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December 9, 2007

Gimme a verb: Patriots (crush, pound, rout, shred, bruise) Steelers

Providence Journal Photo/Mary Murphy
New England Patriots receiver Jabar Gaffney hauls in a 56-yard pass from Tom Brady for a TD in the 3rd quarter as Pittsburgh Steelers safety Anthony Smith tries to stop him at Gillette Stadium today. Smith was the player who "guaranteed" that the Steelers would win, but his team lost 34-13..

7:42 a.m. Monday

The giant slumbers no more Perfect Pats end malaise, thanks to Smith 'guarantee'. Don Banks, CNN.

Speechless: Patriots do all the talking, 34-13. Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- There is but one guarantee worth making in the NFL these days: Tom Brady is as good as gold.

Formula for winning wasn't good enough. Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

10:22 p.m. Sunday
After a wild ballet of a pass play -- Brady laterals to Moss who drops it, picks it up and tosses it back to Brady, who throws it 56 yards to Jabar Gaffney in the end zone -- Pittsburgh collapsed. I thought the Steelers were tougher than that.

Patriots rout Steelers 34-13 after 2 close calls. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

"We still control our own destiny," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said after the loss, "and that's what's most important."

???

"Obviously the Patriots were the better team today," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "If that's the measuring stick we're not even close."

The headline writers' verbs:

Patriots crush Steelers to stay on course. Guardian UK.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass., Dec. 9 (Reuters) - The New England Patriots crushed the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-13 on Sunday to move closer to the NFL's first perfect season since 1972.

The same AP story in three places:

Patriots rout Steelers 34-13 to keep undefeated record intact. Canadian Press.

Brady shreds Steelers — Patriots now 13-0. MSNBC.

Still perfect: Pats pound Pittsburgh. Sporting News.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - The Patriots are dominant once more. And still unbeaten,

Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes, shattering Steelers safety Anthony Smith's guarantee of a victory, and Randy Moss caught two of them as New England crushed Pittsburgh 34-13 on Sunday....

There may have been extra satisfaction because Smith was burned on both long touchdown passes.

Just before the two-minute warning at the end of the game, the fans began chanting "Guarantee!" to mock Smith, whose picture was shown on the scoreboard.

Patriots put bruising on Steelers, become 5th team with 13-0 mark. ESPN.

and -- verbless -- Steelers no match for unbeaten Patriots. National Post, Canada.

FOXBORO, Mass. - The New England Patriots did not let the new Steel Curtain come down on their perfect season.

Much more to come tomorrow from the hordes still pecking away at keyboards. These are the instawriters.

Query: Got a better "action word" for what the Pats did to the Steelers? No, another one...

Bonus: Over at the projo PatsBlog, Ben Roethlisberger postgame transcript and Steelers postgame quotes. From that last one,

Anthony Smith, Safety

We did not come out here to lose. We just gave up some big plays and that is what it came down to. They have got a good offense, but we just beat ourselves. We didn’t play all of our right keys and gave up some deep plays. They came up with some new gadget plays that we haven’t seen and that is pretty much what it was. Besides that one play-action play that they hit for the touchdown, that is all the play-action we saw. I don’t think play-action was a big emphasis for their offense. The way our defense is run and the way we rotate, they really couldn’t target me. We will see them again.

Disappointing mush, considering the "guarantee."

Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel becomes a candidate for the weird-quote award: "They got a bunch of little squirmy guys who know how to break loose."

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 10:22 AM | Permalink