NFL Recap (New England-Pittsburgh)
Posted: Sun December 6, 1998 at 6:15 p.m. EST
NEW ENGLAND 23, PITTSBURGH 9
PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The New England Patriots did
not need to rely on Drew
Bledsoe and his broken finger. Instead, they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers with
Adam Vinatieri's foot
and Robert Edwards'
legs.
The Patriots kept pace in the tight AFC East race with a 23-9 victory
over the Steelers, winning at Pittsburgh for the first time since 1986.
New England plays St. Louis and San Francisco from the NFC before visiting
the New York Jets to
close the season.
"This is a fine win for our club, to come in against Pittsburgh, a
very good team, and knock them off," Patriots coach Pete Carroll said. "We
understand we have three huge games coming up on our schedule. There is an
enormous one coming up next, and that's what we're going to be focused on."
New England's third straight victory required no late-game dramatics
by Bledsoe, who shook off a broken finger to engineer late game-winning
drives in each of the last two contests. Wearing a protective wrap on his
right index finger, Bledsoe completed 21-of-33 passes for 327 yards, a
touchdown and three interceptions.
"Drew had some problems with his finger today," Carroll said. "The
ball started flying on him. He had a hard time controlling it. They made
an adjustment on his brace and he came back and did a nice job."
"Early in the second half I kind of lost it for a while," said
Bledsoe. "We had to experiment until we found what would work. Everything
worked better and I could put the ball in the vicinity of where it was
supposed to be."
Vinatieri, who ran for an uncontested two-point conversion in last
week's controversial win over Buffalo, kicked field goals of 21, 29 and 35
yards. Edwards, a rookie, carried 28 times for 66 yards and a crucial
fourth-quarter touchdown as he outrushed Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis.
Terry Glenn had
nine catches for a career-high 193 yards and a score and Ty Law had a key
interception and deflection to end drives by the Steelers (7-6), who fell
two games behind first-place Jacksonville in the AFC Central.
"Terry Glenn continues to show how important he is to our club,"
Carroll said. "He had a monster game today. He did an excellent job for
us."
It was another inconsistent performance by Pittsburgh's Kordell Stewart, who was
21-of-45 for 206 yards and two interceptions. He was sacked three times as
his passes again lacked touch and he was unable to direct a TD drive.
"It's a collective thing," Stewart said. "I can't say anything until
I go back and watch the films. I just think we all have to go back and
take a hard look at it. The most frustrating thing is we know what we
have."
"I'm very disappointed in how we played," said Steelers coach Bill
Cowher, whose club visits Tampa Bay next week. "We're going to find out a
lot about ourselves, this whole football team. We're going to sit down,
look at it and make some decisions accordingly."
Norm Johnson kicked
three field goals for Pittsburgh, including a 43-yarder with 8:34 left in
the third quarter. The kick came seven plays after Chris Oldham returned an
interception of Bledsoe to the New England 46.
But it was all Patriots thereafter. On the final play of the third
quarter, Stewart threw a pass behind Charles Johnson that
bounced off the receiver's hands and was intercepted by Law, who returned
it 10 yards to the Steelers 18. His eight pickoffs lead the NFL.
Vinatieri kicked a 35-yarder to restore the seven-point lead, and
Bettis' fumble on Pittsburgh's next possession was pounced on by safety Lawyer Milloy at the
Steelers 35. A 28-yard pass interference penalty against linebacker Levon Kirkland set up the
Pats at the 4 and Edwards banged it in for his 10th TD of the season,
giving New England a 23-9 bulge with 9:20 to go.
The Steelers still had time to get back in it after Bledsoe was
intercepted by Earl
Holmes with 4:20 to go, but Stewart came up short on consecutive
possessions. On 4th-and-goal from the 9, his pass to Hines Ward was knocked
down by Law at the goal line. On the next drive, he was picked off at the 6
by Steve Israel.
"I haven't picked off Kordell since we've been playing together," said
Law, a native of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. "I'm just happy I got an
interception in front of the hometown crowd."
Ben Coates caught
six passes for 78 yards for the Patriots, who overcame 12 penalties by
holding the ball for over 38 minutes and limiting the Steelers to 249 total
yards.
Bettis gained 48 yards on 12 carries and Charles Johnson added 61 on
five catches for Pittsburgh, which managed only 13 first downs.
"It's just making a play," Cowher said. "We had some chances and we
didn't do it. New England had three big pass plays. At some point, you
have to make a play, and we have not done that."
"We didn't get it done offensively," Bettis said. "We got down a
couple of times and couldn't move the football. It created problems for us
because we were unable to score touchdowns. Late in the game we made some
mistakes -- an interception, I fumbled the football. When you do that
against a playoff-quality football team, you don't give yourself a chance
to win."
Glenn had catches of 11 and 43 yards that led to Vinatieri's 21-yard
field goal in the first quarter. He booted a 29-yarder less than seven
minutes later that was set up by an 18-yard run by Edwards.
The Steelers finally got untracked with a 52-yard march that led to
Norm Johnson's season-best 49-yard kick with 2:58 left in the first half.
But on the second play after the ensuing kickoff, Bledsoe found Glenn
behind the secondary for an 86-yard TD, the fourth-longest pass play in
franchise history.
"The throw to Terry Glenn on the corner route that went for a
touchdown was an exceptional throw," Carroll said. "Drew had to throw the
ball at the last possible second."
"The offensive line did a good job," Bledsoe said. "I could stand
back there all day today. When I have that kind of time, I should be
effective. I wasn't particularly accurate."
Stewart directed the two-minute offense to a 26-yard field goal by
Johnson seven seconds before halftime, pulling Pittsburgh within 13-6.
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