Patriots-Steelers is a matchup for the ages with Drake Maye going against Aaron Rodgers
While Maye is in the early stages of his career, his Steelers counterpart is in the opposite phase.
Welcome to Season 14, Episode 3 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .
Well, that’s weird. Haven’t heard a single soul suggest this past week that the Patriots should have taken J.J. McCarthy rather than Drake Maye with the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Wonder what happened.
Ah, we know what happened. Maye played the best game of his young career last Sunday in the Patriots’ 33-27 victory over the Dolphins, and better, he did it when the noise wondering how long it would take for him to live up to his promise was louder than it has been since he arrived.
Maye completed 19 of 23 passes for 230 yards and a pair of touchdowns, with no turnovers. He was poised in the pocket, accurate, decisive, thriving in a Josh McDaniels game plan that played to his strengths.
Maye also delivered a couple of spectacular highlights, including a crucial 55-yard connection with Rhamondre Stevenson.
It was the signature win of his career. Now the hope for Patriots fans is that Maye steadily bumps the memorable victory in Miami down that list of signature wins as the Sundays and seasons pass and his promise is fulfilled.
While Maye is in the early stages of his career, his Steelers counterpart is in the opposite phase.
Aaron Rodgers is one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in NFL history, no less an expert than Tom Brady says he is the best pure “thrower of the football” the league has ever seen.
Last Sunday against the Seahawks, Rodgers tied former Packers teammate and anti-mentor Brett Favre for fourth in passing touchdowns (508) in NFL history.
Rodgers has been a sitting duck this season, enduring 15 quarterback hits and seven sacks, but he has demonstrated that at 41 years old, he can still dazzle with his arm, firing a perfect 60-yard pass while on the move that tight end Pat Freiermuth couldn’t secure. I’m sure Rodgers didn’t hold it against him.
Kick it off, Borregales, and let’s get this thing started . . .
Three players worth watching other than the quarterbacks
T.J. Watt: Watt, a four-time All-Pro, three-time NFL sack leader, and 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year, does not have a single sack in his last five games, dating to Week 15 last season.
This season, he has nine tackles, two quarterback hits, and a pass breakup — and yet, a big ol’ zero in the category that he is best known for.
Part of the reason, of course, is that Watt, who turns 31 next month, almost always draws the attention of multiple blockers when he lines up in his typical spot on the left side of the Steelers’ defensive line.
The attention is nothing new — Patriots right tackle Morgan Moses will surely have help Sunday — and yet Watt has overcome the extra attention in the past to remain extraordinarily productive and disruptive.
The Patriots have done a fine job containing Watt through the years. In four matchups, he has just one sack. The Steelers have just three sacks as a team and are already dealing with an assortment of injuries on defense.
The Steelers, who have the 29th-ranked defense (394.5 yards per game), desperately need Watt to return to dominant form.
Wonder if his brother J.J., who will call Sunday’s CBS broadcast with Ian Eagle and Evan Washburn, will have any insight on what’s going on.
Robert Spillane: When Mike Vrabel said Wednesday that “we have to tackle better,” the image of Spillane flopping around trying in vain to tackle the Dolphins’ De’Von Achane came immediately to mind. For you, too, huh?
The Patriots’ defense has 19 missed tackles through two games, tied for fifth-most in the league. Spillane, an eighth-year linebacker and former Steeler, has seven of them, including five against the Dolphins.
Somehow, he actually has more missed tackles than actual tackles (six). Last season with the Raiders, Spillane stacked up 158 total tackles while missing just 11. Hopefully that suggests his struggles are an outlier and he escapes these early similarities to 2005 Monty Beisel.
The Patriots’ run defense has been strong statistically, allowing just 58.5 yards per game, third-best in the league. But that’s misleading, because the Raiders and Dolphins had their way with the Patriots’ pass defense, which is last in the NFL, allowing 315 yards per game.
The Steelers would be wise to test Spillane and the Patriots’ linebackers and safeties in pass coverage with running back Jaylen Warren, who had a spectacular 65-yard catch-and-run against the Seahawks and has more yards through the air this season (108) than as a ball carrier (85).
Jabrill Peppers: Not sure why the Patriots decided to cut one of their more accomplished players on Sept. 9, but the prevailing theory seems to be that there was some concern that he wouldn’t handle a reduced role as gracefully as fellow safety Kyle Dugger has.
