Kovacevic: What's really under the Patriots' hoodie?

By Dejan Kovacevic

Jan 19, 2017 • 12:32 am

22K

Hey, if Antonio Brown's prepared to put all his focus on the Patriots, who am I to argue?

farce of a public apology

Bill Belichick

Tom Brady

David DeCastro

Nov. 3, 2013, Foxborough: Patriots 55, Steelers 31

still

Sept. 10, 2015, Foxborough: Patriots 28, Steelers 21

Keith Butler

Oct. 23, 2016: Heinz Field: Patriots 27, Steelers 16

Ben Roethlisberger

Landry Jones

Vontaze Burfict

Artie Burns

Photos from practice Wednesday. — MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

finished

"He’s going to get a lot of respect and attention from us," Mike Mitchell said. "He deserves it."

That goes for Brady's ability to release the ball quickly, to brilliantly read off the safeties, to ... wow, everything. But there are answers for all of that, and the Steelers clearly know it.

Regarding releasing the ball quickly, Bud Dupree said: "Just like last week with Alex Smith. They both do a great job of that — to get rid of the ball quick but still being productive. Tom Brady’s on a different level. He’s playing great. Even though he’s older, he’s still doing a great job right now. And we just have to continue to trust our game plan, trust our training, and just try to be the best team on the field."

Contact with Brady can be legal. The Texans' Jadeveon Clowney showed how last week:

Regarding reading off the safeties, Sean Davis said: "We’ve got to do a little bit of disguising. Can’t make it too easy for him. But I feel like, as long as we take care of us, then we’re good."

Beating Brady might be more than half the battle. But there's obviously more.

Or less.

Rob Gronkowski Gronked the Steelers as badly as any tight end had Gronked them all season in the October meeting — four catches, 93 yards and a pivotal touchdown — but he's done for the season to a back injury.

Old friend LeGarrette Blount had another 1,000-yard rushing season, but it's a good thing he had a head start. His past four games brought 31, 50, 51 and 31 yards on the ground. He's averaged just 2.7 yards on 60 carries in that span, a distance Le'Veon Bell's covering these days in his hover phase alone. Since his season-best 127-yard output at Heinz Field, he's topped 90 once in 10 games.

Intangibly, it's probably worth noting that he could be seen storming along the sideline in that Texans game last week, so, uh, hey, what if he just leaves this one early?

Sorry. Too easy.

Who am I forgetting now?

Oh, right: Julian Edelman is still awesome at pretty much everything but backtracking. Mr. Route Runner has exactly eight catches in five of his past eight games, including eight against the Texans for 137 yards and a catch-and-run of 48. He went end-around for another 12. The closest I can find to a negative here is that he's had 10 total targets that failed to connect in the past two games, a number no receiver would covet no matter the circumstance.

Defensively, the Patriots are as Mike Vrabel as ever, for lack of a better way to word it. Belichick doesn't seek out stars. He finds players to both fit and grasp his complex schemes, and he and hugely respected coordinator Matt Patricia deploy them like chess pieces. And their rankings would show that, a little like the Steelers, they bend but don't break.

That said, here's a complete list of all the quarterbacks they've beaten: Jones from the Steelers, Brock Osweiler twice, Tyrod Taylor once (but they also lost to him at home), Trevor Siemian, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Jared Goff, Colin Kaepernick, Ryan Tannehill, Matt Moore, Andy Dalton, Joe Flacco, Carson Palmer and some dude named Charlie Whitehurst, who presumably was plucked that morning from under some Cleveland bridge:

Charlie Whitehurst is pressured by the Patriots' Chris Long Oct. 9 in Cleveland. — GETTY

By my count, including our man Charlie, 10 of the Patriots' 15 wins came against quarterbacks who lost their jobs on merit at some point in the season.

Two-thirds! On merit!

I'd do a similar comparison on running backs except there's no point because there is no comparable in the NFL for what Bell is doing.

The Texans' Lamar Miller ran for 73 yards on 19 carries last week, including this 17-yarder in the third quarter:

And it's significant that Miller was effective even though the Patriots never had to prepare for Osweiler to do anything other than throw the ball to them, which he generously did three times.

Bell, in so many ways, is a challenge at another level. Belichick strongly suggested earlier this season that he might be harder to scheme than any player — not just running backs — in the league, and he hasn't exactly changed his mind.

"I think defensively he really forces you to be disciplined,” Belichick said this week. “You jump out of there too quickly, then you open up gaps and open up space. Le’Veon has a great burst through the hole. He doesn’t really need long to get through there. ... I mean, team defense is the only way to stop it. There’s no one guy that can stop him.”

That's to say nothing of an offensive line that just spent all Sunday night pummeling the Chiefs' front four and stealing their lunch money.

Convinced yet that the Patriots might not match up to the illusion?

No?

That's OK. As the preeminent mind of our time mused to reporters Wednesday when asked if he'd make another postgame Facebook Live video: "I guess you have to wait and see."