FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — It looked like it was all going to be so easy, kind of the way it used to always look when Tom Brady faced the Steelers in Gillette Stadium.

Only, this time, the roles were reversed.

The Steelers scored on their first two possessions, watched the New England Patriots turn the ball over five different times and looked as though they were on their way to a blowout victory.

“14-0, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said.

But a funny thing happened on the way to that cakewalk. The running game disappeared, the defense was giving up drives as long as the Ted Williams Tunnel and the offense went dormant from sitting on the bench too long.

“It was one of those weird, disjointed games,” Rodgers said.

And then, when they needed it most,

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