The Top 10 Moments from the Patriots vs. the Steelers
Patriots vs. Steelers. There’s been nothing else like it in football in the 21st century. The two most consistently competitive teams in their sport over the last 18 seasons. Since 2001, the Patriots have only failed to hit double digit wins once, the Steelers only five times. These are two of the only three franchises that have won multiple Super Bowls in that stretch. And they have met head-to-head 14 times, including three times in the playoffs.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, that’s where the comparison – and the fun – ends. New England has won 11 of those matchups, including all three in the postseason. By an average score of 34-20. Meaning it’s not a stretch to say that if the Patriots of the 2000s and 2010s did not exist, if say, they were promoted to some higher league to play teams from distant exoplanets, the Steelers could very well be the NFL’s dominant power with a dynasty to match the one they enjoyed from 1974-79. But the Patriots do, therefore the Steelers aren’t.
Which brings me to list my favorite moments of this (using the term loosely) rivalry. Last year before the teams met in Week 15, I made a list of the moments of hatred between the two. This list will overlap with that one a little, the Venn Diagram circle of “favorites” creating a subset with the “hatred.” But still this is about all the great memories when the Patriots absolutely crushed Pittsburgh, on and off the field. I’m listing them in chronological order, only because I can’t rank them in terms of how much I love them. It’s like asking me to rank my favorite Rick and Morty episodes. I love them all, and I simply can’t choose among them.
With that as a preamble, here’s my Top 10 Favorite Moments of Patriots vs. Steelers:
2001 – The Patriots sign Mike Vrabel.
Back in 2001, the NFL Free Agency period began on Friday night precisely at midnight. This of course being before the NFL realized with social media they could monetize the shit out of that bad boy. And sitting at home hoping his phone would ring was Steelers linebacker Mike Vrabel. A former late 3rd rounder out of Ohio State with exactly zero starts in the legendary Dick LeBeau’s Zone Blitz defense and at the end of his rookie deal. Within seconds of the start of Free Agency, his phone rang. It was Bill Belichick. Who proceeded to fire off a list of individual plays Vrabel had been involved in, including intimate knowledge of his reads, responsibilities and adjustments. Long before the call was over, Vrabel was all in on signing with New England. Within four years he was the starting outside linebacker on three shampionship teams, with a crucial forced pick-6 in the Super Bowl against the Rams, and 10 career receptions for 10 touchdowns, two of them coming in the Super Bowl. And certainly a Patriots Hall of Fame Red Jacket in his future.
2002 – Pats win the AFC championship game at Pittsburgh.
Prior to the Super Bowl that followed, this was the greatest win in Patriots history. They were double digit underdogs going into it. They no sooner arrived at Heinz before Lawyer Milloy spotted a store room with all the Steelers personal bags all packed and ready for the trip to New Orleans and began spitting fire over the disrespect. The Pats best hope was to score on special teams, which they did. Twice. The first coming on a punt return by Troy Brown. The Steelers plan for Mr. Patriot was to not let him run between the numbers on them, but jam the middle of the field and force him to turn outside. On the first punt attempt, there was a penalty. On the re-kick, the ball came right to Brown who not only stayed between the numbers, he never went outside the hash marks. In fact, he could’ve ran it up a bowling alley without stepping in the gutters. It turned out that on the re-kick, the officials has inexplicably put the ball on the opposite hash from before, which might have messed with the punter’s head. Bill Cowher certainly thought it was a contributing factor, screaming “You were WRONG! How could you screw that up?!?” in the official’s face with his signature spittle flying everywhere. Later, Brown added that blocked kick lateral that Antwan Harris took all the way while all of New England yelled in unison, “Who the fuck is Antwan Harris?” In between, Tom Brady was taken out of the game with a leg injury and replaced by Drew Bledsoe, who not only got clobbered on the sidelines with the exact same hit that had knocked him out of the starting job early in the season, he immediately threw a touchdown pass, the only offensive TD of the game for the Patriots.
2005 – The Patriots win the AFC championship game at Pittsburgh.
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This was the first year of the Steelers behind Ben Roethlisberger, the rookie who had taken over from Tommy Maddox during a loss in Week 2, their only loss of the season. Which is why a 14-2 Pats team was on the road in the playoffs. Leading up to the game, Tom Brady was sick as a dog, with a 103-degree fever and God knows what kinds of fluids pouring out of both ends of his body. On Saturday night before the game, in a hotel function room that had probably just cleared out from a Bat Mitzvah, Charlie Weis held a walk through where he installed an end around to Deion Branch. In the game, it went for 14 yards. With Roethlisberger facing Troy Brown on defense, dropping into his shallow passing lanes, he started to look up top, where he kept finding Patriots defenders like Rodney Harrison, who took one pass 87 yards for the score, walking across the goal line carrying the ball in his hands like a lunchbox as Vrabel threw a tremendous block on Roethlisberger. Facing a 4th & 1, the Steelers handed it to one of the best short-yardage backs of all time with some of the safest hands you could put a football in, Jerome Bettis. He was stopped. And fumbled. With Vrabel recovering. Again they went for the Branch end around play Weiss had drawn up on a hotel napkin the night before. It went for 28 yards and a touchdown. Adam Vinatieri was 5-for-5 on field goals, matching the total number of Steelers turnovers. A garbage time touchdown made it look almost competitive, but this game was played in Blowout City. Final score: New England 41, Pittsburgh 27.
