FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It was a David Byrne kind of night for the Steelers.
You know, "Same as it ever was."
The Steelers walked into Gillette Stadium Sunday night with their heads held high. Their confidence solid. And with a renewed sense of teamwork following an offseason turmoil-free, Antonio Brown-free unity.
None of it mattered. The Patriots raised their sixth Super Bowl banner before this game, then set about dismantling the Steelers, 33-3, here before a rabid crowd whipped into an even bigger frenzy over the news the local team had agreed to terms with the aforementioned Brown.
That will be announced sometime today. In the meantime, the Patriots will bask in the glory of this latest victory over the Steelers in Foxborough -- the sixth with Tom Brady at the helm in the regular season -- while the Steelers will spend the week wondering what in the wide, wide world of sports just happened.
"We got our butts whooped today," Cam Heyward said. "There were a lot of mistakes. It falls on us. We had a good plan, but we didn't execute it well. When you do that against a Super Bowl-winning team ..."
Yeah. You lose.
Brady completed 24 of 36 passes for 341 yards and three touchdowns, two to Phillip Dorsett, a guy who could be relegated to being inactive in future weeks after the Patriots get Brown up to speed.
In the meantime, the Steelers did little offensively to help out, leaving the defense on the field for way too long, especially in the first half when the Patriots built a 20-0 lead.
The Steelers were 1 for 6 on third downs in the first half and didn't cross midfield until late in the half, when they went for it on fourth-and-1 from the New England 47 at the two-minute warning.
But Ben Roethlisberger and Donte Moncrief -- who had at least five of the 10 passes thrown his way in this game in his hands only to drop them or have them knocked free -- couldn't connect on a short pass, turning the ball over on downs.
"We just couldn't convert on third downs," said Roethlisberger who finished with 276 passing yards, many of which came late in the game long after it had been decided.
"We couldn't get drives. We couldn't sustain things. That's partly on us and partly on them."
It's a similar story to previous games played here. The Steelers just can't beat Brady in Foxborough. He's now thrown 21 touchdown passes against them in six career regular season games with no interceptions.
With the offense failing to stay on the field in the first half -- when the Patriots held a 17:15-12:45 advantage in time of possession -- it was only a matter of time before Brady found the weak spots.
The Steelers had their best scoring chance earlier in the quarter when Roethlisberger connected with James Washington down the sideline for a 45-yard gain to the New England 18 on the opening possession of the second half.
But after getting first-and-goal at the 6 and then getting a four-yard run by James Conner to the 1, the Steelers faced third down. Roethlisberger threw a fade to Moncrief that was way off target.
The Steelers kicked a field goal to make it 20-3, but it felt like a loss.
"We wanted a little positivity," Mike Tomlin attempted to explain. "We didn't have enough positivity to that point. We wanted to get points, you know, get things going. I that that all got nullified by the big play we gave up on the subsequent drive.
And then some, as Brady finally figured out a spot where he could go after the Steelers defense for a big play.
In this case, it was first-year free safety Kameron Kelly, making his first career start in place of injured Sean Davis.
Brady hit Dorsett down the seam for a 58-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, then connected with Josh Gordon for a 44-yard gain later in the quarter to set up a field goal.
"There were some miscommunications on those," Kelly said. "We beat ourselves. But they played a good game.
"I knew they were going to come after me a bit. But I've got to play better. It wasn't really anything they did. We beat ourselves. That happens. And when you play against somebody like Brady, you can't have those. He'll take advantage of every little slip up."
And he did. Same as he always does, at least at Gillette Stadium, sending the Steelers to an opening-game loss.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
CHANGE UPS
Remember how the Steelers came out against the Patriots in the AFC Championship here at the end of the 2016 season and primarily ran zone defense?
The idea was to play more man defense against Brady and the Steelers did that in this game.
But the Patriots ran a lot of crossing routes over the middle of the field that relied on picks or offensive players just beating their defensive counterparts to a spot.
"We pretty much stayed in man coverage the whole game," said corner Mike Hilton. "You really can't run zone against those types of guys. You have to give them credit. They made plays when they needed to."
The Steelers weren't necessarily surprised with anything the Patriots did offensively. They just found themselves unable to stop it.
"I can't say they did (anything we hadn't seen on film), we just got beat," said Mark Barron, who played exclusively as the dime linebacker when the Steelers went to that package. You have to be mature enough to understand this is the beginning of the season and it's a great learning experience. You learn from this. It stinks. Nobody here likes getting beaten like that. I'm sure we'll bounce back from it."
THE INJURIES
• T.J. Watt (hip, did not return)
• JuJu Smith-Schuster (ankle, did not return)
• Maurkice Pouncey (ankle, did not return)
• Joe Haden (shoulder, returned)
• Sean Davis (ankle, DNP)
THE NOTES
The Patriots finished with 465 total yards. The Steelers had 308, but just 32 came on the ground on 13 carries. ... The Patriots were 0-3 in the red zone scoring touchdowns. The Steelers were 0-1. ... Devin Bush, playing in his first game, led the Steelers with 11 tackles. ... Bud Dupree had the Steelers' lone sack. ... T.J. Watt led the Steelers with three quarterback hits. They had five in the game. ... The Patriots had nine passes defended, including three by Jason McCourty.
THE SCHEDULE
The Steelers will return to the field next Sunday when they host the Seahawks in their regular-season opener. In the meantime, they'll have a team meeting and locker room availability from 1:15 to 2 p.m Monday.
THE COVERAGE
All our football content can be found on our team page.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers at Patriots, Foxborough, Mass., Sept. 8, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
