PITTSBURGH, Sporting Alert – Tom Brady continues to have the New England Patriots rolling, following their 27-16 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL Week 7 schedule on Sunday. Game Box Score
Brady, playing his third game since returning from a four-game suspension at the start of the season, completed 19 of 26 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns for New England (6-1).
“It was good to score like that and good to make plays in the second half that we needed to,” Brady said.
“They certainly made it tough on us.”
The veteran quarterback started brightly and went 13 of 18 on completed passes for 123 yards and one touchdown in the first half.
His two TD tosses on Sunday was the eighth for Brady since he returned to the lineup, and he is yet to throw an interception in three outings so far.
“Our execution, when it was good, we made a lot of plays,” added Brady.
Meanwhile, LeGarrette Blount, who took over in the second half, carried the ball 24 times for a season-high 127 yards and two scores for the Patriots, who were winning their third game in a row.
Sunday’s outing is a much-improved performance from his previous two games where he carried the ball a combined 31 times for 87 yards, including a season-low 37 yards rushing in the win against the Cleveland Browns.
Rob Gronkowski was targeted four times and the big tight end caught all four of them for 93 yards and a touchdown, despite being notably quiet in the first half.
Watch Patriots v Steeler Video Highlights
Julian Edelman had nine catches for 60 yards in the win for the New England Patriots.
“They played some nickel defense against Rob and Marty (Martellus Bennett, to try to take them away), but we able to get some good runs going with LG,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said.
“He made some tough yards, made some explosive runs. We needed that, particularly when they cut it to a (one)-point game … he made some big runs there to settle things down.”
Landry Jones completed 29 of 47 passes for 281 yards and one touchdown with an interception for the Pittsburgh Steelers (4-3).
Antonio Brown had seven catches for 106 yards and Le’Veon Bell ran 21 times for 81 yards and caught the ball 10 times for 68 yards for the Steelers, who scored just one touchdown in four trips to the red zone.
Pittsburgh also had 10 penalties for 85 yards in the defeat.
“You can’t waste red zone trips, you have to come off blocks and make tackles in the run game, you can’t give up explosion plays, we did,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
Watch Patriots v Steeler Video Highlights
“That’s why we lost.”
Bell added: “We got to the red zone and turned the ball over, and you can’t have that.
“It’s a small margin for error against a team like that.”