Still think the Patriots — who have been the only team in the NFL allowing more than 300 passing yards per game in star cornerback Christian Gonzalez’s absence — could use Peppers, even as a de facto linebacker on passing downs.
But he’s a Steeler now, and probably a vengeful one, though he’s going to require considerably more playing time than he had in his just-get-acclimated debut against the Seahawks (no defensive snaps, seven on special teams) to haunt the Patriots.
The flashback
Since the Patriots are wearing their spectacular Pat Patriot-era red throwback jerseys this week, it’s only fitting that we select our flashback game from the era — 1984-92, specifically — when they wore them every week.
Turns out that the Patriots played the Steelers four times from 1984-92 — and won just once. The losses came in consecutive seasons from 1989-91, which wasn’t exactly the golden era of Patriots football.
The win? Oh, that was fulfilling, a 34-0 throttling of the Steelers on Oct. 19, 1986.
Steve Grogan, who was in the middle of an excellent stretch filling in for Tony Eason, completed 18 of 26 passes for 243 yards and three touchdowns, with one interception. Grogan’s 121.2 passer rating was the 12th-best of his 149 career regular-season games.
His best? A perfect 158.3 when he went 15 for 19 for 281 yards and four TDs in a 55-21 victory in October 1978. The opponent? The Jets, obviously.
Grievance of the week
The Patriots pulled off the rare Saturday afternoon trade of a guy on injured reserve last weekend, sending receiver Ja’Lynn Polk and a 2028 seventh-round pick to the Saints for a 2027 sixth-round pick.
I suppose the most embarrassing outcome for a second-round pick is to get cut in his second season, but being traded along with a late-round draft pick for a slightly better late-round draft pick isn’t far behind.
Polk, the No. 37 selection out of Washington in the 2024 draft after the Patriots shrewdly traded down with the Chargers and missed out Ladd McConkey in the terrible process, had a truly dismal rookie season, catching 12 passes (on 33 targets) for 87 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Since hitting the jackpot with Deion Branch in the second round of the 2002 draft, the Patriots have had a wretched history of spending high draft picks on wide receivers.
In that 23-year span, the Patriots have drafted nine receivers in the first three rounds, eight that have come and gone. (Kyle Williams, a third-rounder this year of some promise, is excluded from this exercise.)
It’s close, but I think Polk is the worst of them. Let’s show our work and rank them, best — make that “best” — to worst.
Bethel Johnson, second round, No. 45 overall, 2003: His lack of maturity drove veteran receivers on the team nuts, and he caught just 30 passes for 450 yards and four touchdowns in three seasons in Foxborough. But he contributed his share of important plays, including a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown just before halftime in a 38-34 win over the Colts in the 2003 season, and a touchdown catch against the Titans in the 2004 divisional round.
Aaron Dobson, second round, No. 59, 2013: Had a decent rookie year (37 catches for 519 yards and four TDs) and an occasional knack for the spectacular, but he was inefficient (those 37 catches came on 72 targets). Lasted three seasons.
N’Keal Harry, first round, No. 32, 2019: He was a decent runner after the catch. The problem was he didn’t have many catches (57 for 598 yards and four TDs in three seasons) because he couldn’t have gotten open if his defender was wearing a blindfold. Current Steeler DK Metcalf was among the productive receivers that went after him in that draft.
Brandon Tate, third round, No. 83, 2009: Contributed two kickoff-return touchdowns in his second and final season as a Patriot.
Tyquan Thornton, second round, No. 50, 2022: Had 39 catches with the Patriots, which is about 37 more than I remember.
Chad Jackson, second round, No. 36, 2006: He was basically the Polk of his time, catching 13 passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns as a rookie, then getting traded in his second year.
Taylor Price, third round, No. 90, 2010: Just five catches for 80 yards in four games and two seasons. But he was a late third-rounder. Polk’s draft position makes him the bigger flop, I say.
Godspeed to you, Kyle Williams, as you try to end the cruel, cruel cycle.
Prediction, or here’s to Bill Parcells finally getting his due from the Krafts . . .
Somewhat surprisingly, the Patriots have won their last three matchups with the Steelers, most recently 21-18 on Thursday night in December 2023. The lingering optimism from last week’s wild win over the Dolphins makes me believe that ex-Steeler Vrabel’s squad will cut back on its mistakes and penalties, swarm Rodgers, and win back-to-back games for the first time since they won three in a row in the middle of the 2022 season. Patriots 27, Steelers 20.
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