New England Patriots can't relax with Ben Roethlisberger on sideline

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Sunday afternoon's battle between the New England Patriots (5-1) and Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2) at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh was supposed to be a matchup of two elite, top 10 passing attacks led by Super Bowl-winning, Hall of Fame quarterbacks.

Tom Brady and his four rings will be ready to take on Pittsburgh's suspect pass defense, but knee surgery sidelined Ben Roethlisberger and his two rings, leaving backup Landry Jones to fill his big shoes in this showdown of AFC contenders.

While the Roethlisberger injury sucks some of hype out of this meeting of longtime conference opponents and cuts into what the Steelers are capable of on offense, the challenge remains for a Patriots pass defense that continues to face questions in terms of both coverage and pass rush.

Roethlisberger or not, Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell and company remain a formidable lineup of big-play potential for Jones to work with in front of the home crowd.

"Offensively they're so explosive," Patriots head coach Bill Belichick declared, seemingly ignoring the Roethlisberger injury. "They just have quality players at every position, a great offensive line, quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, big plays, very explosive players, can score from anywhere on the field, run the ball extremely well, have great depth at that position, score well, score in the red area, score in two-minute, just very, very good."

Jones started two games a year ago, with a 1-1 record. So the Patriots have limited material to work with preparing for the backup.

"The games he's played, last year he started against Kansas City, they ran their offense," safety Devin McCourty said. "The skills guys around, which I think they believe they have a great group and they do. Those skill guys don't change because Big Ben is not out there.

"But obviously a little different. I don't think there's any quarterback that you can find like Ben. But he's a guy who we know is going to run their offense. He does a good job of reading coverage, wants to get the ball out there, get the ball in skill guys' hands."

Belichick echoed those comments, making it clear that Landry knows what he needs to do for the Steelers to have a chance.

"They have great players so when they get the ball to Bell, Brown, (Sammie) Coates, (Darrius) Heyward-Bey, (Jesse) James -- it doesn't matter who it is; (DeAngelo) Williams -- I mean you've got to stop all of those guys, too," Belichick said.

That's what a good quarterback does. He gets the ball to his skill players and they do the damage really. I think we've seen their quarterbacks be able to do that whether it's Ben or Landry or whoever it is and then you've got to stop all of those guys. I don't think Roethlisberger's going to run for 100 yards. I don't think Landry Jones is going to run for 100 yards but I think they're going to get the ball to guys that can move the ball quickly and score points in a hurry and we're going to have to defend all of that."

And the Patriots' defense really has to worry about playing its game as much as it does the opposing quarterback. The group is No. 2 in the league in points allowed. Based on yards it's 13th overall, ranking No. 9 against the run and No. 18 against the pass.

Then there are the struggles on third down, ranking 27th in the NFL, thanks in part to a pass rush that has only 11 sacks and has been far too inconsistent.

The group may not have quite the same challenge with Roethlisberger sidelined, but the weapons remain a matchup issue. And traveling to Pittsburgh is never an easy proposition.

"I think Coach said it the best this morning," McCourty said. "If you love football, if you love competition, there's going to be no better place to be Sunday than Pittsburgh.

"Obviously a very good football team, very tough at home, an environment who loves Pittsburgh Steelers. You probably won't find many Patriots fans in there Sunday so it'll be a good environment. It'll be a huge challenge for us going on the road against this type of team. We look forward to it though. That's what makes you a good football team. You learn how to go play in those environments."

SERIES HISTORY:

25th all-time meeting in the regular season. Steelers lead the series, 14-10. Although Pittsburgh has the overall upper hand in the series thanks mostly to success from the late-1970s through the mid-1990s, New England has been on the winning side of the ledger in Bill Belichick's time in Foxborough to the tune of an 8-3 record since 2001, including two AFC Championship Game victories. Two of the three losses did come in Pittsburgh, where the teams meet this weekend. Tom Brady has enjoyed his matchups with the Steelers zone-blitz defense, notching an 8-2 career mark including postseason games, while putting up a passer rating of greater than 100 in seven of the 10 games. New England took the most recent game 28-21 in last year's season opener in Foxborough.

