Team Grades: Slow Day For Brady, Better Day For Blount In Win Over Steelers
By Danny Cox
The New England Patriots were playing very well in Tom Brady's absence during the first four games of the season. In the two games since his return, they have been playing even better and everyone expected the same in Sunday's game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. A walking wounded Steelers team didn't expect to be much trouble for the strong Pats, but it was an entirely different story.
Without Ben Roethlisberger and a number of other injured players, the Steelers may not have had an overly explosive offense with Landry Jones at the helm, but they held their own. Well, they held their own for a while and the defense figured out ways to slow down Tom Brady, but the Patriots have numerous other weapons and were able to use them to their advantage.
Offense: B-
It was obvious that Tom Brady merely wasn't himself on Sunday and the Steelers did a good job of taking away some of his weapons. Many may look at the stat sheet and think that isn't the case, but Tom Brady being held to just 222 yards passing and two touchdowns is far below normal for him. Gronk and Julian Edelman both played impressively with decent numbers, but it was just an off day for the explosive passing attack of the Pats.
Fortunately, there are a number of talented players and weapons on New England's offense. While the passing game somewhat struggled, the running game opened up as LeGarrette Blount ran 24 times for 127 yards and two touchdowns. The bruising back even had a long run of 25 yards and bowled over Steelers' defenders throughout the day.
If any team is going to stop the Patriots from scoring this season, they're going to have to figure out how to stop what seems like more weapons than there are defensive players on the field.
Defense: C+
New England's defense did enough to shut down the Steelers more in the second half, but it wasn't an overly impressive showing on the day. The lone turnover came on a Landry Jones' interception that was picked off by Malcolm Butler and it ended up leading to the Patriots' second score of the day.
Landry Jones wasn't sacked a single time and there wasn't a ton of pressure on him throughout the game. Le'Veon Bell accounted for 81 rushing yards while also pulling in 10 receptions for 68 more yards. He simply couldn't be stopped while wide receiver Antonio Brown racked up 106 yards on seven receptions.
The defense of the Patriots did just enough early on to stay ahead and then shut the Steelers down more in the second half, but a better showing will have to come against stronger offensive units.
Special Teams: C
The return game was almost nonexistent against the Steelers and that goes for both the kick returns and punt returns. Ryan Allen did pretty well punting the ball as he was able to pin the Steelers back inside their own 20 yard-line on two of his three kicks.
Stephen Gostkowski didn't attempt a single field goal on the day, but he was still out there with four extra point attempts. Unfortunately, he ended up missing one in the third quarter. It didn't end up being a huge deal but at the time, it gave the Patriots only a seven-point lead when it could have put them up a touchdown and two-point conversion.
Coaching: B
Bill Belichick knows what to do with his team, and he knows how to make them play better—even when the obviously great parts aren't operating on all cylinders. With Tom Brady playing well, but not great, his teammates had to step up, and that is when coach got the running game going full force. Upon doing that, the Steelers really couldn't stop every single weapon and look that was thrown at them. On defense, the idea was to get after Landry Jones, but the Patriots really didn't do an excellent job of that. In the second half, things picked up nicely, but it took a while to get rolling.
The New England Patriots have an uncanny knack for being able to still look dominating even when they're not playing at their best. No matter who is on their game or who is being targeted by opposing teams, other players are able to step in, step up, and fill in the gaps. It's going to be hard for any team to put a loss on the Pats for the rest of the season, but the opposition is beginning to at least find ways to slow them down.
