Patriots vs. Steelers: Full Report Card Grades for New England

It wasn't pretty, but the New England Patriots found a way to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-16. 

The Steelers didn't have star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but it didn't matter as Le'Veon Bell picked up the slack on offense and gave the Patriots fits trying to stop him. 

Ugly play across multiple positional groups marred an otherwise good win on the road in hostile Pittsburgh. It felt as though the Patriots kept finding ways to shoot themselves in the foot. Despite picking up the win, Bill Belichick is going to be one grumpy head coach while traveling back to Foxborough. 

The Patriots struggled to maintain momentum throughout the game, but came up with the big plays when they needed them. 

There's a lot to clean up after such a sloppy game, yet in the end, a win is a win. The Patriots are sitting at 6-1 ahead of a rematch against the Buffalo Bills, seeking revenge over the team that handed them their only loss of the season. 

Read on for the grades in the Patriots' road victory over the Steelers that keeps them in first place in the AFC.

Quarterback

Don Wright/Associated Press

The Clydesdale was at his finest against the Steelers, even doing it with his feet on a few plays. Tom Brady didn't rack up a ton of yardage on the ground, but he is moving better than ever. 

Ten years ago, Brady looked like he was stuck in the mud and moving in slow motion when he attempted to make a play with his feet to either extend a play or pick up some yardage. At 39 years old, Brady looks younger than ever, extending multiple plays and even picking up two first downs with his legs. 

As for his arm, Brady had just seven incompletions. He didn't attempt 35 passes like he did last week, but a 19-for-26 performance for 222 yards and two touchdowns is a solid stat line. What's more impressive is that Brady still hasn't thrown an interception against the Steelers since 2006. 

Brady also stepped into some big throws to Rob Gronkowski and had some impeccable timing on quick routes to Julian Edelman. 

Brady didn't post a 400-yard game, but he delivered with a victory in a game where the rushing attack was a focal point of the offense. 

Grade: A

Running Back

Jared Wickerham/Associated Press

This was a Blount Force Trauma revenge game against the team LeGarrette Blount quit in 2014 before rejoining the Patriots a week later. 

Blount carried a major workload in his first game against the Steelers since that messy breakup two seasons ago. And he was lights-out awesome for the entirety of the game. 

Instead of running laterally as we have seen in the past, Blount ran with total decisiveness and a sense of power that we haven't seen out of him for an entire game. Some nice cuts and good vision while keeping the legs moving sprung Blount free for a few runs of 10-plus yards en route to 127 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns.

The best part of Blount's performance was that he finished with 5.3 yards per carry. Blount still leads the NFL in runs for no gain or negative yardage, but this game was a move in the right direction.

As for the receiving game, James White hauled in a touchdown off a perfectly executed screen pass where he burst into the end zone. Yet, Brandon Bolden had the worst drop of the day on a key, short third-down conversion attempt in the first quarter. 

Grade: A

Wide Receiver

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It sure is nice to see Julian Edelman back at it again with his sharp cuts and flawless route-running skills. Edelman didn't look like himself over the past few weeks.

To be clear, Edelman did most of his damage on offense while matching up against linebacker Lawrence Timmons—not exactly a tough assignment in terms of his coverage skills. 

Regardless, Edelman notched a season-high nine receptions for 60 yards. While Edelman did have one horrible drop where he had all the real estate in the world to work with after the catch, the play would have been negated anyway due to Shaq Mason being flagged for holding. In the end, a drop is a drop, and that one stung as it came on third down. 

An unspoken area where Edelman shined was with his blocking. Edelman might be one of the best blocking wide receivers in the NFL. He landed his blocks and occupied space, especially on one outside run by Blount where Edelman took out three players. 

Sorry, Chris Hogan, but you ended up in Belichick's doghouse after a fumble to spoil the team's opening drive. It was a close call, but a fumble is a fumble, and in the Patriots' world, that is one of the biggest sins. 

Grade: B

Tight End

Jared Wickerham/Associated Press

Sometimes the Patriots have to thank their lucky stars that Rob Gronkowski is healthy and a total beast who can bail them out of some sticky situations. 

Just as the game was getting close and rather interesting, Rob Gronkowski hauled in a 37-yard catch where he torched his man in coverage with a hard cut and was off to the races. Gronk looked like he was ready to throw everyone out of the club on that one play. With four catches for 93 yards, including his second Gronk-spike touchdown of the season, he put the team on his back in the second half. 

Gronk's buddy Martellus Bennett had a quiet day on the other hand. Just one catch for five yards on a third-and-very-long doesn't light up the stat sheet, but the unstoppable force of Bennett and Gronk causes so much havoc for opposing defenses. Edelman has Bennett and Gronk to thank for his matchups with Timmons. 

As for blocking, Gronk was essential in the ground game, setting the edge firmly for Blount to escape to the next level on runs. 

Sometimes catches and yards aren't the determining factors for tight ends. This week is an example of that. The attention that they draw helped the team to a win, and that raises the grade to high levels once again. 

Grade: A

Offensive Line

Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

Woof. Ouch. Yikes. 

Tom Brady didn't hit the deck in this game, a positive for the offensive line. Brady did go down for one sack, but it was for no gain instead of a loss. But this game was a disaster for the offensive line when it came to penalties. 

The offensive line was called for five holding calls (three were accepted). Nate Solder picked up flags on two consecutive plays, reaffirming the feeling that when Solder gets penalized, it always comes in bunches.