2007 – Anthony Smith guarantees a victory.He does not deliver.
This was the height of Spygate, 16-0 Patriots. Universally despised. Under siege. Beset on all sides. And still unbeaten, when Steelers safety Anthony Smith guaranteed a victory in their December matchup at Foxboro. It did not go well for him or his team. Brady threw for 399 yards and was never sacked. He clearly targeted Smith. And offensively the Pats set the cruise control and just held their thumb on the “+” button until it went as fast as it could. Starting on their own 1, they went no-huddle, hitting Wes Welker 5 straight times on the way to a 12-play drive that ended with a touchdown. Brady got up in Smith’s grill mix in the endzone with some form of a “Michael Corleone sends his regards.” And the stands erupted with chants of “Guar-an-TEE! Guar-an-TEE!” After the 34-13 win, Belichick said of Smith “We were glad when he was in there.” Sick burn.
2015 – The Banner Game when the Steelers all lost their damned minds.
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Week 1, the Thursday night season kickoff, when the Pats were hanging the banner for beating the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. Under normal circumstances, the game would’ve been forgettable except for a three touchdown performance by Rob Gronkowski. The Pats were up by 14 before a last second TD pass by Roethlisberger made it a 28-21 final. But the Steelers triggered reactions to the game made it one of the most memorable regular season contests of recent vintage. First there was Mike Tomlin’s complaints that the quarterback helmet communication system was picking up the Patriots radio calls of the game. And leaving no doubt he thought they were responsible. Even the NFL, with the Patriots still chin-deep in the turbulent waters of Deflategate, took the step of saying the league runs all these systems, not the home teams. For his part, Roethlisberger accused the Patriots of cheating by shifting their defensive linemen prior to the snap. Something he, who’s been playing quarterback and standing under center since childhood, thought you weren’t allowed to do. Finally, assistant coach James Daniels was accused of kicking a Patriots fan on his way to the locker room at half time. No charges were ever filed. But imagine for one hot second how that would’ve played in Pittsburgh if a Patriots coach had done it. The whole staff would be on The Green Mile right now.
2017 – Antonio Brown goes viral.
This was after the Steelers win in the Divisional playoff over Kansas City. They won 18-16 on the strength of six field goals. With Tomlin telling his players to get ready for the trip to Foxboro for the conference title game and to watch themselves on social media, Antonio Brown was too busy to listen. Instead he was posting a Facebook Live video that consisted of him looking into his phone and saying “Yeah. Uh-uh. That’s right …” for 17 and a half minutes. Completely tuning out every word his coach was saying. His team hadn’t gotten into the end zone, and here was Brown treating it like a teenage Goth girl giving her followers a review of some Manga she’d just watched. Then the video picks up Tomlin talking about how the Pats had played the night before, “We spotted those assholes a day and a half! So be it. Let’s be ready to whoop their ass!” The Pats meanwhile, on their way to covering a 16-point spread against Houston, had played like fried shit and were universally miserable in the locker room.
2017 – The Patriots win the AFC championship game at Foxboro.
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Chris Hogan had two touchdown catches of 16 and 34 yards. Brady was 32-of-42 for 384 yards and no interceptions. The Patriots defense faced a 1st & goal from the 1 and held. But the all time moment from this one was the run by LeGarrette Blount, carrying SEVEN Steelers defenders, like the bug in a nature film getting swarmed by ants.
2017 – The Patriots sign James Harrison.
The Steelers had the best record in the conference when they released James Harrison, one of their best defenders ever and a former DPOTY. He signed with New England. And Steelers fans, demanding … what? Loyalty, I guess? … burned his jersey they’d spent $99.99 on. Because who did Harrison think he was? A free agent? Someone who’d just lost his job? A guy hoping for a ring in his last season? An unemployed American, free to sign with whatever team wanted him? Imagine the balls on the guy.
2017 – Jesse James doesn’t get in and the Steelers have a meltdown.
Argue Jesse James got in the end zone all you want. What is indisputable the Steelers reacted to the call with nothing less than a total nervous breakdown. I timed it once, and if memory serves, the replay review took 4:13. During which time Roethlisberger, Tomlin and offensive coordinator Todd Haley never spoke. They just watched the scoreboard replays to see if the score would stand, without discussing what the plan was if it didn’t stand. What followed was anarchy. A checkdown to Darrius Heyward-Bey where Malcolm Butler had the presence of mind to wrap him up and keep him in bounds while the clock ticked. Followed by Haley screaming in Roethlisberger’s fully functioning helmet radio for a fake spike. And an interception by Duron Harmon off a deflection by Eric Rowe, who stayed with the only receiver in the end zone. Later Harmon said they practice defending the fake spike play every week. But Tomlin’s Steelers were not ready for what happens on the goal line if a critical call gets reversed. Nothing has ever illustrated the difference between the two teams more than that moment. Unless it’s this moment, that came a few weeks later:
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2018 – Mike Mitchell talks shit about the Patriots and a foreign country while looking past Jacksonville.
Mike Mitchell pulling off the rare Triple Bulletin Board fodder, insulting his next opponent the Jaguars, the Patriots, and the good people of the great nation of Haiti. Unfortunately, yet another AFC title game rematch never happened because Jacksonville, to steal Tomlin’s own phrase, whooped their ass. Mitchell didn’t get to play the Patriots in Gillette or in Haiti. But he did spend the rest of the postseason in Hell.
God help me, I love these Steelers games. Kick the damned ball off already.