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Harrison forced fumbles by Cassel on his two sacks, which gave him 14 for the season. One led to Reed's 20-yard field goal that made it 23-10. Reed missed his kick after the other one.
"That's what we've come to expect from him," Tomlin said of Harrison.
Troy Polamalu's interception with 9:18 left led to Reed's 40-yard field goal. Then Lawrence Timmons returned another interception 89 yards, setting up Gary Russell's 1-yard touchdown run.
"It's not about Matt Cassel," the quarterback said. "It's about 11 guys on offense trying to get better and I could care less about" his game-by-game progress being stopped.
With more than five minutes left, most of the drenched fans had headed to the warmth of their cars. Some who remained waved yellow-and-black Terrible Towels.
New England scored first on Morris' 2-yard run after Mike Vrabel intercepted Roethlisberger's pass on Pittsburgh's second offensive play. Gostkowski's 29-yard field goal gave the Patriots a 10-3 lead before Roethlisberger's 19-yard scoring pass to Santonio Holmes with 1:55 left in the half.
Roethlisberger went 17-for-33 for 179 yards and one interception as the Steelers converted on 8-of-16 third downs and put up their third-highest scoring game of the season despite coming in ranked only 26th in yards gained.
But the defense was the difference.
"It was unbelievable," Roethlisberger said. "You just get to the sideline, put your coat on, your hat on, and, all of a sudden, you're ready to go back on the field."
Notes: Harrison, with 14 sacks, and Woodley, with 11 1/2, set a club record for most combined sacks by two players. ... Faulk's 41-yard run was the third longest of his 10-year career. ... Both teams had 19 first downs, but the Steelers had an edge of 10 minutes, 10 seconds in time of possession.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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