Instant Reaction: Patriots with a huge week two win over Steelers

The New England Patriots just closed out a huge week two win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in week two. What should we make of the game?  In what was a huge game to avoid falling to 0-2, the New England Patriots walked into Pittsburgh and beat the Mitchell Trubisky-led Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night.

It was a much, much cleaner game from New England.  Their defense held the Steelers to 243 total yards, and less than 100 rushing yards.  Trubisky was inefficient, throwing and interception.  The defense also had three sacks.

The Patriots, while not being efficient all day, did seem to have control of the game the entire afternoon.  Perhaps the best play of the game came on a Mac Jones bomb down the sideline that was hauled in by Nelson Agholor for a touchdown to close out the first half.

Agholor led the way with 110 receiving yards and a touchdown.  Jakobi Meyers also had nine catches for 95 yards.  Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back Najee Harris was held to just 49 yards on 15 carries, and average of 3.3 yards a pop.

The Steelers not having TJ Watt was a huge advantage for New England, and their ability to keep Mac Jones clean and also rush for 124 yards proved that.  New England was also 9/17 on third down, a higher than 50% tick, which is sensational.

They ran more plays and had a higher time of possession than the Patriots as well.  As was the case in week one, the defense did do plenty enough to win, but it was the offense who didn’t exactly have the best performance.  Sure, New England will be able to win games like this during the season, but it’s clear that their offense is going to need to pick up the pace a bit if the team wants to win more.

As I type these words, the Dolphins are down by three to the Ravens.  A loss here would then even the two team’s records at 1-1, and the Jets are 1-1 after this Sunday’s slate of games.  The New England Patriots’ play the Ravens next Sunday at 1PM.  It will be their home opener.