Many people considered the Steelers as underdogs at home against the New England Patriots, but not the Steelers players.
The Steelers improved to 6-2 with a fairly decisive 25-17 win over the Patriots at Heinz Field.
“All week and day I have been hearing that everybody was counting us out,” said LB LaMarr Woodley. “We were the underdogs in the game and nobody counted us in, but we went out there and played good.”
“Everybody’s making this to be a big thing, but we expected to win this football game,” said WR Mike Wallace.
The Steelers game plan was to control the ball on offense to keep Patriots QB Tom Brady off the field and to play tight pass defense and pressure Brady on defense and they executed that plan very well.
The Steelers offense possessed the ball for 21:13 in the first half to New England’s 8:47, while Pittsburgh didn’t punt the ball until 28 seconds were left in the fourth quarter.
“Anytime we convert third downs and we possess the ball, I knew that we had a good group of guys that could get it done,” said Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger finished the game throwing for 365 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.
The defense came into the game with a game plan that held the Patriots’ explosive offense to just 213 total yards.
“It’s a huge step,” said LB Lawrence Timmons on containing the Patriots offense. “The Patriots contend in the AFC every year and go to the championship or the Super Bowl. So having this win, in our house, is huge and it’s something to build on.”
The Steelers now look to playing the Ravens next Sunday in a rematch of a 35-7 loss to the Ravens in Baltimore in week one.
Notes: Nine different Steelers caught at least one pass from Ben Roethlisberger… The Steelers held an Alumni Weekend bringing back former players such as QB Bubby Brister, WR Louis Lipps and S/CB Carnell Lake to participate in pregame ceremonies… Former Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson was on the sidelines during pregame warmup… Styx’ Renegade was played at 6:06 of the third quarter and on the ensuing Patriots drive, Stephen Gostkowski missed a 42-yard field goal.. Troy Polamalu jokingly on jumping on TE Rob Gronkowski’s back while trying to tackle him: “I was on his back and like what am I doing? I didn’t know what to do. Like a rear naked choke? Like what do you do?”
Image Source – (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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