Unconventional Pats are tossin' in a winter wonderland

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It is December, right? Isn't that a time when good defense is supposed to take over, and weather mandates that the running game has to work -- and be used?

That's the conventional thinking, one that your father and his father believed about the NFL ... and one many stodgy coaches have held on to tighter than their game-day asses, but it is not one that has to be followed anymore.

Tom Brady's right arm gets a workout, both in passes and celebrations. (Getty Images)

The New England Patriots are spitting big fat ones into the face of that conventional thinking.

And I love it.

On a cold, frigid day, the kind the old-timers would insist means you need a running attack, the Patriots threw the ball 46 times and ran it nine times in their 34-13 dismantling of the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Gillette Stadium. In one stretch, quarterback Tom Brady threw 32 consecutive passes for the Patriots, who rolled up 399 passing yards. Brady tossed four touchdown passes.

The hand was on the throat of the Steelers defense all day long, and it never let up.

Coming soon to a field near you: a game that won't feature any Patriots runs in my version of NFL heaven.

"We felt like it (passing game) was a good matchup for us," Pats coach Bill Belichick said. "I'd say it was."

You think? It's been that way all year long. The Patriots are 13-0 and three games away from a perfect season because of their nonstop ability to attack the opposition down the field. Brady now has 45 touchdown passes on the season, putting him four away from tying Peyton Manning's record of 49.

The Steelers came in with the top-ranked defense in the league and top-ranked passing defense. But when safety Anthony Smith guaranteed a victory last week, then took a verbal shot at the New England receivers, it was comparable to sticking your arm inside a hornet's nest.

The stings never stopped coming.

Smith was sucked in on two long touchdown passes, one a 63-yard catch by Randy Moss and the other a 56-yard razzle-dazzle toss from Brady to Jabar Gaffney. On that play, Brady threw behind the line and across the field to Moss, who dropped the ball, picked it up and threw back to Brady ... who then threw to a wide-open Gaffney.

Asked if the drop by Moss was part of the play, the seemingly always dour Belichick actually smiled.