[mavsman55]

Patriots perfect no more
Sunday, October 31, 2004
By BOB LABRIOLA

PITTSBURGH -- It was Halloween night, and the masks were supposed to come off. There was the one team with a 5-1 record fashioned against a ho-hum array of the NFL’s middle-of-the-pack teams, and there was the other team that came to town wearing the Super Bowl rings and owning the longest winning streak in NFL history.

There was the quarterback who was only a rookie, and there was a coach on the other side whose ability to plot and scheme was certain to make the rookie finally look like a rookie.

But when it was all over, and the largest crowd in Heinz Field history vaporized into the night, it was the New England Patriots who were no longer perfect, all because of a rookie quarterback who still is.

Ben Roethlisberger, who now is 5-0 as the Steelers starting quarterback, drove his team to four scores following four Patriots turnovers, and in the process he dramatically outplayed two-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady. Add it all up, and the Steelers ended the Patriots' 21-game winning streak with a remarkably easy 34-20 victory.

The Patriots (6-1) had won 21 straight counting the playoffs and a league-record 18 in a row in the regular season, but they were all but out of this one after Roethlisberger threw two touchdown passes to Plaxico Burress during a 21-point Steelers first quarter.

"The first thing I want to do is congratulate the New England Patriots," said Coach Bill Cowher. "Anybody who has been in this business long enough, what they have accomplished to this point is absolutely phenomenal. We were fortunate today, and at some point the streak was going to end. The crowd was great.

"We had some big plays, we got some turnovers but that is one fine football team. And my hat goes off to Bill Belichick and that whole team. It’s a class-act team. We were just a fortunate football team today and it certainly was a big win for us."

The big plays, the early takeaways that killed the Patriots, were authored by Joey Porter and Deshea Townsend.

After Roethlisberger connected with Burress for that first touchdown and a 7-3 Steelers lead, Porter got to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to sack him and force the fumble that Kimo von Oelhoffen recovered at the New England 27-yard line.

Four runs by Duce Staley got the ball close, and then Roethlisberger again hooked up with Burress, who made an acrobatic catch in the end zone for a 14-3 Steelers lead.

"Joey played a very inspired game," said Cowher. "This is just a group of guys that it seems like every week it’s somebody different. Chris Hoke has stepped in and Willie Williams stepped in. I thought that they did a great job. It’s just a close football team, a bunch of guys that if someone goes down, so be it, someone else will step in and make a play."

But Porter wasn’t finished. Before the game was over, he’d have three sacks and two forced fumbles, both of which were recovered by the Steelers and both of which resulted in touchdowns. The pressure on Brady was so consistent that at one point late in the first half, his passer rating for the game was 15.2.

At about the same point in the game, Roethlisberger’s passer rating was a perfect 154.5.

"Ben has done a good job, there is no question about it, but he has a good supporting cast," said Cowher. "I can’t say enough about the offensive line. They came at us with blitzes, which we picked up and he made some big throws. But you look at that second half, and if we don’t control the ball, they were scary because they were moving the ball. They took the ball down at the end of the first half and they had that drive with six minutes left and they were only down two scores.

"I thought in the third and fourth quarters with what our offense did just controlling the football, my hat just goes off to our offensive line, for what they did. To me, they were the difference in this football game."

The Steelers offense indeed dominated the line of scrimmage, and the rushing totals and time of possession statistics bear that out. Duce Staley rushed for 125 yards and average 5.o per attempt, while Jerome Bettis converted his eighth straight goal-to-go situation and added 65 yards on 15 carries.

"It was never about the streak, that was never part of our preparation," linebacker Mike Vrabel said. "It wasn't this week against the Steelers, either -- we just didn't play well enough to win, that's it."

This was supposed to be the game that exposed Roethlisberger as a rookie -- taking on New England's defensive mastermind, coach Bill Belichick, and the Patriots' unpredictable defenses. Instead, Roethlisberger ran his own winning streak to 18 -- his last 13 games at Miami of Ohio and his first five in the NFL.

Only former Steelers quarterback Mike Kruczek's 6-0 start while subbing for the injured Terry Bradshaw in 1976 is longer than Roethlisberger's since the 1970 NFL merger. But Kruczek never threw a touchdown pass in 10 games that season.

Roethlisberger already has nine scoring passes in what is fast becoming the best season by an NFL rookie quarterback since Dan Marino threw 20 touchdown passes and only six interceptions in 11 games for the 1983 Dolphins.

Maybe Dallas coach Bill Parcells wasn’t blowing smoke after all.

"You can't describe his effort," Hines Ward said. "He's 5-0, and he's earning a lot of respect on this team. The guys on this team are fighting hard for him."

Rather than Roethlisberger, it was Brady who looked like the rookie in New England's first loss since a 20-17 defeat to Washington on Sept. 28, 2003.

"It's not weird at all (to lose), we knew it was a possibility every week," Tedy Bruschi said. "That's why we played so hard and prepared so hard every week. But a couple of things happened, a couple of mistakes ... and they were rolling."

"It was pretty obvious the Steelers were the better team," Belichick said. "They outcoached us, outplayed us and we weren't good in any phase of the game. We didn't do much of anything right."