Patriots dominate Steelers, 39-26, in top AFC matchup

Reporting from Pittsburgh

The AFC mountaintop just got a little roomier.

In Sunday’s only matchup of winning teams, the New England Patriots thoroughly outplayed the Pittsburgh Steelers and cruised to a 39-26 victory at Heinz Field.

Tom Brady threw for a season-high 350 yards and three touchdowns — all to rookie tight end Rob Gronkowski — picking apart the NFL’s fourth-ranked defense.

The Patriots and New York Jets share the AFC’s best record at 7-2; Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Indianapolis are 6-3.

Sunday night’s game was an impressive blend of finesse and force by the Patriots, who were coming off a 20-point loss to Cleveland. In the past 71/2 seasons, New England has lost consecutive games just twice and is 24-2 after defeats.

“It was an exciting win for all of us in this locker room,” said Brady, who has won six of seven against Pittsburgh. “We haven’t been this happy in a long time.”

Never was that more evident than on Brady’s three-yard touchdown run at the end of the third quarter, when he pushed his way through a pile at the goal line and punctuated the score with a primal yell and windmill spike.

“I don’t run much, and I certainly don’t sneak it from very far out,” he said. “Coach [Bill Belichick] made a great call, and I was just able to fall forward As a 49er fan, I loved Tom Rathman, and every time he scored he spiked it as hard as he could. I guess the times I do get in the end zone I like to spike it.”

There was a lot of pushing and shoving after that play, and Patriots guard Logan Mankins later was referring to Pittsburgh safety Troy Polamalu in saying, “We don’t care how long your hair is, we’re not going to let you try to rough our quarterback up in the pile.”

The Steelers scored 23 points in the fourth quarter, but those were merely cosmetic. The home team fell behind, 23-3, on Brady’s touchdown run and never really threatened to make a game of it. By that point, normally diehard Steelers fans were making their way to the exits.

Pittsburgh was already dealing with a rash of injuries on both the offensive and defensive lines, and the team took another big hit at the end of the first quarter when Pro Bowl receiver Hines Ward was knocked out of the game by a helmet-to-helmet collision.

Although Ward was officially diagnosed with a neck injury, Coach Mike Tomlin confirmed after the game that it was a concussion.

Asked if the Steelers had to make adjustments after Ward was injured, Tomlin said: “Yeah, but that’s always going to be the case when a guy like Hines goes down. That’s no excuse for our performance. We’re capable of better than we displayed.”

Like Brady, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw for a lot of yards (387) and three touchdowns. But he was sacked five times — the Steelers never got to Brady — and failed to connect with his receivers on a few occasions near the goal line.

The spirit-crusher came midway through the fourth quarter, when the Steelers were trailing by 13 and trying to claw their way back into the game. That’s when safety James Sanders — the same player whose hit sidelined Ward — intercepted a pass and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown.

That the Steelers were able to score three touchdowns in the fourth quarter did nothing to salve Tomlin. “Offenses that are behind are capable of moving the ball,” he said. “So I’m not going to read too much into that. They beat us soundly.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com