Heinz Field

An empty Heinz Field stadium before the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New England Patriots. By Zuri Berry, Globe Staff PITTSBURGH -- Good afternoon from Heinz Field where the Pittsburgh Steelers will host the New England Patriots today. It's currently 34 degrees in Pittsburgh, with a high 48 degrees expected during today's game and winds topping out at 10 miles per hour. It's partly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of rain. The Patriots, coming off the bye week, are on a three-game winning streak, having bested the Dallas Cowboys most recently in Week 6, 20-16.

FOXBOROUGH - Ask Bill Belichick, ask Tom Brady, ask anyone who has spent any time with Deion Branch what has made him so effective as a receiver with the Patriots, and one word comes up before any other: instinctive. He isn't the first pass-catcher that's been said about, nor the first football player. But what exactly is instinctiveness? In the case of Branch, it is this: Game 7, Heinz Field, third quarter of a game New England ultimately would lose to the Steelers. In the first half, Branch noticed the home crowd stand up and yell and cheer a couple of times; when Branch looked behind him to...

By Steve Silva, Globe Staff The Globe's Chris Gasper breaks down his three keys for the Patriots to focus on when they face the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday at Heinz Field: This week's keys to victory detailed in the video embedded above: 1. Slow down Pittsburgh wide receiver Mike Wallace 2. Win the battle against the Steelers offensive line 3. Beat the Steelers blitz

FOXBOROUGH - Ask Bill Belichick, ask Tom Brady, ask anyone who has spent any time with Deion Branch what has made him so effective as a receiver with the Patriots, and one word comes up before any other: instinctive. He isn't the first pass-catcher that's been said about, nor the first football player. But what exactly is instinctiveness? In the case of Branch, it is this: Game 7, Heinz Field, third quarter of a game New England ultimately would lose to the Steelers.

This week's picks... Peter King, Sports Illustrated : Steelers 26, Patriots 24. Game of the Week, obviously. Hard to pick against the Patriots, because of their recently resurgent defense (18.7 points per game allowed in the last three), but I do so because of Pittsburgh's deep passing game. Between them, Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown are averaging 17.9 yards per catch. I expect bombs away by Ben Roethlisberger in this one. ESPN.com staff : Six out of 10 pick the Patriots.

PITTSBURGH - A terrible field and dreadful weather caused the Dolphins and Steelers to rewind to a different NFL era, a time when points came at a premium and one field goal could decide a game. They trudged through the quagmire of Heinz Field, nearly going all night without scoring. Nearly. Jeff Reed's 24-yard field goal with 17 seconds left last night gave Pittsburgh a 3-0 victory over winless Miami, the first time in 64 years an NFL game went that long without any points.

PITTSBURGH - So there is a home-field advantage in the Bengals-Steelers rivalry, bad field and all. Hines Ward caught two touchdown passes from Ben Roethlisberger to break the Steelers' all-time record, and Pittsburgh ended a seven-game winning streak by road teams in their AFC North rivalry by winning, 24-10, last night. Getting their offense back after being held to one touchdown in two games by the 3-9 Jets and winless Dolphins, the Steelers (9-3) shook off an early 7-0 deficit to open a two-game division lead over Cleveland and all but eliminate the Bengals (4-8)

The latest incorrect call by National Football League officials didn't affect who won the game, but it cost some bettors. Pittsburgh defeated San Diego Sunday at Heinz Field in the first 11-10 final in NFL history. But the league said yesterday that after Steelers safety Troy Polamalu returned a loose ball 12 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the game, the on-field ruling that Polamalu had scored was incorrectly reversed. With Pittsburgh a 4-point favorite, winners turned into losers and losers ended up winning when a game that should have ended up 17-10 or 18-10...

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Steelers' offense and defense held up and, how's this for a change, so did their swampland of a playing field. The Cincinnati Bengals couldn't stand up, and that likely means another quiet January for a team that almost never plays past December. Hines Ward caught two touchdown passes from Ben Roethlisberger to break the Steelers' record for career scoring catches, and Pittsburgh ended a seven-game winning streak by road teams in its AFC North rivalry with the Bengals by winning, 24-10, Sunday night.

PITTSBURGH - John Madden remembers the ice, Dan Pastorini the insufferable rain. Fred Taylor almost called a lawyer over it. Doug Brien lost a job because of it. No team embraces home-field advantage like the Pittsburgh Steelers do, for better or worse - and, for decades, they've been known for having one of the NFL's worst fields. No matter whether it was Three Rivers Stadium's hard-as-concrete artificial surface or Heinz Field's invisible grass, this is a turf on which many fear to tread, especially in the brutal cold and whipping winds of what Steelers coach Mike...

