Brady's 3 TDs lead Pats past Steelers 39-26

PITTSBURGH — Not many teams beat the Steelers. Tom Brady not only beats them, he embarrasses them.

Brady maintained his mastery of the Steelers, throwing three touchdown passes to tight end Rob Gronkowski and scoring once himself, and the Patriots bounced back from a humbling 20-point loss by beating the Steelers 39-26 on Sunday night.

No NFL team wins more on its home field than Pittsburgh, but no opposing player wins there like Brady, who has won six of seven overall against the Steelers and four of five at Heinz Field. He was 30 of 43 for 350 yards with no sacks or interceptions, and now has 14 career TD throws and three interceptions against the Steelers.

"They beat us in all phases," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.

The Patriots and AFC East-rival Jets are tied for the conference's top record at 7-2.

"We made big plays when we needed to make them," Brady said. "It's an exciting game for us in this locker room. We haven't been this happy in a long time. We're pretty good when we execute the right way."

Pittsburgh (6-3), its normally dominating defense shredded by Brady during its second home-field loss this season, drops back into a first-place tie with Baltimore in the AFC North. The Steelers played most of the game without wide receiver Hines Ward (concussion), whose streak of 186 consecutive games with a reception ended.

"I wanted to go back in, but they wouldn't let me," Ward said.

Brady threw only one incompletion during a 70-yard drive on New England's first possession that ended with his 19-yard TD throw to Gronkowski, a rookie who played his high school senior season in Pittsburgh.

New England started the second half with a near-identical 78-yard drive that Brady finished off with a 9-yard throw to Gronkowski, making it 17-3 and silencing a partisan crowd of 64,359 that rarely sees a rival quarterback being so effective and efficient.

Except Brady, of course.

"You can't get into a hole like that against a team that good and a quarterback that good," Steelers receiver Mike Wallace said.

As good as ever against Pittsburgh, Brady was more emotional than usual — screaming during huddles, yelling at linemen for penalties — perhaps reflecting his unhappiness at losing 34-14 the week before at Cleveland.

"That's the NFL," coach Bill Belichick said. "If you knew what was going to happen in this league (from week to week), you'd make a lot of money."