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 Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes, shattering Steelers safety Anthony Smith's guarantee of a victory, Randy Moss caught two of them and New England crushed Pittsburgh 34-13 on Sunday.
The lopsided victory against the NFL's stingiest defense followed a two-game struggle in which the Patriots (13-0) needed late comebacks to beat teams with losing records, Philadelphia and Baltimore.
They had a short week to prepare for the Steelers (9-4) after beating the Ravens on Monday night on a touchdown with 44 seconds left.
Still, the Patriots became the fifth team with a 13-0 record, joining the 1934 Chicago Bears, 1972 Miami Dolphins, 1998 Denver Broncos and 2005 Indianapolis Colts. They can become the first team since the 1972 Dolphins to finish a regular season undefeated; those Dolphins were 14-0, then won three postseason games for the NFL's only perfect season.
The victory clinched a first-round playoff bye, and the Patriots should be big favorites to take a 15-0 record into their season finale at the New York Giants.
The Steelers would have clinched a playoff berth with a victory, but still lead the AFC North.
Brady is four scoring passes shy of Peyton Manning's record of 49 set in 2004 and moved ahead of Dan Marino's 44 in 1986 into third place. Marino holds the second spot with 48.
Moss caught touchdown passes of 4 and 63 yards in a span of 1:59 midway through the first half and has 19 to move into second place for a season. Jerry Rice's record of 22 is in sight.
Brady also threw scoring passes of 56 yards to Jabar Gaffney and 2 yards to Wes Welker.
It was a beating like so many of those the Patriots handed out in their first 10 games, when their average victory margin was 25.4 points.
There may have been extra satisfaction because Smith was burned on both long touchdown passes.
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Just before the 2-minute warning at the end of the game, the fans began chanting "Guarantee!" to mock Smith, whose picture was shown on the scoreboard.
The Steelers were unlikely victims. They started the day allowing just 12.9 points per game with only one reception of more than 40 yards. The Patriots had two catches of over 50.
Both of them put Smith in the spotlight, as he had been on Wednesday when he guaranteed a Pittsburgh victory.
On the 63-yard touchdown to Moss, Smith took a few steps forward and Moss flew by him and had at least a 10-yard edge on Smith when he caught the ball. Then came a strange play in which Moss was the middleman.
Brady lateraled toward Moss standing on the right side. Moss dropped the ball, picked it up and lateraled back to Brady. The quarterback lofted as pass to Gaffney, who caught it in the end zone as Smith jumped and swatted at the ball but missed.
Brady finished 32-of-46 for 399 yards and no interceptions. The Patriots all but abandoned the run at halftime and gained 22 yards on nine carries for the game.
The Steelers led 3-0 on Jeff Reed's 23-yard field goal, then fell behind 14-3 on Moss' two touchdowns. But Ben Roethslisberger's 32-yard scoring pass to Najeh Davenport cut that to 14-10. Reed added a 44-yard field goal late in the first half.
But the Patriots' defense held the Steelers to 156 yards and no points in the second half.
Moss gained 135 yards and Gaffney had 122 as each caught seven passes. Willie Parker rushed for 124 yards for Pittsburgh.
[Associated Press; By HOWARD ULMAN
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