Nothing scary about this game played on Halloween Eve!

“Roethlisberger had 314 yards passing in three quarters and Brady had just 125. It was the 18th time in his career Roethlisberger topped 300 and only the second time he’s done it in consecutive games.” — From Ed Bouchette’s post-game recap, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.



More post-game media notes & quotes…


From the AP:

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 finally solved their Brady problem with an emphatic 25-17 victory over New England.

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 straight following a 2-2 start.


You can read more here.


“Tom Brady entered today’s game 6-1 all time against the Steelers, but it was Ben Roethlisberger who stole the show.” — Joe Shermetaro, ISportsWeb.com




From The Sports Network:

Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers chewed up the clock and the New England defense on Sunday, beating the Patriots 25-17 for their sixth straight win at Heinz Field. They beat Tom Brady for only the second time in eight tries, denying Brady and Bill Belichick the NFL record for most wins by a quarterback-head coach combo in the Super Bowl era.

Pittsburgh has won four in a row and remains at home to play AFC North rival Baltimore next week. The Patriots (5-2) were coming off a bye and had a three-game winning streak snapped since their only other loss at Buffalo in Week 3.


You can read more here.


“Ben Roethlisberger had been above average all season at completing short throws, but Roethlisberger turned in an elite performance against the Patriots on Sunday. Both of Roethlisberger’s touchdown passes came on throws fewer than 10 yards.” — ESPN‘s Mike Reiss, from his stats blog.




From The Boston Globe‘s Shalise Manza Young:

It went right down to the end. The Patriots, despite playing poorly on both sides of the ball, still had a chance to win in the closing seconds against the Steelers on Sunday.

And then, that chance was gone.

With 18 seconds left, quarterback Tom Brady was standing tall, surveying the field, and didn’t see Brett Keisel coming. The veteran defensive end smacked the ball out of Brady’s hand, and in the scrum to get the loose ball, Steelers’ safety Troy Polamalu punched the ball toward the end zone.

The Patriots were on the short end of virtually every stat, but most notable was time of possession. The Steelers held the ball 39 minutes, 22 seconds. The Patriots had it 20:38.


You can read more from Ms. Young’s column here.


Video highlights from the game here.

A few game photos here.



Highlights from Ben’s press conference:

On the win –

“It was a good win for us. It’s was an AFC win, you know, that’s the biggest thing for us. They’re a great football team, they came into Heinz Field, but the crowd was great tonight. We’re a good football team and we played well. It’s always good to get a win, especially in the AFC. Anytime we can covert third downs and possess the ball, obviously my stupid turnover (pauses)…but we’ve got a good group of guys that can get it done.”


On the play of Heath Miller –

“They gave us a lot underneath stuff. I thought our Pro Bowl tight end did a great job, just looking hot when it was hot, kind of feeling out zones when they gave it to us. It opens up Heath underneath, and I know he had a great game. He is Mr. Dependable. I get the ball close to him and he makes the play.”


On the decision to utilize Heath Miller in the first half –

“Well that is a good matchup for us. We feel like our wide receivers are good. We get them on the field. To me, Heath is a lineman in the passing game, blocking, and he is wide receiver when he catches the ball. So if we can get him matched up on linebackers, we feel that is win for us.”


On the way the offense played –

“We still have a lot of things to improve on. I can play a lot better. When we don’t kill ourselves and stop ourselves we can be pretty dangerous. There are just a few things here and there we need to clean up. Maybe we can be even more dangerous.”


On controling the clock with the passing game –

“We came in planning to take some shots, too. You would have thought the game plan was to just dink and dunk; that’s just what they gave us. They took away the deep ball and that opens up the underneath stuff.”


On whether they game-planned by using last year’s game –

“We felt watching the film this year and last year, we could take advantage of the past game, especially with the weapons we have and run the ball in the sub package. We went to the huddle a lot in the second half.

“I called a lot of runs because they gave a lot of looks on runs…and credit the linemen and running backs for making it work, even though it was a passing debt.”


On the time of possession for the Steelers throughout the game –

“For us, whenever you think about possessing the ball and time of possession and controlling it, it’s run the ball. We kind of showed that we can do it without always running the ball. We can take the short passes, the screens to the wide receivers, and we can move the ball.

“We just, when we get in the red zone, we gotta put seven points on the board.”


On the final minutes of the fourth quarter –

“I told the line when we came into the huddle, ‘This game’s on us’. We can keep the defense off the field and we can win this game. We’d like to use that (final) 19 seconds, but I’m still proud of the way we were able to get a first down, burn their timeouts and, in essence, close the door.”



Video of Ben’s post-game interview here (at 3:04).