SPOTLIGHT

LB Dont'a Hightower earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for his impressive performance in Sunday's win over the Cincinnati Bengals. The fifth-year linebacker notched 13 tackles and 1.5 sacks, including a game-changing safety. It's the fourth time in six weeks the Patriots have had an AFC Player of the Week honor. K Stephen Gostkowski (Week 1) and P Ryan Allen (Week 3) earned Special Teams honors, while Tom Brady (Week 5) took Offensive honors. LeGarrette Blount also earned AFC Offensive Player of the Month honors for September.

Hightower's performance came with fellow LB Jamie Collins absent because of a hip injury and is the latest example of his importance to the New England defense, where he's the latest in a long line of productive linebackers over the years.

"I've played with so many great linebackers from when I got here -- Ted Johnson, and (Chris) Slade and Willie (McGinnest), all the way through that line of players, all the way up to now, and Dont'a has been such a great player for us," Patriots QB Tom Brady declared.

"Really since he got here, he really assumed a starting role pretty early and there's a lot of responsibly that's put on you at linebacker. You call the defense most of the time, if not all the time, and he's done such a great job of that. He's really got a great understanding of the game, and the plays that he's been making -- sacking the quarterback in the end zone, intercepting passes, knocking the ball out, tackles -- it's been great. He and Jamie, I mean, they're both spectacular players. Like I said the other day, I have to go against them in practice every day, so I'm glad they get to kind of terrorize someone else."

The Patriots rank 27th in the NFL in third down defense, despite a veteran secondary that includes Pro Bowlers at safety and cornerback in Devin McCourty and Malcolm Butler, respectively.

"That's not that good, huh?" McCourty interrupted a reporter asking about the statistic.

While the clear weakness -- allowing opponents to convert 44.2 percent of third downs, including two games over 50 percent -- hasn't cost New England yet, the players and their coaches are well aware that probably won't be the case for long.

"I wouldn't bet being 27th you'll win many games on third-down," McCourty said. "Within a game we have got to find ways to win but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't one thing we've talked about over and over again, that we need to get better at and we need to focus on it. Like I said third-down is all about matchups. You've got to win individual matchups whether it's in the pass rush, whether it's in coverage, you've got to go out there and somebody has to make a play to get off the field.

"It's something that we've talked about and we've got to continue to improve on and get better at. But it's a week-by-week (process). We've played well at times, but obviously overall we haven't. It's something we know we have to work on if we want to try and continue that success, but no matter what we know we've got to try to find a way to win within the game."

NOTES:

RB Tyler Gaffney signed with the Patriots practice squad on Monday. The Stanford product is a veteran of two seasons, having spent 2014 and 2015 on injured reserve in New England. He was with the team this summer before being injured in the preseason finale and subsequently being waived.

FB Glenn Gronkowski, the rookie younger brother of Rob Gronkowksi, re-signed with the Patriots practice squad on Monday. He previously was in New England on the practice squad from Oct. 1-12. The undrafted rookie out of Kansas State spent the summer in Buffalo and actually played in the regular season opener for the Bills before being released.

OL Ian Silberman was released from the Patriots practice squad on Tuesday, the Boston College product ending his second stint of the year in New England.

OL Jamil Douglas joined the Patriots practice squad on Tuesday. Douglas is a former 2015 fourth-round pick by the Dolphins out of Arizona State. The 6-4, 308-pounder played all 16 games last season in Miami, including six starts. Earlier this year he spent time on both the active roster and practice squad with the Dolphins.

TE Rob Gronkowski was removed from the injury report, fully healthy for the first time this season after dealing with a hamstring injury dating to August training camp practice.

TE Martellus Bennett (ankle) continues to be limited in practice.

RB Brandon Bolden (knee) was limited in practice on Wednesday, having been inactive the last two weeks to the injury.

LB Jamie Collins (hip) was limited in practice after missing Sunday's game against the Bengals. ... DL Woodrow Hamilton (shoulder) was limited in practice after leaving last Sunday's game against the Bengals with the injury.

LB Shea McClellin (concussion) remains limited in practice after being inactive the last two games.

WR Malcolm Mitchell (hamstring) continues to be limited in practice.

LB Elandon Roberts (ankle) was added to the injury reported after being limited in practice on Wednesday.

DL Vincent Valentine (back) remains limited in practice.