Unconventional Pats are tossin' in a winter wonderland

"That really sold it," Belichick said. "No, he wasn't supposed to drop it."

It was probably gratifying to see that the play came at the expense of Smith. At one point early in the game, Brady could be seen yapping at Smith.

"There's always a little jawing," Brady said. "I don't care to repeat what I said, especially if my mother reads it. She wouldn't be very happy with what I said."

The Patriots were coming off two close games, including one last Monday against the Baltimore Ravens in which they needed a last-minute touchdown to win it. That had some speculating that the Patriots were now beatable, and might be why Smith made his guarantee.

If they are beatable, it isn't because of their offense. Brady took every blitz the Steelers threw at him -- and they threw out a bunch -- and carved them up with the precision of greatness.

The best example of the trust the Patriots have in their passing game came in the fourth quarter. Leading 31-13, they stopped the Steelers on a fourth-and-goal from the one with 13:27 left in the game. Backed up in their own end, it would have seemed like a perfect time to back away from the throw-first style and bunch it up and run it to burn some clock.

Most teams would have sent in their jumbo package to get the ball out from underneath the goalpost. New England went five wide.

"It says we have a lot of cojones," said one Patriots player. "It also says how much trust they have in that quarterback."

Brady hit five consecutive passes to Wes Welker to move the ball from the 1 to the Steelers 36. The drive eventually bogged down, ending with a Stephen Gostkowski field goal, but the point was made:

We're brazen enough to do it our way.

Why not? They have Brady. They also have a coach with skins on the wall who isn't afraid to buck conventional thinking. And they have an offense catered to spreading it out and throwing it.

Running into the teeth of the Steelers defense isn't a wise thing to do. They are second against the run, which would put teams in obvious passing situations. Then they can dictate to you.

The Patriots would have none of that. They did all the dictating, which is what they've done all season long.

"We just run the plays the coaches call out there," Welker said. "We just execute what they call."

That's what you get from the Patriots players, a notebook full of coach-speak. That's what Belichick wants. It's the old-fashioned way.

But don't ever mistake this team for being an old-fashioned team. The Patriots do it their way, thumbing their noses up at all those run-first mantras.

"If that is the measuring stick," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of the Patriots, "we're not close."

Who is? It's because the Pats don't follow the rules ... and we're not talking about any "spygate" talk here, either. We're talking on-the-field stuff.

Don't throw in cold weather. Yeah, right.

Don't throw as much in December. Not a chance.

Don't pass from your own 1 with a lead? Don't even go there.

Maybe for the rest of the league, those things apply. But not with this team -- which is why the Patriots are on the threshold of greatness we've never seen before.