The National Football League announced today that the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play in Wembley Stadium in London England next October 25th.

It is the third consecutive season that the NFL will play a game in London with the New York Giants beating the Miami Dolphins in 2007 and the New Orleans Saints defeated the San Diego Chargers this season, both previous games have sold out.  This is expected to as well.  CBS will televise the matchup and will show it at 1 p.m. Eastern Time (5 p.m. London time).

Tampa Bay will be considered the home team and will give up one home game at Raymond James Stadium.

The Result

The Pittsburgh Steelers came into Gillette Stadium and played a very efficient Steeler like football game that saw some good pass plays, some solid runs, excellent defense and they capitalized on turnovers and came out with their first win ever at the Razor 33-10 over the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon.

Pittsburgh basically took what New England gave them which in the second half was alot. You are not going to beat a good football when you play like that.  Poor special teams, poor defense, turnovers on offense just don’t lead to victories on Sundays.

New England now drops to 7-5 when they had a great opportunity to gain some ground with the Jets also losing but instead are still one game out of first in the AFC East and tied for second with Miami who beat St. Louis.  Pittsburgh improved to 9-3 on the season and are 8-1 in the conference.

Scoring Plays

1^st Quarter

• NE – Morris 2 yard run – Gostkowski PAT
• PIT – Reed 20 yard FG

2^nd Quarter

• NE – Gostkowski 29 yard FG
• PIT – Roethlisberger 19 yard pass to Ward – Reed PAT

3^rd Quarter

• PIT – Reed 25 yard FG
• PIT – Roethlisberger 11 yard pass to Ward – Reed PAT
• PIT – Reed 20 yard FG

4^th Quarter

• PIT – Reed 45 yard FG
• PIT – Russell 1 yard run – Reed PAT

Offensive Player of the Game

Pittsburgh RB Willie Parker who sat for most of the first half had 87 yards on 16 carries.

Defensive Player of the Game

Pittsburgh LB James Harrison had 7 tackles (5 solo) and two strip sacks of Matt Cassel.

Turning Point(s) of the Game

The fumble by Matthew Slater on the kick off return after the Steelers took a 13-10 lead.  It led to a Pittsburgh TD and a quick 10 point lead.  Then Cassel gets stripped sack on the next possession and Reed kicks another FG and it was a 13 point lead just like that in 2:49.

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Welcome to another live blog…Once again it’s another big game for the Patriots as they face the Steelers at the Razor.  A New England win will at least keep them one game behind the Jets (if not tied) and improve their chances within the conference for getting into the playoffs. 

We use the Cover it Live software which helps us blog the event in real time with you.  We don’t mind lurkers, really we don’t but we’d rather have you involved and commenting and maybe adding some insight.  It’s easy to get involved too.  When the BLOG GOES LIVE, pick a screename, enter in the box you will see near the bottom the commentary box and then send us your comments.

After dismantling the Miami Dolphins 48-28 in a trash talking, belligerent, fist throwing effort last Sunday in Miami, the Patriots move onto their next opponent the hated black and gold of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Outside of the AFC East the Steelers and the Colts rank up their as rivals on the Patriots list and lately the Patriots have gotten the best of Pittsburgh having only lost once in the six meetings.  Last year it even got ugly in a 34-13 win at Gillette as Tom Brady and Company shredded the Steelers defense.  This year though it’s a different story, the Pittsburgh defense is #1 in points allowed, rushing yards, passing yards and total yards allowed and last New England saw Brady he was serving Thanksgiving dinner at Goodwill HQ in Roxbury with Gisele as he recovers from his season ending injury.

If you missed it you can get all the info you need on the Steelers – Patriots game by checking out the Official Sox & Dawgs Steelers – Patriots Week 13 preview.  It has the rosters, injury report, the game line, some tailgating information for recipes and drink’s and the broadcast information for the game.

So as we wait for the live blog to begin just before game time it’s time to hit you with some tidbits from the week.

After a freak injury, three surgeries because of that injury, being in a wheelchair and shutting out the outside world, former Patriots WR David Givens, is finally returning back to his normal self.

Patriots DE Richard Seymour says the game plan is to be ready for Sunday.

Rookie LB Vince Redd played the part of Joey Porter in practice last week and it even came with trash talking.

Speaking of Porter the league also handed him a fine for “verbally abusing an opponent after the play was over”.

Patriots OL Matt Light avoided a suspension for his fight with Dolphins LB Channing Crowder.

ESPN’s Tim Graham wonders if Matt Cassel can put up 400 yards on Pittsburgh.

In a division full of talkers, Bill Belichick doesn’t believe in the rah-rah pep talk to motivate his players.

New England will look to improve its red zone defense.

The Steelers last five games are no cakewalk.

Matt Cassel was the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this year.

The Globe’s Mike Reiss has his Bits from Belichick and a few minutes with Patriots S Ray Ventrone.

The Hall at Patriot Place has a few new items for display.

