Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Martavis Bryant catches a pass beind New England Patriots cornerback Stephon Gilmore. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Steelers

Lolley: On the Patriots, Antonio Brown, bad rules

By Dale Lolley

Dec 19, 2017 • 12:00 am

I've purposely allowed this one to marinate a little while before writing about it.

Immediate thoughts are great. There's nothing wrong with some knee-jerk reactions. Sometimes they're dead-on. But in the case of the Patriots' 27-24 win over the Steelers two days ago, the immediate reaction was to say, "Oh well, the Steelers just can't beat the Patriots."

That, however, is just too simplistic and shows no creative thinking at all. Watching and then re-watching that game led me to the conclusion that the Steelers, overall, have a better team than the Patriots as currently constructed.

Don't think so? OK.

Take Rob Gronkowski out of that game four plays into the second quarter. Think the Patriots are in any position to win it at the end? I don't. In fact, without Gronkowski, the Patriots lose that game by at least 10 points.

That's comparable to what happened to the Steelers when Antonio Brown was knocked out with a calf injury. More on that later.

Yes, I realize the Patriots are playing without Julian Edelman. They have been all season. That's far different than losing a player around whom your game plan revolves in the middle of a game. The Patriots have had time to adjust to life without Edelman. The Steelers had to adjust on the fly to life without Brown.

And adjust they did. JuJu Smith-Schuster and Martavis Bryant both stepped into more prominent roles. And that's a very positive sign. Unlike Cobi Hamilton and Sammie Coates, the two players who lined up at receiver against the Patriots in last season's AFC Championship Game, the moment wasn't too big for Smith-Schuster or Bryant.

They made plays like this:

That's a much different result than Hamilton dropping a pass in the end zone, as he did in the AFC Championship.

Defensively, the Steelers kept New England in check for most of that game. Prior to their final possession, the Patriots had eight possessions that resulted in 19 points -- two touchdowns and two field goals. Tom Brady's passer rating was 87.6. The Steelers sacked him twice and hit him six other times. That led to five passes defensed. Those are all positive signs for a defense playing without Joe Haden and Ryan Shazier.

The Steelers won't get Shazier back, but they should get Haden back this week. Marcus Gilbert's suspension is now over, as well. Those are two pretty good players to add back to the mix.

Sure, New England will probably get some guys back, as well, receiver Chris Hogan chief among them. But Haden's return more than nullifies that.

The Steelers just need to figure out a solution for Gronkowski. They tried to match him up with Sean Davis, their biggest defensive back who plays regularly. But that obviously didn't work.

You can't double-team Gronkowski all the time. And, whether the armchair analysts want to believe it or not, they did double Gronkowski at times, such as the two-point conversion play:

Mike Mitchell is the double team. He breaks underneath to take away the quick slant. That means Davis should try to force Gronkowski inside, where he has help. Instead, Davis allows Gronkowski to beat him at the line of scrimmage and get outside.

Davis will certainly learn from this experience. He'd better. Because with Shazier out, the only other options the Steelers have in a potential rematch with the Patriots are to try T.J. Watt or 6-foot-3 rookie corner Brian Allen on him. And neither of those is as appealing as having Davis cover him.

Davis just has to play better than he did Sunday.

• I asked Mike Tomlin after the game how much losing Brown hurt his team. Typically, Tomlin would come back with the old "standard is the standard" line.

But in this case, he didn't.

"You know, it changes," Tomlin said. "AB is significant, but I thought that the guys did a nice job of adjusting and making plays, largely. When you lose somebody like AB, there is an adjustment."

The Steelers are fortunate Brown wasn't more severely injured in the end zone four plays into the second quarter. Initially, it appeared Brown had suffered shin-to-shin contact on the play and, perhaps, a broken leg. He was sent to the hospital to make sure he wasn't suffering from compartment syndrome, which is the buildup of pressure inside a muscle from severe bleeding. Former California University of Pa. safety Rontez Miles had it happen to him during a practice a couple of years ago while playing for the Jets and nearly lost his leg.

