BSJ Game Report: Steelers 21, Patriots 14 - New England can't survive 5 turnovers

FOXBOROUGH — Everything you need to know from the Patriots’ win over the Steelers in quickie form, with BSJ insight and analysis:

HEADLINES

Five turnovers too much to overcome: In a lot of ways, the Patriots completely dominated this game, especially after a rough start when the Patriots fell behind 14-0 early as the defense struggled, especially against the run, and Rhamondre Stevenson's first fumble limited the possessions. Early in the fourth quarter, the Patriots had over 300 yards and 24 first downs, and Steelers had less than 150 yards and 13 first downs. 

But the Patriots killed themselves with penalties and, more importantly, turnovers. They had a ridiculous five — two fumbles by Stevenson (one on the goal line), an interception (in the end zone) and fumble by Maye, and a fumble by Gibson. It's extremely hard to win a football game doing that, even against a bad Steelers team - and this team is bad.

"We don't need to learn a lesson," Vrabel said. "We don't need to lose a football game to know that turnovers are very hard to overcome. They erase all the good things that you do. They take away momentum. They take away points, give them field position. We didn't need to turn it over as many times as we did to learn a lesson. I think we knew that before. It was very unfortunate."

With game on the line, Demario Douglas goes backward: The Patriots were driving for the game-tying score at the Pittsburgh 28 with 1:07 left when they faced a 4th and 1. Maye went to Douglas, who appeared to catch the ball at the sticks. He went backwards and was stopped short.

"Probably have to just drop step and be able to knife," Vrabel said. "Know those are going to be bang-bang plays and try to split them and get the 1st down. It's hard to circle around some defenders. I didn't have the best view of it. I would say that the decision that Pop made wasn't the right one there just because we didn't get it. Got to try to either drop step or make them miss."

Defense starts rough, kept team in game: After the first two series, when the Steelers had 20 plays, 118 yards (48 rushing) and two touchdowns, it looked like the Patriots were tabout to have another brutal game defensively.

But give the unit and coaches a lot of credit. They made some adjustments — more five-man line, took Christian Elliss off the field for Jack Gibbens/Marte Mapu, benched Alex Austin (two penalties) for Charles Woods — and completely shut down the Steelers with 4 3-and-outs, and another five-yard drive. Maybe they found something they can build off.

TURNING POINT

Drake Maye's fumble. The Patriots had taken control of the game with a first down as the Pittsburgh 33-yard line — already in field goal range. But Maye tried to make a play instead of taking a sack or throwing the ball away, and turned it over. Steelers took that gift and scored the go-ahead touchdown.

SECOND GUESS

A lot of people will say the three-play sequence before halftime that resulted in Maye's interception off a Cam Heyward tip, but I didn't see it that way. Maye had Austin Hooper open on first down. 

Will Campbell got dusted inside on second down, and then if Maye just throws the ball to a wide-open Kayshon Boutte with a little air, it's a touchdown.

"I could have taken a different ball flight," Maye said.

A lot of people wanted a run in there. I'm guessing they were called but Maye checked out of them. Maybe they need to adjust that.

"Just loaded up and really just gapping you out, going with bigger personnel," Vrabel said. "Again, we liked some of them. We liked some of the plays. When they don't work and we don't execute them, there's certainly always room for second-guessing. Whether we run it in or throw it in, we have to execute and make great decisions, and we didn't. But that was something that we felt good about those plays. We just, again, weren't able to execute. Probably were able to slip a run in there on 4th down. We had time-outs, some opportunities to call it based on the look, and then let the quarterback make a decision. Some of those are two-way calls that go in when you're down there and trying to just get the best play."

But my second guess was the Patriots winning the toss and not kicking the ball. That got the game off on a bad foot.

THREE UP

TE Hunter Henry: 8 catches, 90 yards and two touchdowns.

LB Robert Spillane: Huge bounceback game with 15 tackles (10 solo) and an interception.

DE Harold Landry: Patriots didn't have a sack but Landry seemed to have a great game with pressure and the run on the edge.

FIVE DOWN

RB Rhamondre Stevenson: Fumbled twice, once going in for a touchdown. Can't have it.

"We were so excited about him and everybody is excited about him, the fans are, and we know what his capabilities are, and we've got to get him back," Vrabel said. "We need him. We absolutely need him. You see what he was able to do for us last week, his ability to make some plays. Again, we'll just have to look at the technique and we'll have to look at the ball security, but we're going to need him. We need his ability, but we also need to take care of the football. It's a long answer to tell you that I'm not really sure 20 minutes after the game what we're going to do, but we need him because he helped us win the game last week, and it was a different story today."

QB Drake Maye: He largely played great but he had two avoidable turnovers that were crushing.

CB Alex Austin: Had two huge penalties early that got him benched.

LT Will Campbell: PFF has him for seven pressures allowed.

WR Demario Douglas: He has to find a way to get that first down. Stefon Diggs knows where he is and gets it.

INJURIES

TE Hunter Henry (knee): Returned to the game.

TOP PLAYS

THREE TAKES BEDARD WILL PROBABLY REGRET LATER

This was a brutal loss: No other way around it. Another home loss against a subpar opponent and the Patriots dominated for much of the game, but just way too many mistakes. This is Mike Vrabel's team and so far, three games in, this team has been pretty mistake-prone. That's on the head coach. Has to get a handle on that.

Once again, Drake Maye was great ... until he wasn't: Another theme so far for the Patriots is Maye is really good for stretches, plays some really good ball, but he's also more prone to killer poor decisions than he isn't. Sounds like Vrabel is getting frustrated with it as well.

"A lot of good. A lot of good," Vrabel said. "And unfortunately some decisions that have to be better. I'm sure we'll have to protect him better. And just understanding that you don't have to win it all on one play. There's opportunities to move on and save the day the next play. You can't put the ball in harm's way at that position. But certainly Drake wasn't alone. But there's a lot of really good things in there, his ability to extend plays, scramble, pick up 1st downs for us, run multiple plays inside the pocket, outside the pocket. There's a lot of good things in there, just some decision-making that we need to have be better for him and for himself."