Greg Bedard: 3 Up and 3 Down for the Patriots in their win over the Steelers

Greg Bedard of BostonSportJournal.com joined Felger and Mazz on Tuesday, as he does every Tuesday during the football season to discuss the latest with the New England Patriots following the team’s victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh last Thursday night. Bedard gives us his 3 up and 3 down for the team in the 21-18 win over the Steelers.

Before 3 Up and 3 Down, here are some stats from the game courtesy of NFL.com...

JuJu Smith-Schuster had 90 receiving yards in the win for the Patriots over his former team. Smith-Schuster's 90 yard were the most he's had in a game this season.

Hunter Henry had 2 receiving touchdowns for the Patriots in the win. With his 2 touchdowns, Henry now has 5 receiving touchdowns this season, which leads all Patriots pass catchers.

Ezekiel Elliott led all Patriots rushers with 68 rushing yards in the win over the Steelers. Elliott now has 497 rushing yards on the season.

The Steelers led the possession battle in the game, possessing the ball for 32:19 over the Patriots 27:41. The Steelers also picked up 18 first downs to the Patriots 14 first downs in their loss to New England.

4 players dressed for the Patriots in the win that didn't play a single snap in the win. Those 4 players were QB Mac Jones, QB Malik Cunningham, RB Kevin Harris, and DL Sam Roberts.

The Patriots win over the Steelers on Thursday Night Football kept them alive in the playoff hunt. However, the Patriots were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Sunday afternoon when the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the Indianapolis Colts 34-14. This is the earliest the Patriots have been eliminated from playoff contention since the 2000 season.

With a win over the Steelers, the Patriots now have a 3 game regular season winning streak over Pittsburgh. They have also won 7 of the last 8 regular season meetings, with their only loss coming during the 2018 season.

Greg Bedard: He was just tremendous all the way around. The run game, not great stats, but really tough yards. In the pass game the tackle on the interception was tremendous.

Greg Bedard: He must have been sick last week. Two weeks ago against the Giants he had the best offensive line performance. Last week was one of the worst. This week he set a new high as best offensive line performance for the Patriots, especially against T.J. Watt, who he did a nice job against.

Greg Bedard: Anfernee Jennings beat out Bailey Zappe and Christian Barmore. Jennings was tremendous on the edge in this game.

Greg Bedard: Ty Montgomery. Thank goodness he is gone.

Greg Bedard: He was awful in this game. He gave up a touchdown and he was lucky Mitch Trubisky threw a horrible ball early or it would have looked even worse. He had two penalties. He has just been atrocious. And the thing is, like, physically, he's there, like as far as his speed and engagement but he's just so undisciplined. And credit to the Patriots his first time around that they were able to beat that out of him that and get him to play more disciplined and focused. This season he's just been a mess. He's been all over the place.

Greg Bedard: He gave up two sacks. He wasn't horrible in this game. I think he's done a nice job this year, but he just has bouts of inconsistency like all rookies.