Patriots 34, Steelers 13: Pats Still Unbeaten

The smart money turned out to be quite wrong this week. When the line initially came out for this game, the Pats were around a 13 point favorite. Not so fast said the experts; New England looked vulnerable against Baltimore and Philadelphia, so playing a difficult Pittsburgh team meant the line was quickly bet down to 10 and a half. Turned out that not only was the smart money wrong, but so was Anthony Smith, who had guaranteed a Steelers win earlier in the week.

New England took what was once a close game at 14-13 in the 2nd quarter, and ran away with it by scoring 20 unanswered points. Tom Brady, who had already connected on a pair of touchdown passes to Randy Moss, started to carve up the Steelers defense, throwing for two more scores, one to Jabar Gaffney, and the other to Wes Welker. New England's unbalanced attack was prevalent once again; they passed for 399 yards, and ran for merely 22. Tom Brady's touchdown to interception ratio is now incredibly impressive at 45:5, with target Randy Moss at 19 touchdowns, on pace to break Jerry Rice's record of 22. Moss also let a ball go through his hands in the end zone that would have been his third TD catch of the day.

Much credit needs to go to the Patriots defense for their performance. Despite allowing around 350 yards on the day, they only surrendered 13 points. What was most impressive about the Patriots was their ability to shut the Steelers out in the second half. Pittsburgh only committed one turnover, moving the ball into New England territory twice in the second half. Both times, the Patriots stopped the Steelers on downs, epitomizing a bend-don't-break defense. In the end, the Steelers proved they can hang with the Pats for 30 minutes, but not quite 60. For the Patriots, they proved once again that they are head-and-shoulders above everyone in the NFL, and that perfection is only three short weeks away.