GAME SUMMARY
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS (0-1) AT PITTSBURGH STEELERS (1-0)
Sunday, September 18, 2022 • Acrisure Stadium (68,400) • 1:00 p.m. ET
The New England Patriots will be on the road for a second straight week when they travel to play the Pittsburgh Steelers in the newly named Acrisure Stadium. It will be the third time in the Bill Belichick era that the Patriots will start the season with two straight road games. They did so in 2003 and 2014. It will also mark the second time in team history that the Patriots open the season with Miami and Pittsburgh. In 2019, the Patriots began the year at home against the Steelers and then traveled to face the Dolphins.
SERIES HISTORY
The Patriots and Steelers will meet for the first time since the opening day of the 2019 season when the Patriots won, 33-3, at Gillette Stadium in a Sunday Night Football Game on Sept. 8. The Patriots will play at Pittsburgh for the first time since dropping a 17-10 decision on Dec. 16, 2018, the team’s last loss of the year en route to the Super Bowl LIII title. Over the last six regular season matchups, the Patriots are 5-1.
This week’s matchup will mark the 34th meeting overall. Pittsburgh leads the regular season series by a 15-13 margin, while New England leads 4-1 in the postseason.
The teams played in the AFC Championship Game during the 2001, ’04 and ’16 playoffs, with the Patriots winning each time, en route to Super Bowl titles. The teams also met in the 1996 and ’97 Divisional Playoffs. The Patriots defeated Pittsburgh, 28-3, at Foxboro Stadium en route to their Super Bowl XXXI appearance. Pittsburgh beat New England the following season, 7-6, at Three Rivers Stadium.
The Patriots are 8-11 in road games against Pittsburgh in the regular season, including a 4-3 record at newly named Acrisure Stadium. The Patriots are 2-0 against Pittsburgh in the postseason on the road with two AFC Championship wins.
The Patriots first regular season home game at Gillette Stadium was the 2002 season-opening 28-21 win on Sept. 9, 2002 against Pittsburgh.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR…
• This week’s game against Pittsburgh will be the 500th game of the Robert Kraft era. Kraft is the most successful owner since he purchased the team in 1994 in terms of Super Bowl wins (6), overall wins (341), division titles (19), winning percentage (.683), playoff wins (33) and playoff seasons (22).
WHAT TO LOOK FOR…
• QB Mac Jones passed for 213 yards in the season-opener at Miami to move into 8th place on the Patriots all-time passing list with 4,014 passing yards and needs 263 passing yards to move past Hugh Millen (4,276) into 7th place. Jim Plunkett is in 6th place on the list with 9,932 passing yards.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR…
• RB Damien Harris enters the 2022 season with 17 rushing touchdowns and needs three rushing touchdowns to become the 14th Patriots player to reach 20 career rushing touchdowns and six to move into the Top 10 in team history. Harris is the last Patriots player to have three rushing touchdowns in a single game. He had three vs. Buffalo last season on Dec. 26, 2021.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR…
• WR Jakobi Meyers has scored on three two-point plays and needs one more two-point score to tie Julian Edelman and Gino Cappelletti with four for the most in team history.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR…
• LB Matthew Judon is one of five NFL players with at least 90 quarterback hits since 2018. He ranks third overall behind T.J. Watt and Aaron Darnod.
• Judon had a career-high four quarterback hits in the season-opener at Miami. He can join Roosevelt Colvin (3 games in 2006), Andre Carter (2 games in 2011), Chandler Jones (2 in 2015) and Trey Flowers (2 games in 2018) as the only Patriots players with at least four quarterback hits in two games in the same season.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR…
• DB Devin McCourty is tied with Marcus Peters of Baltimore for the most interceptions among all active players with 31 picks and needs one pick this week to take the lead among all active players. McCourty, Peters and Harrison Smith (Minnesota) are the only active players with at least 30 interceptions.
• McCourty is currently tied with Tedy Bruschi for 9th in team history with 189 regular season games played and will move past Bruschi this week against Pittsburgh for sole possession of 9th place on the all-time list.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR…
• K Nick Folk has a streak of 55 straight field goals made under 50 yards, the second-longest streak in NFL history behind the 56 straight field goals from inside 50 yards by Ryan Succop from 2014-2017 while with Tennessee. Folk’s last miss from inside the 50-yard line was a 45-yard field goal attempt in the 2020 season-opener vs. Miami on Sept. 13.
