Ben Roethlisberger didn't want to use the word "crossroads." He did anyway.His team mired in a three-game losing streak and with Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on the other sideline Sunday 鈥?a sight that typically signals doom for Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers 鈥?the longtime quarterback understood his team's enigmatic season had reached a tipping point."Are we going to step up and play? Are we going to divide each other? Who knows?" Roethlisberger said after a taut 17-10 victory. "This was going to be a great challenge for us against a team that is always one of the best. I thought we answered the bell today."In so many ways.Rookie running back Jaylen Samuels ran for a season-high 142 yards in his second NFL start. The defense that looked so vulnerable in the late going during Pittsburgh's recent slide figured out a way to slow Brady and Rob Gronkowski. Embattled kicker Chris Boswell drilled a critical 48-yard field goal in the final minutes White Sony Michel Jerseys , and the Steelers (8-5-1) gave their playoff hopes a welcome jolt."I knew it was a big game, it was a redemption game for last year," said Samuels, a senior at North Carolina State last fall when Pittsburgh collapsed late in a loss to the Patriots. "I just wanted to go out there and give them my all."Forced into action with James Conner missing his second straight game due to a sprained left ankle, Samuels said he's never been a feature back. Funny, the fifth-round pick considered a bit of a project certainly looked like one against New England (9-5). Samuels ran 19 times and caught two passes for 30 yards, including a leaping 20-yard grab on third-and-9 on Pittsburgh's penultimate possession that helped set up Boswell's field goal."I was just staying relaxed, didn't want to stay too tensed up," Samuels said. "Just do what I do. We knew it was going to be a hard-fought game ... it was a pretty good outcome."One that helped Pittsburgh preserve its half-game lead over Baltimore (8-6) in the AFC North with two weeks to go. It also exorcised some demons. The Steelers had dropped five straight to New England and only beaten Brady twice in his storied career. Despite never trailing, their third win over him wasn't assured until Morgan Burnett knocked down Brady's heave to the end zone intended for Julian Edelman with 20 seconds to go."It's a big win for us," Roethlisberger said. "It's that time of year. We need to win this football game."Roethlisberger threw for 235 yards with two first-half touchdowns and two interceptions. Boswell, who has struggled so badly this season the team held open tryouts during the week in search of a possible replacement, atoned for a 32-yard miss in the third quarter by drilling a 48-yarder with 2:30 remaining that provided the final margin."He's our kicker from start to finish and I liked that way he came back and banged that next opportunity, and that's what this thing is about," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "You are going to be tested, we are going to be tested. Sometimes you are going to fail, but you better pass enough of them."MISSED CHANCEA victory would have given the Patriots their 10th straight AFC East title. While they still have two shots at it while finishing the regular season at home Sony Michel Jerseys 2019 , the road issues don't appear to be going away. New England finished 3-5 away from Gillette Stadium, the first time the Patriots have a losing road record since 2009."We haven't played very well on the road," Brady said. "Obviously what we're doing isn't good enough."Brady finished 25 of 36 for 279 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Pittsburgh held tight end Gronkowski to two receptions for 21 yards. Brady flung a jump ball to Gronkowski deep in Pittsburgh territory midway through the fourth quarter that was picked off by cornerback Joe Haden, just Brady's fifth pick in 14 games against the Steelers."I was just trying to flick it out of bounds," Brady said. "Didn't want to take a sack. It shouldn't have happened."The uncharacteristically sloppy Patriots were flagged 14 times for 106 yards, including a handful of offensive holding calls that blunted momentum. The Patriots had a second-and-5 at the Pittsburgh 11 with 37 seconds to go when right guard Shaq Mason was hit with a holding penalty that pushed the ball back to the Pittsburgh 21. The Patriots would get no closer."There's holding on every play in the NFL," Brady said. "It's what we do, we hold. ... If they're calling it, we've got to do a little bit less of it."HE SAID IT"Sometimes you got to cut your eyelids off when you want to blink when it gets thick, and we talk openly about that." Tomlin when talking about his team's ability to deal with adversity.UP NEXTPatriots: Host Buffalo next Sunday. New England is unbeaten at home this season (6-0).Steelers: Visit New Orleans next Sunday. Pittsburgh's last road victory against the Saints came in 1990.Bill Belichick opens up about what makes Dont’a Hightower such a valuable player for the Patriots When the 2017 New England Patriots entered the Super Bowl, they fielded a team that decimated by injury on both sides of the ball. One of the biggest losses was linebacker Dont’a Hightower, who had suffered a torn pectoral muscle in week seven: just eight months after signing a four-year, $35.5 million contract, the team captain and defensive signal caller was therefore placed on season-ending injured reserve.Without Hightower in the lineup, the Patriots defense was shredded by the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL’s title game. Naturally, expectations were sky-high when he returned to the team for offseason workouts and later the regular season. Early on, however Byron Cowart Jersey Boys , the 28-year old did not give New England’s defense the much needed boost and instead oftentimes looked slow and lacking the energy he displayed through his first six years in the league.This all changed in week four against the Miami Dolphins: Hightower was back to being his old, reliable self and quick to the football – instrumental in setting tone and tempo for the entire defense. His presence as one of the unit’s leaders is just one part of what makes him as valuable a player for the Patriots as he is. During a recent conference call, head coach Bill Belichick opened up about the other traits he brings to the table.“High’s a smart player, he can play multiple positions,” Belichick said about the former first-round draft pick. “The mental part of the game seems to come very easy for him, going between Mike or Sam or Will or defensive end or a different position in pass rush on third down. Assignment wise, all those come pretty easily for him, and athletically he has a great combination of size, power, pass rush, zone, man coverage – he’s done all those things for us.”As Belichick notes, New England has not shied away from using Hightower all over the defensive front seven – and he typically responded well and adapted quickly. “How does he know what to do?” the future Hall of Fame coach asked as part of his answer to the questionoriginally posted by NBC Boston’s Phil Perry. “I’m sure it’s a combination of [film study, instinct, and game experience], like it is with a lot of great players.”“You could ask [Patrick] Chung and [Devin] McCourty and Malcom Brown and [Kyle] Van Noy and guys like that all the same question, and I’m sure each play and each situation might give you a little bit of a different answer White Duke Dawson Jerseys ,” continued Belichick. “Through my experience with players, sometimes they can’t even give you an answer. They know, but they just don’t know.”Belichick went on to talk about the instinctive nature of playing the sport and how that translates to the entire communication within the defense, before coming back to talking about Hightower: “Dont’a does a good job of that, and again, because of his experience at all the different linebacker positions, as well as defensive end, I think he has a real good feel for what everybody else needs to know and how important it is that they get the proper communication because he’s played all those spots.”New England’s head coach concluded his answer by also praising the rest of his team’s linebacker corps: “[Hightower] does a great job for us in that area – so do Kyle and [Elandon] Roberts and [Ja’Whaun] Bentley when he was in there. They’re all good communicators. High has the most experience and he does an excellent job of it, but those other guys do a good job, too.”For the Patriots defense to reestablish itself as a unit that can be trusted in high-pressure situations – as opposed to the one that showed up in the aforementioned Super Bowl –, all of the players mentioned by Belichick need to be on top of their game when it comes to communication and chemistry. And the elder statesman of the group, Hightower, might be the most important of them all.