Steel Mill A.M.: Steelers stats, snap counts and storylines
The Steelers fell to the New England Patriots 27-24 with a controversial touchdown catch reversed by officials.
Sunday's result
Patriots 27, Steelers 24
Three stats to know
1. Rob Gronkowski accounted for seven of the Patriots' eight longest plays of the game.
2. The only snap in which New England had possession of the ball with a lead was the kneeldown with 5 seconds left.
3. The Steelers led for 32 minutes and 40 seconds Sunday, or more than they did in wins against Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Green Bay over the previous five weeks combined (10 minutes, 9 seconds).
Snap counts to know
Offense – WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (66 of 67), WR Martavis Bryant (36), WR Darrius Heyward-Bey (31), WR Eli Rogers (25), TE Jesse James (60)
Defense – CB Cameron Sutton (57 of 60), ILB Vince Williams (45), ILB Sean Spence (45), OLB T.J. Watt (40), OLB Bud Dupree (36)
Weekly schedule: The Steelers practice Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, Friday and Saturday mornings and hold a walkthrough Saturday. They'll travel Christmas Eve and play Christmas Day.
Next game: Steelers (11-3) at Texans (4-10), 4:25 p.m. Monday, NRG Stadium
Three storylines for the week
1. How do the Steelers survive with no AB? Antonio Brown reportedly is out at least a week or two because of a partially torn calf muscle. Just as he was getting a legitimate push to be the first wide receiver named league MVP, the Steelers must adjust to life without him – for now – and hope for continued good news he will be back in time for the playoffs.
2. The race for 1⁄2/3. The Steelers were ever-so-close to wrapping up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. It's still possible they achieve that goal – but it's also well within the realm of possibility they fall all the way to the No. 3 seed and miss out on a first-round bye.
3. For almost a month since Mike Tomlin made his “elephant in the room” comment about the Patriots game, the Steelers have been rather straightforward that they were putting plenty of stock in it. From the innovative gameplanning before to the despondent postgame locker room after, it was obvious the game meant more than the normal regular-season contest. While the mindset worked up until this point, did it risk leaving the Steelers mentally drained?
Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.
