Then, Chung almost picked off an errant throw by Landry Jones late in the game.
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“To be honest with you, we moved the ball up and down the field”. He stood in the pocket. In fact, he likely outperformed numerous outside expectations put on him.
“It’s kind of piling on right now; at my position you only get so many opportunities, and that’s what’s hard on you mentally”, Gostkowski said. “I want to get back for my teammates because I feel like I can contribute and help out”.
Pittsburgh backup quarterback Landry Jones played well at times while filling in for injured Ben Roethlisberger, who wore sweats on the sideline over his surgically repaired left knee and offered what advice he could.
“Me and AB had conversations, and once I showed him how I did it (mimicked Brown’s dance), I did it in a game”, Butler said.
“That was just a bad ball”, Jones said. Brown had 7 catches for 106 yards, and one rush for 13 yards. It wasn’t a disaster to be sure. And many of those losses were much more lopsided than what happened yesterday.
Rob Gronkowski was the guy that the Pittsburgh Steelers knew that they needed to slow down if they wanted a chance of beating the New England Patriots. The missed kick came two plays after a 14-yard touchdown pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey was nullified because of a holding penalty. That, and the inability of the Steelers offense to get many drives going and kicker Chris Boswell’s field goal misses at critical moments in the game, put a lot of pressure on the Steelers defense.
Brown came back to play late in the game, but he did not take on his normal workload after the injury. “It’s a small margin for error against a team like that”.
Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley is one of the brightest minds in the NFL. Bell is averaging 5.5 per carry, and his 440 yards from scrimmage since his return from a three-game suspension rank third in the National Football League over that span so the Patriots have to tackle much better than they did when 10 starters combined for 14 missed tackles against McCoy and the Bills.
The Steelers spent most of the first half playing catch-up to the Patriots, who managed to score two touchdowns to go into half time with the lead.
Gronkowski caught four passes for 93 yards, and Julian Edelman finished with nine receptions for 60 yards.
Pittsburgh’s defense, which was bulldozed in a mystifying loss in Miami last week, held Brady and company in check for stretches. “This is awful right now”.
The Steelers will return from their bye week to face the Baltimore Ravens on November 6.
“We definitely do (need to get healthy)”, running back Le’Veon Bell said. It’s uncertain when Roethlisberger may return, though Pittsburgh is hopeful to have defensive end Cam Heyward (hamstring) and right tackle Marcus Gilbert (ankle) back when it visits Baltimore on November 6.
The Steelers could also potentially see a boost offensively from tight end Ladarius Green, who signed a four-year $20 million contract in the spring, but started the season on the physically unable to perform list and continues to work his way back from offseason ankle surgery.
That’s a lot of maybes, something Pittsburgh refuses to traffic in. But, as usual, they take good care of the ball themselves.
“But we expect to win”, defensive lineman Jabaal Sheard said.
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Something that’s proven elusive so far during a season that has seen the Steelers look like a legitimate threat to reach the Super Bowl and a non-contender in equal measure. “Everyone thinks about sacks and all these things as huge markers for success but there are a lot of teams with a lot of sacks that aren’t winning”. When you play 60 or 70 snaps per game good, and then a handful that you don’t, that’s the frustrating part. It was also reported prior to the start of Sunday’s game that Roethlisberger could jog some during player introductions.
