Tom Brady and New England Patriots Will Expose Pittsburgh Steelers' Secondary

Tom Brady hasn't struggled against the Pittsburgh Steelers the way other quarterbacks have, and 2011 doesn't look to be any different.

Sure, the Steelers rank first in pass defense, but that's a misleading stat. Teams have actually been very efficient passing the ball on them, with an 80.98 passer rating overall against them that is primarily the result of a league-worst two interceptions. They're also not getting after quarterbacks quite like they usually do, with just 17 sacks in seven games.

The Steelers have had stout defensive performances against the likes of Blaine Gabbert, Kerry Collins/Curtis Painter and Kevin Kolb.

But this isn't so much about the numbers as Brady's overall dominance of Dick LeBeau's defense over the past decade. The Steelers are very much a team that lines up and does their thing; they don't change much from week to week and they don't throw a whole lot of new wrinkles into their game plan.

Just the type of opponent the Patriots eat for breakfast. The best way to beat the Patriots is to keep them guessing, but when the Patriots don't have to expect the unexpected, they are dangerous.

When asked if it's safe to say the Steelers don't change much year-to-year schematically on defense, Belichick answered, "Yeah, I'd say that and why should they? They lead the league in defense every year."

He's right—what the Steelers do on defense works for them consistently. Just not against the Patriots. For whatever reason, Brady and Belichick have cracked the LeBeau code of zone blitzes, and Brady has torched the Steelers in the past two meetings (2007 and 2010 regular season), going 62-of-89 for 749 yards, seven touchdowns, no interceptions and a 121.4 passer rating.

To put that in perspective, the Steelers had a defensive passer rating of 74.6 in '07 and 70.8 in '10.

The stats aren't too promising for Pittsburgh, but the matchups are almost even less favorable. As has been the case for years, they still don't have great cornerbacks, but get most of their production on pass defense from their front seven, which is notorious for harassing passers.

With James Harrison out for this game, their best pure pass rusher won't even be on the field, but that's just one of their problems. More than any of that, on an individual matchups basis, the Patriots out-man Pittsburgh across the board.

Remember Rob Gronkowski's huge game against them last year (5 catches, 72 yards, 3 touchdowns)? Aaron Hernandez didn't touch the ball once. If the Steelers want to take away Gronkowski, they'll be opening up a can of worms with Hernandez who has been a much smarter football player in his second year and isn't relying as much on his physical talents to help him win matchups.

Oh, and then there's Wes Welker, who is on record-setting paces this year and warrants double teams and game planning on a week-in week-out basis.

The way New England's offense is playing right now, the way they have dominated Pittsburgh in recent years and the way they match up against the Steelers are all indications that point to New England piling up a lot of yards and scoring a lot of points. It could be up to Pittsburgh's offense to keep up.

Erik Frenz is the co-host of the PatsPropaganda and Frenz podcast. Follow Erik on Twitter @ErikFrenz.