Death, taxes and Tom Brady beating the Steelers at Gillette Stadium. Few things in life are guaranteed, but these are the exceptions.
Brady did lose to the Steelers last year and barely escaped in 2017, but those were games at Heinz Field. The only time the Steelers have come within a possession of Brady was when they scored garbage points against the Patriots at Gillette in the 2015 season opener when they lost 27-21.
But there's a recipe to the destruction the six-time Super Bowl champion quarterback imposes on the Steelers each time. It seems simple with the ease that he has beaten the Steelers over the years, but it takes several steps for Brady to be as consistent as he's been. Let's take a closer look:
Brady often finds ways to work mismatches or favorable situations against the Steelers' defense when given enough opportunities. Some of those situations are created by route combinations that make it difficult for defenders in man coverage to stick with their assignments.
This is why the Patriots are frequent users of rub and pick routes. When they recognize a defense is in man coverage, they'll use certain receivers to bump off defenders from following their intended targets.
That happened to rookie Devin Bush when he tried to trail Rex Burkhead across the field on a drag route in the first quarter. Watch how tight end Ryan Izzo runs up and stands directly in Bush's path while lowering a shoulder to deliver the pick. The pick is the only thing that frees up Burkhead, which allows him to convert the first Patriots first down of the game:
Some rookies have big hits, interceptions or fumbles that are their "welcome to the league" moments. But when facing the Patriots, Bush's was a mild bump that avoided detection which prevented him from covering his man. But that's just what the Patriots do, force you to consider every possible threat.
What was disconcerting for the Steelers' defense was how those types of disruptions worked on several defenders, and Brady recognized it several times. Even Joe Haden, the hero who intercepted Brady last year in their victory against the Patriots, got caught in those predicaments.
Watch how Brady dissects the defense on this third-down conversion. Brady puts Phillip Dorsett in motion to line up inside the X receiver, Josh Gordon. When Haden trails Dorsett on the motion, this tells Brady the Steelers are in man coverage. Once he realizes this, he knows Gordon's slant will drive Steven Nelson far enough back that he's in Haden's way. This allows Dorsett the space for an easy catch and run to convert:
Last year the Steelers were ready for these types of switches in coverage by the time they played the Patriots. Haden would trade off assignments with other cornerbacks to avoid this situation so that each defender could run with their man. But that was only an occasional occurrence Sunday night.
The Patriots have always been great at maximizing horizontal offense and taking advantage of space complications. But it starts and ends with Brady's recognition of coverage schemes and adjustments at the line. The Steelers did plenty of coverage switches, but Brady still would find ways to exploit the different looks presented.
A perfect example was Brady's 24-yard completion to Julian Edelman off play action. Brady recognized the zone coverage and called play action. The fake on the run sucks up Bush and Vince Williams, who had zone responsibility over the middle. So when Edelman runs a slant, Haden isn't following him because the linebackers are supposed to pick him up.
But when they're too busy playing for the run, this opens up an easy passing window for a big gain:
These were the ways Brady softened up the Steelers' defense. Brady was never forced into tough throws on the short passes and the Steelers were otherwise unable to make life hard for him all night. Once the little plays kept working, the Patriots were able to find deeper passes.
This deep ball to Dorsett was an example of something that rarely happened last season to the Steelers, an easy deep touchdown. Dorsett fires on a nine route up the middle of a Cover 2 defense. But when Kameron Kelly sees him coming, he doesn't play his responsibility and stay ahead of him. Instead, he jumps the route underneath and allows for the easiest touchdown:
This is what Brady does to the Steelers. It's rare that he just comes out slinging deep passes into their coverage. Instead he throws shorter passes to force the Steelers' defense to start overcompensating for their soft spots, eventually opening them up for bigger mistakes.
It's just week one, but it was a prime example of the Steelers' worst nightmare.
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