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Steelers couldn't handle Brady and the Patriots

Category: NFL Published on Monday, 15 November 2010 07:59 Written by Janó Hits: 123

Tom Brady

The Patriots were a different team Sunday night in their victory over Pittsburghthan they were a week ago in Cleveland, or at any other point in the season.

This week they were emotional, boisterous and passionate. They came out fast and finished strong, consistently displaying a swagger that was absent from their game in previous weeks.

They took their cues for their leader, Tom Brady.

Throughout the game Brady displayed a fire that hasn’t been spotted this season. He pumped his first after touchdowns, screamed at his offensive line on the sidelines to fire them up and spiked the football after scoring on a quarterback sneak.

“There’s only one way to play the game, and it’s an emotional game,” Brady said. “I think part of being a quarterback is making sure that everyone’s into it and there’s a level of concentration and focus you need.”

Brady was highly animated throughout the game, but there was one moment in the second quarter that stood above the rest.

After being forced to punt for the second time, Brady went to the sidelines and began screaming at his offensive linemen, veins popping out of his neck, in an attempt to get them fired up and keep them in the game.

It worked.

“He was just trying to make sure that everyone was aware of the situation and making sure that everyone knows that game wasn’t over and that they could still come back,” center Logan Mankins said. “You come off a week like last week where we played so horrible and then come into a game like this and you have the lead, you don’t want it to slip away. You want to keep going.”

The offensive line kept the Steelers various defensive weapons at bay, allowing BenJarvus Green-Ellis to run for 87 yards as the Patriots combined for 103, the first time this season that a team has eclipsed 75 against the Steelers.

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