Patriots secure AFC East!
The New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers hooked up Saturday afternoon at Foxboro Stadium in a game pitting divisional leaders against each other. The Patriots came away with a 10-6 hard-fought, hard-hitting victory and are now the AFC Champions.
The Patriots are still in contention for the #1 seed in the AFC and homefield advantage throughout. They trail the Chiefs by a ½ game. As for the Steelers, they had a chance to have their destiny in their own hands; however, with the loss, the Steelers need the Bengals to lose on Sunday against the Cowboys to keep ahold of the top spot in the AFC Central.
New England was without All-Pro running back Curtis Martin due to injury and his absence affected the Patriot offense. The Patriots could only rush for 21 yards on the day and had to rely on QB Drew Bledsoe’s right arm. Bledsoe did throw for 225 yards on 19 of 30 passing but could not come up with the play to separate themselves from the Steelers.
As for the Steelers, they got a poor performance from QB Kordell Stewart. He threw for 224 yards but tossed two costly interceptions to Patriot DB Lawyer Milloy that thwarted Steeler scoring opportunities.
The Patriots will end their regular season at Miami, while the Steelers will have one more opportunity to secure a playoff spot when they travel to Tennessee next Sunday.