This Week

The New England Patriots welcome the Pittsburgh Steelers to Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA on Sunday at 4:15 p .m.

The Patriots are 4-2 at the Razor and 5-4 against the AFC. The Steelers 4-1 on the road and 7-1 against the AFC.

Here are the rosters for the Steelers and Patriots.

Here are the projected starting lineups for the game.

The Line/Prediction

As of Thursday the line on the game from Yahoo! Sports is Patriots -1. The over/under is 39.5.

My prediction is Patriots 23, Steelers, 21. Give the points (Patriots) and take the over.  I am 5-5-1 against the spread and 6 of 11 on calling the over/under in 2008.

Tickets

The Patriots are reporting the game as a sell out. It is the 158th consecutive sellout dating back to the 1994 season opener. The record includes preseason, regular season and playoff games.

Tickets to the game, if available, may be purchased through Ticketmaster. You can check the availability here.

Getting To The Game

If you’re lucky enough to be going to the game at the Razor make sure you check out the links.

Here is the up to date weather forecast for the game from The Weather Channel.

Click for stadium directions, parking information, parking map, specific MBTA train times for this game and a Gillette Stadium seating chart.

Tailgating

Here’s a bunch of different tailgating recipes from Tailgaiting America. There’s something there for everyone and every type of meal or snack. I’ve tried some of the recipes and they’re very good and for good measure here is one of my own.

And with tailgating many people enjoy some adult beverages. With that in mind check out Drink Nation for how to make all sorts of great drinks. You can look things up by name, ingredient(s) or by theme.

Whether it’s at the game, a bar or someone’s house moderation is always the key to a great time. Please don’t drink and drive and designate a sober driver. Remember You Drink, You Drive, You Lose.

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New England Patriots OL Matt Light has avoided a suspension for his participation in a fight with Miami Dolphins LB Channing Crowder during last Sundays 48-28 win in Miami.  The NFL has fined both players $15,000 for their activities which the league determined was instigated by Crowder with extreme verbal abuse as reported by the game officials.

The incident occurred in the fourth quarter on a Stephen Gostkowski field goal attempt when a tussel began amongst some players on the field where Crowder lost his helmet and Light was seen holding him by the dreadlocks and punching him repeatedly.  Both players were ejected.

This is extremely good news for the Patriots who need Light on Sunday as they will try to protect QB Matt Cassel from the league’s top rated defense of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For the second time this season New England Patriots QB Matt Cassel has been named AFC Offensive Player of the Week by the NFL.

Cassel earned the award for his Week 12 performance against the Miami Dolphins when he threw for 415 yards and 3 TDs plus ran for another.  That gave Cassel back-to-back 400+ yard performances and in doing so became only the fifth post merger QB to hold that distinction.  Cassel also won the award for Week 7 this season and he Peyton Manning are the only players to win the award twice this season.

Cassel, who is currently keeping the field warm for injured MVP Tom Brady, will be a free agent at the end of the season.

You can still vote for Cassel for the FedEx Air Player of the Week Award at nfl.com/fedex until 11 a.m. on Friday.  How many of these things are there?

New England Patriots QB Matt Cassel is one of three quarterbacks nominated for the FedEx Air Player of the Week honors.  Cassel threw for 415 yards on Sunday against Miami, it was his second game in a row with at least 400 yards passing.

Also nominated are New Orleans QB Drew Brees and Dallas QB Tony Romo.

Fans can vote until 11 a.m. on Friday by going to nfl.com/fedex

What a win that was for the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon in Miami.  As we Patriots fans know Miami has always been the teams personal house of horrors and even with the win there yesterday it only improved New England’s overall record in South Florida to 12-32.  But it was a gratifying win as it kept the Patriots in the chase for the AFC East title and it was a much need win in the division and the conference.  I will say this the Miami ship has been righted and they are for real.

Let’s start where we always do on Tuesdays and that’s with head coach Bill Belichick’s Patriots Monday visit on WEEI.

In case you want to see some highlights from the Dolphins game here is the video package from NFL.com

The win could be costly though as the NFL office is going to review the play that led to the fourth quarter fight between New England OL Matt Light and Dolphins LB Channing Crowder.  Both players were ejected and you can expect at least fines if not suspensions for the punch throwing incident.

ESPN’s Tim Graham takes a look at Patriots QB Matt Cassel’s extraordinary afternoon on Sunday.  Cassel became just the fifth QB since the 1970 merger to throw for back-to-back 400 yard games.  He joins Billy Volek, Phil Simms, Dan Marino and Dan Fouts as the only guys to do it.

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The Week 14 matchup between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks that was originally scheduled for NBC Sunday Night Football has been flexed out of primetime by NBC who has the choice between the original game and a handful of games from CBS and FOX that weren’t protected.

In it’s place the network has chosen the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Ravens game for it’s national primetime broadcast on Sunday December 7th.  The Patriots, who visit the Seahawks that day, have been moved to CBS and will be shown starting at 4:05 p.m. with Dick Enberg and Randy Cross calling the game.