Tom Brady still owns the Steelers

Stopping Tom Brady is a tall task for any team, but Mike Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled more than any. The Steelers were unsurprising underdogs against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship, and the team’s horrible history against Brady may have been a factor.

In nine career regular season matchups, Brady is 7-2 record against the Steelers, with one loss coming in 2004 and the other in 2011. Prior to this game, Brady had a 2-0 record against them in two postseason meetings. He’s 3-0 now.

He did again this week. Brady completed 32 of 42 attempts for 384 yards and three touchdowns, trouncing the Steelers and leading the Patriots back to another Super Bowl.

Brady’s statistics have been especially strong against the Steelers since Mike Tomlin took over in 2007. In six games in his career against the Tomlin-led Steelers, Brady has 1,889 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, and no interceptions. But none of those meetings against Tomlin came in the postseason, and the last time the Steelers and Patriots collided in the playoffs was the AFC Championship 12 years ago in January 2005.

Despite the fact that Ben Roethlisberger and Brady, along with Peyton Manning, have largely dominated the AFC for more than a decade, Sunday will be only the second postseason meeting of the two quarterbacks.

But for all Brady’s success against the Steelers, Roethlisberger has performed well against the Patriots too.

His numbers pale in comparison to Brady’s statistics, but in eight regular season meetings, Roethlisberger has thrown for 2,281 yards with 17 touchdowns and six interceptions. His only postseason meeting with New England was during his rookie season, and he finished with two touchdowns and three interceptions.

Still, that 95.4 passer rating in the regular season against the Patriots isn’t close to the 114.2 rating that Brady has in the regular season against the Steelers. And that doesn’t bode well for Tomlin’s chances at solving the Brady puzzle Sunday.