But Brown was in good spirits Monday, Tweeting:

even in adversity I can’t help but feel blessed. Thanks to everyone who reached out. This is a minor setback for me but not this team. The goal is still the same & I’m confident that we can & will achieve it. We may not have won the game yesterday but this TEAM made a statement. pic.twitter.com/L2drCGim2W
— Antonio Brown (@AB84) December 18, 2017

Brown is not expected to play the final two regular-season games, but if the Steelers do what is expected and win their final two games -- at Houston and at home against Cleveland -- they will have a bye, giving Brown a full month off before their next game.

He should be back and ready to play.

• Say what you will about the Steelers' last offensive series, but the blame for how the game ended falls on one person: Ben Roethlisberger.

Roethlisberger played a nearly flawless game Sunday, completing 22 of 30 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran three times for 10 yards, helping to convert 10 of 16 third downs. But it was his final pass, a ball he forced to Eli Rogers, that was his lone true mistake in the game. And it was a big one.

Roethlisberger gave a convoluted explanation for what transpired after the game, first saying he wanted to spike the ball to stop the clock and run another play but that he was told by the coaching staff to run a fake spike. Had Roethlisberger spiked the ball, it would have been fourth down and the Steelers would have had to attempt a tying field goal. Then, Roethlisberger said the play wasn't a fake spike, when he clearly faked the spike.

He did also take the blame for not throwing the ball away. But running a play in that situation was the right call.

As for those who think the Steelers should have called two plays while Jesse James' touchdown was being reviewed and then overturned, that's really tough to do in that situation.

Todd Haley has no idea what is going to transpire on second down from the 10. It's not like calling a play from midfield. If, for example, the Steelers gained 9 yards on the play, you're not going to call a play you had called from the 10. The same holds true if Roethlisberger gets sacked and you're facing third-and-17.

As it was, Roethlisberger threw a check-down pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey on a crossing route -- no, he was not the first, second or third option -- because the Patriots understandably dropped their coverage into the end zone. And Heyward-Bey didn't get out of bounds.

Then, this transpired:

The Patriots had seen Roethlisberger do that before, most notably with Brown against the Cowboys last season, but Roethlisberger didn't have Brown available this time.

Rogers did what he was supposed to do, which was run a slant. He's typically the slot receiver. They're not going to ask him to run a fade, which would have been Brown's play in that situation.

The argument that everyone else stood still and therefore didn't know what was going on doesn't hold water. Watch how it happened against the Cowboys last season, thanks to WDVE's Bill Crawford:

When they actually plan to do it and have a play designed, Ben is pretty good at the fake spike. pic.twitter.com/9fxkc3wgjl
— Bill Crawford (@dveBillCrawford) December 19, 2017

On the play against Dallas, everyone sells the spike by just standing up, except Brown, who takes off down the field. It looks just like the play against the Patriots.

Roethlisberger has to see it's not there and throw the ball away.

And unlike what color analyst Tony Romo said on the broadcast, you're not throwing the fade to Rogers.

• The officials got the call right on James' catch that was overturned.

Per the rules, James did not complete the catch when he hit the ground. It's a bad rule, one that has proven costly to other teams over the years. But it's the rule. And these guys are professionals. They know they have to keep possession of the ball through the ground.

James didn't do that.

It's a bad rule. And it's been adjudicated differently over the course of the past few seasons to the point where nobody knows what a catch is or not.

Maybe the league will change the rule in the offseason, but in James' situation, the ball moves in his hands and hits the ground. That's not a catch in the NFL.

Referee Tony Corrente doesn't make that call, by the way. The ruling comes from the league office on all replays. Corrente is just the messenger.

• Despite Brown being out, the Steelers controlled the clock and Bell did pretty much whatever he wanted out there. That's a positive sign for the Steelers moving forward. Bell had 24 carries for 117 yards and a touchdown, also catching five passes for 48 yards.

All apologies to Gronkowski, Le'Veon Bell was the best offensive weapon on the field. And if I'm Bill Belichick, I'm really hoping I don't have to see the Steelers again in the playoffs.

One problem arose out of this game, however. Bell's backup, James Conner, suffered an MCL injury that will require surgery and likely end his season. Look for the Steelers to sign Terrell Watson off their practice squad and place Conner on IR. That means Bell's backups will be Fitzgerald Toussaint and Watson the remainder of the year.

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