The two AFC heavyweights met once on Sunday, December 17th. The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the New England Patriots in another classic last-minute ending game. Tom Brady had 298 yards, a touchdown, and an interception while Ben Roethlisberger had 281 yards 2 touchdowns and one interception.  

The Patriots scored first with a 1-yard touchdown run from Rex Burkhead. This did not faze the Steelers because they quickly followed up with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Eli Rogers less than 4 minutes later.

The second quarter started with bad news for the Steelers. Their star wide receiver, Antonio Brown injured his calf and was sent to the hospital. The Steelers got a quick field goal from Chris Boswell 3 minutes in, giving the Steelers a 10-7 lead. The Patriots then marched down the field in just 3 minutes to get a field goal from Stephen Gostkowski, from 32 yards out. With only 25 seconds left in the first half, Martavis Bryant caught a spectacular one-handed touchdown. This gave all the momentum to the Steelers entering the locker room with a 17-10 lead to end the first half.

The third quarter contained the least amount of action. The Patriots scored a touchdown in about 6 minutes. It was a 4-yard pass to Brandin Cooks, but Stephen Gostkowski missed the extra point! This meant the Steelers were still winning 17-16.  Knowing they had to capitalize on the missed extra point by the Patriots, the Steelers scored a touchdown with 1 minute and 33 seconds left in the quarter. It was a 3 yard run from the Steelers star running back, Le’Veon Bell. This would give the Steelers a 24-16 lead heading into the final quarter.

The game got very exciting with 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Patriots got a 46-yard field goal, closing the gap to 5 points. Then it got exciting. The Patriots had the ball with just 2 minutes left in the game and the ball at the 23-yard line. Tom Brady marched his team down the field 77 yards for a touchdown, giving the Patriots a 27-24 lead with only 56 seconds to go in the game.

The Steelers would not give up just yet. Big Ben and the Steelers did not want to continue their losing streak against the Patriots. They started with a simple pass to their rookie receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster from the 21-yard line and no one believed what happened next. Juju ran up the field putting his first defender in the dust. Next, he tiptoed down the sideline past two more Patriots defenders.  Then he cut back toward the middle of the field, breaking a tackle, still on his feet he stumbling to the 10-yard line where he finally got taken down by 2 Patriots defenders. All the Steelers had to do was kick a field goal to go into overtime or score a touchdown within 30 seconds. They first come out looking for a touchdown and it’s a pass to Jesse James who is wide open, he catches the ball, extends for the goal line and, touchdown Steelers! However, the catch was put under further review and called incomplete. Everyone was shocked by the call.

The game was still not over. Many thought the Steelers would spike the ball to stop the clock and then kick a field goal to tie the game and go into overtime. However, Ben hurried his offense to the line said something to one of his receivers and called hike. Almost every player was standing still, not knowing what’s happening and Ben threw it to Eli Rogers. The ball was tipped and the Patriots intercepted it. The Steelers were speechless. After everything that happened in the minute before this is how the game ended. The Patriots had once again beat the Steelers in stunning fashion and take control of the number one seed in the AFC.