Joe Thuney, who had a great game from a blocking standpoint, continued his spree of picking up flags when he was called for a false start.

Shaq Mason also had a bad holding penalty that would have taken away a huge play that could have turned this game into a blowout early on if Edelman hadn't dropped the pass

On the bright side, the Steelers only hit Brady three times during the game and the pass protection as a whole wasn't too bad. 

On the even brighter side, the Patriots set the edges and created space for Blount to work with. 

But the penalties are inexcusable. 

Grade: C+

Defensive Line

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Forget Carmen Sandiego. Where in the world is the Patriots' pass rush?

Seriously, the pass rush is either completely dead or it's missing and just waiting to be found. Part of the issue is that the Patriots aren't rushing more than three defensive linemen on a lot of plays. Still, Chris Long, Jabaal Sheard and the interior of the line are doing absolutely nothing against opposing offensive lines. 

Landry Jones had all the time in the world, and while it may have been a coaching decision to let Jones make mistakes against a loaded group of defensive backs, it was an ugly sight watching this defensive line attempt to go to work. 

So, in case you didn't know, Le'Veon Bell is really, really good and he's really, really patient at running. But, the Patriots gave him too much space to work with. 

Ultimately the disappearing act of the pass rush was so frustrating to watch that it destroyed the group's grade this week, even though Bell was held to 3.9 yards per carry—well below his season average of over 5 yards per carry. 

Grade: C

Linebacker

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It's nice to see that the Patriots have three linebackers and only use two on the field in most situations, allowing Jamie Collins and Dont'a Hightower to rest periodically instead of being worked to the bone. 

Despite being gassed at one point of the game when the Steelers were in total control of the football, Collins, Hightower and Roberts played well. 

Collins drew a key holding call that took away a Steelers touchdown in the second quarter and chipped in with eight tackles, which were all solo stops. 

The linebackers were put to use in trying to stop Le'Veon Bell in the receiving game. While Bell had 10 catches, which were all checkdowns or screens, the linebackers stepped up to limit the damage that Bell can do when he gets into open space. Bell was held to 68 receiving yards, which stymied his performance to 6.8 yards per catch. That's called getting the job done. 

A lot of the linebacker issues were likely related to the coaching scheme, as there were no opportunities to make a play in the pass rush other than Collins drawing one holding call on the edge. 

Grade: B

Secondary

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Malcolm Butler must have been waiting for this matchup against Antonio Brown. In Week 1 last season, Butler displayed excellent coverage on Brown, but Brown still got the best of him because he is Antonio Brown—one of the best receivers in the league.

In their second contest, Butler looked like an elite cornerback. Sure, Brown still racked up some serious yardage, but he is going to do that because, like I said, he is Antonio Brown. 

Butler's big interception at the start of the game was partly a gift from Landry Jones who made a horrendous throw, but Butler was in perfect position for the pick. Brown only torched Butler on one route, and it would have beaten every cornerback in the league. 

The unsung hero of the secondary was Patrick Chung, who wore his heart on his sleeve. Chung led the team in tackles with 11 total tackles, including seven solo tackles. Chung had a great pass breakup in the end zone on a Le'Veon Bell deep route, too. Then, Chung nearly picked off an errant throw by Landry Jones late in the game. 

Justin Coleman stepped up to make a nice tackle in space late in the game. Eric Rowe got the start as the No. 2 corner and gave up a touchdown to Darrius Heyward-Bey, but he did look like he is making some major improvements and could be essential to this secondary for specific matchups. 

Grade: A-

Special Teams

David Richard/Associated Press

The wheels fell off of the Patriots special teams. 

Self-inflicted wounds were the story of the day, so let's run through them all. 

1. Ryan Allen shanked a punt that went a whopping 25 yards.
2. Brandon Bolden stopped his pursuit of a punt that could have been downed inside the 5-yard line. He thought he was out of bounds while touching the football, but alas, Bolden let the ball bounce into the end zone—a significant gift of yardage to the Steelers offense, especially at the end of the half. 
3. Stephen Gostkowski missed an extra point, so the alarms are sounding at full blast on the Patriots kicker.
4. Julian Edelman fumbled on a punt return right when the Patriots were looking to put the game out of reach. 

Allen saves the team from the worst grade possible with his punt that should have been downed inside the five.

It was a flurry of bad plays on special teams and frankly, it was one of the worst all-around special teams performances I have seen from New England in recent years. 

Grade: D-

Coaching

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This game had second-half adjustments written all over it, but they never really came. 

The first mistake of the game for the coaching staff came from defensive coordinator Matt Patricia. The Patriots didn't have a pass rush, possibly didn't attempt to have a pass rush and didn't make life tough for an inexperienced and sub-par backup quarterback.

Landry Jones was never under duress, but he still made mistakes that hepled to bail out the coaches. It was disappointing to see Jones have so much time to make throws. It felt like a game where the Patriots really could have used a pass rush to put the contest of reach early on.

Let's just say there were a lot of angry fans ripping into the Patriots' scheme to not use a pass rush. This was most evident on the Heyward-Bey touchdown when the Patriots rushed three lineman—and "rushed" is a loose term there. 

The coaching staff did a great job of taking advantage of the Timmons-Edelman matchup on offense. Edelman clearly won those battles, and they needed to get the ball to him. 

The other great coaching decision was to establish the run game. Blount was dominant and the run scheme worked perfectly against the Steelers' defensive front. 

Grade: B-