Steelers stop Brady, Patriots

— The Pittsburgh Steelers found a way to beat Tom Brady: Don’t let him get the ball.

Ben Roethlisberger passed for 365 yards and two touchdowns and the Steelers beat New England 25-17 Sunday.

“It’s been all Tom Brady versus the Pittsburgh Steelers and looking back on the past, how he’s owned the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I think everybody forgot about our offense a little bit and the things they’ve been doing out there,” Pittsburgh linebacker LaMarr Woodley said. “I think they took that a little personal.”

Roethlisberger completed 36 of 50 passes and led the Steelers (6-2) on a series of clock-chewing drives, effectively keeping Brady and the NFL’s top-ranked offense off the field. Pittsburgh held the ball for more than 39 minutes and survived a late rally to win its fourth consecutive following a 2-2 start.

“We can be as good as we want to be,” Roethlisberger said. “When we don’t kill ourselves and stop ourselves, we can be pretty dangerous.”

Brady passed for two touchdowns but threw for a season-low 198 yards while losing to the Steelers for just the second time in his career.

The Patriots (5-2) drew within six when Brady connected with Aaron Hernandez for a 1-yard touchdown pass with 2:35 remaining, but a last-gasp drive ended when Brady was sacked and the ball rolled out of the end zone for a safety with 8 seconds to play.

“We all have to individually look in the mirror and figure out what we need to get better at,” Brady said.

The Steelers didn’t complete a pass over 26 yards. They didn’t have to. Roethlisberger consistently found Antonio Brown (a careerhigh nine receptions), Heath Miller (a season-high seven receptions) and Mike Wallace (seven receptions) on short routes.

Pittsburgh’s five scoring drives lasted 11, 16, 10, 14 and 11 plays. The Steelers converted 10 of 16 third downs and Shaun Suisham kicked three field goals.

“It’s very frustrating,” New England nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. “You talk about getting a team in second-andlongs and third-and-longs and taking advantage of those situations. We had them in those situations; we just didn’t take advantage of them.”

When Brady did get in the game, the Steelers were able to disrupt his timing just enough. Pittsburgh sacked the two-time MVP three times and kept Wes Welker in check. Welker finished with six catches for 39 yards.

New England was held to 213 yards, less than half New England’s average of 474. New England running back Kevin Faulk ran for 32 yards on 6 carries and caught 5 passes for 20 yards in his first game of the season.

Pittsburgh capped an 11-play, 68-yard opening drive when Roethlisberger found running back Mewelde Moore for a 5-yard touchdown, a lead that grew to 10-0 on Suisham’s 32-yard field goal.

Pittsburgh faced third-and-17 at its own 15 when Roethlisberger passed to Emmanuel Sanders. Instead he threw the ball directly to New England linebacker Gary Guyton, who returned it to the Pittsburgh 8. Brady soon found Deion Branch for a 2-yard score. Roethlisberger bounced back to complete 6-of-7 passes on Pittsburgh’s next drive, capping it with a 7-yard scoring pass to Brown.

Stephen Gostkowski missed a third-quarter field goal that would have pulled New England within a touchdown and Pittsburgh responded with another lengthy drive that ended with Suisham’s third field goal to put them up 23-10.

“It’s a huge step,” linebacker Lawrence Timmons said. “The New England Patriots have Belichick and Brady. This is a team that contends in the AFC every year and goes to the championship or the Super Bowl. So having this win, in our house, is huge and something to build on.”

Sports, Pages 16 on 10/31/2011

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