seven-point edge in the 28-21 victory. It hardly ever felt like Pittsburgh was really in this one, never leading and being down by as many as 18 early in the third quarter.
Failing to take advantage of many opportunities, despite the Patriots hardly making any major mistakes, it seems difficult to see positives in this season-opening loss for Mike Tomlin’s team. The team, in addition to taking a pummeling by Brady and Gronkowski, also beat itself. “Obviously,” as Tomlin is always so quick to say, this trend cannot continue if the Steelers are to be successful this season. A very difficult schedule, an always tough division and the constant target just being the Steelers brings each week will make each play of each game that much more magnified.
The Steelers have to find ways to make impactful plays on defense. The ridiculously talented offense must capitalize and will often be asked to put up big numbers and points. Score touchdowns, not field goals. Play smart and avoid the penalties. For God’s sake, manage the clock — that certainly did not go well for the black and gold in a tough road atmosphere. Rumors swirled early in the first half about communication issues on the Pittsburgh sideline due to a New England radio broadcast interfering with the coach’s headsets. While that may have played a role early on, what is the excuse for the costly seconds wasted late in each half?
There are numerous questions to be answered by Tomlin and his staff regarding preparation and execution, just as there will always be when a team loses a game in this league. Fans and analysts have short memories. The players and coaches will return to Pittsburgh and have 10 days to prepare for the home opener vs. San Francisco, who will come in on a short week after playing this Monday night on the west coast. They need to have a short memory, too, forgetting about most of this loss in New England. There was a lot of good, but not enough to outweigh the bad. Roethlisberger was shaky at times, but his numbers were solid in the end. Antonio Brown was exquisite, as always. Williams was surprisingly spry and appears to be more than sufficient in Le’Veon Bell’s place, and he will be a great second option for the ground game all year long.
Most of the optimism is definitely on the offensive side of the ball. The defense struggled, as expected, and every critic in town will have their magnifying glass focused in with each snap by the opposition. Improvement must be made or it will be a long, arduous 16-game schedule. With improvement and the proper adjustments, what looks like it could be an eight-win season might just be stretched into a 10-win campaign that results in a playoff appearance. It’s just one opinion, but I would not expect much more than that. It’s still early, but I think we saw a pretty accurate depiction of the 2015 Pittsburgh Steelers in the first 60 minutes of the season. Grip your Terrible Towels hard and prepare to grin and bear it, as it appears this will be yet another one of those fist-clenching, frustrating, occasionally-elating, second-guessing, on your knees-praying kind of football seasons.
Here we go.
