In his illustrious career as an NFL head coach, particularly with the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick had quite a bit of success against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
During his tenure in Foxboro, Belichick was 16-12 against the Steelers, which included a number of postseason wins.
But it was the upset win in the 2001 AFC Championship Game, and then a beatdown performance in the 2002 season opener to open Gillette Stadium that really stood out for him against the Steelers. Belichick elaborated on both in “The Art Of Winnings: Lessons from My Life in Football,” his new book that was released Tuesday.
“Our 2002 season opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers was the first game ever played at Gillette Stadium. The last time we had faced each other was the AFC Championship game the previous season, when we took the win, 24-17. That was a massive upset, a matchup the Steelers would probably have won seven times out of 10, if not more,” Belichick writes of the 2001 AFC Championship Game. “For the past 50 years, the Steelers had consistently been in the upper echelon of NFL teams.
“They had a formula, were very confident in it, and stuck with it (they still do), as well as they should. Especially defensively.”
Leading up to that 2001 showdown, Belichick knew the Steelers were loaded and that his team was overmatched. The Steelers had gone 13-3 in the regular season, had the seventh-highest scoring offense in football at 22.0 points per game, and had a dominant defense that was third in the NFL in points allowed at just 13.3 per game.
They also had an MVP candidate in quarterback Kordell Stewart, a Pro Bowl running back in Jerome Bettis, who when healthy was a dominant force that season, averaging nearly 5.0 yards per carry, and a pair of 1,000-yard receivers in Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress.
Defensively, the Steelers had the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year in linebacker Kendrell Bell, a first-team All-Pro outside linebacker in Jason Gildon, a cornerback in Chad Scott who led the NFL in pick-sixes with two, and a dominant defensive front that featured Joey Porter, Aaron Smith, Kimo von Oelhoffen, and Casey Hampton.
Everything looked promising for the Steelers, especially matching up against a Patriots team that had Tom Brady appearing in his first AFC Championship Game. And doing so on the road, whereas the Steelers had been on the stage before, though they had come up short.
This time was different.
Until it wasn’t.
Two special teams touchdowns and a great performance from Drew Bledsoe coming off the bench for an injured Brady led to the Patriots shocking the Steelers in the ’01 AFC Championship Game.
That upset also played a factor into how the Patriots would attack the Steelers in the 2002 season opener to start the Gillette Stadium era, too.
Being unable to run the football in the AFC Championship Game changed the way the Patriots played, especially in the Super Bowl against the Rams.
In fact, those games against the Steelers and Rams helped set up the Patriots for success moving forward in the Belichick era.
In that 2002 season opener, the Patriots came out and threw the football over and over again, daring the Steelers to stop it. Pittsburgh couldn’t.
“They were loaded in 2001 and again in 2002, and we couldn’t run the ball in the championship game. We tried (11 carries in the first half for barely two and a half yards per attempt), and we didn’t like the chances of running ball in ’02 any better,” Belichick writes. “That day against the Steelers, we decided to spend a little of that confidence we had won against the Greatest Show on Turf several months earlier. We did something we had never done and what few teams ever do until time in the game is running out: we went no huddle and called 25 consecutive pass plays.
“We decided to throw until they showed they could stop it, which they couldn’t, and because of that our confidence grew with each play. At a certain point the Steelers knew what we were going to do (pass the ball), we did it, and we got better for it. We won the game, our first in Gillette, 30-14.”
That day, the Patriots attempted 43 passes, completed 29 of them and threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns. Brady connected with Deion Branch, Donald Hayes and Christian Fauria for touchdowns, and the Patriots ran for just 63 yards on 18 carries.
The Steelers had no answer for the Patriots’ passing game with Brady, and that was a sign of things to come in matchups between Belichick, Brady and the Patriots against the Steelers.