PITTSBURGH - There was reason for optimism. As poorly as the Patriots had played against the Steelers yesterday, in all three phases of the game, in the waning seconds they still had a chance to win. It would take a last-gasp drive from Tom Brady, but trailing by 6 points with 19 seconds to play, it was possible. Until it wasn't. Starting from his 22, Brady dropped back and was standing tall, surveying the field, and didn't see Brett Keisel coming. The veteran defensive end smacked the ball out of Brady's hand, and in the scrum to recover it, Steelers safety Troy Polamalu punched the ball forward.

The Pittsburgh Steelers spent two months listening to all the things they couldn't do. They couldn't run the ball effectively. They couldn't stop the run. They couldn't stop Tom Brady. They couldn't protect Ben Roethlisberger. Done. Done. Done and done. Halfway through the season, the defending AFC champions are back in their usual spot atop the conference looking down at everyone else following a 25-17 win over New England. Roethlisberger passed for 365 yards and two scores and led a series of clock-consuming drives to lift Pittsburgh...

PITTSBURGH - There was reason for optimism. As poorly as the Patriots had played against the Steelers yesterday, in all three phases of the game, in the waning seconds they still had a chance to win. It would take a last-gasp drive from Tom Brady, but trailing by 6 points with 19 seconds to play, it was possible. Until it wasn't. Starting from his 22, Brady dropped back and was standing tall, surveying the field, and didn't see Brett Keisel coming. The veteran defensive end smacked the ball out of Brady's hand, and in the scrum to recover it, Steelers...

PITTSBURGH -- Airing it out was the plan all along for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were going to throw until Ben Roethlisberger's arm fell off or the Patriots stopped them. Neither happened in Pittsburgh's 25-17 win at Heinz Field on Sunday. Afterwards, Pittsburgh didn't dole out platitudes about the Patriots' pass defense. They provided an air of blunt truth about how they beat the Patriots. Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace said the Steelers knew they could pass against the Patriots' 32d-ranked pass defense.

An empty Heinz Field stadium before the Pittsburgh Steelers host the New England Patriots. By Zuri Berry, Globe Staff PITTSBURGH -- Good afternoon from Heinz Field where the Pittsburgh Steelers will host the New England Patriots today. It's currently 34 degrees in Pittsburgh, with a high 48 degrees expected during today's game and winds topping out at 10 miles per hour. It's partly cloudy with a 10 percent chance of rain. The Patriots, coming off the bye week, are on a three-game winning streak, having bested the Dallas Cowboys most...

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin meant to say he planned to "educate" his team's younger players about the franchise's long-simmering — and largely one-sided — rivalry with New England. Only, Tomlin didn't use "educate. " At least, not at first, instead letting forth a Freudian slip that perhaps more accurately describes how the Steelers feel about their longtime nemesis. "I am going to agitate our guys," Tomlin said before correcting himself. No need. Tom Brady has been agitating the Steelers for a decade.

Cold, wind, and frozen turf. They make Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field and Chicago’s Soldier Field such forbidding places. Just ask the guys who play there. “Some people say it’s a sorry field,’’ Bears cornerback Charles Tillman said, adding that others prefer to describe his home turf with an expletive. “They say what they want, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to play. That’s what we do. We accept it. We just play.’’ Both natural grass fields will be front and center tomorrow when the New York Jets play the Steelers in the AFC Championship game, and the Green Bay Packers take...

The Pittsburgh Steelers spent two months listening to all the things they couldn't do. They couldn't run the ball effectively. They couldn't stop the run. They couldn't stop Tom Brady. They couldn't protect Ben Roethlisberger. Done. Done. Done and done. Halfway through the season, the defending AFC champions are back in their usual spot atop the conference looking down at everyone else following a 25-17 win over New England. Roethlisberger passed for 365 yards and two scores and led a series of clock-consuming drives to lift Pittsburgh...

This week's picks... Peter King, Sports Illustrated : Steelers 26, Patriots 24. Game of the Week, obviously. Hard to pick against the Patriots, because of their recently resurgent defense (18.7 points per game allowed in the last three), but I do so because of Pittsburgh's deep passing game. Between them, Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown are averaging 17.9 yards per catch. I expect bombs away by Ben Roethlisberger in this one. ESPN.com staff : Six out of 10 pick the Patriots.