Guarantee a bust

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The bizarre play seemed guaranteed to fail.

Guarantees, though, had a rough day Sunday when the New England Patriots stayed unbeaten with a 34-13 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes, Randy Moss caught two and Steelers safety Anthony Smith, who guaranteed his team would win, was burned on two long scoring throws.

“It was said, it was documented and it was printed,” Moss said. “We wanted it more.”

Smith didn’t look very good on the weird double lateral play on the Patriots’ first possession of the second half. The gadget play gave them a 24-13 lead against the NFL’s stingiest defense when Jabar Gaffney scored on Brady’s 56-yard pass.

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 ‘72 Dolphins to finish a regular season undefeated. Miami was 14-0, then won three postseason games for the NFL’s only perfect season.

It 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.

Their key play started when Brady threw a low lateral to Moss, who fumbled.

“I bet everybody was like ‘uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh,’ ” Moss said.

But he quickly picked it up and threw back to the NFL’s leading quarterback on a play the Patriots practice rarely.

By the time Brady threw the ball, Smith was sprinting to catch up to Gaffney. He leaped and swatted at the ball, but missed as Gaffney cradled it in the end zone for a touchdown.

The lopsided victory 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.

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.

Patriots 34, Steelers 13

Pit—FG Reed 23

NE—Moss 4 pass from T.Brady (Gostkowski kick)

NE—Moss 63 pass from T.Brady (Gostkowski kick)

Pit—Davenport 32 pass from Roethlisberger (Reed kick)

Pit—FG Reed 44

NE—FG Gostkowski 42

NE—Gaffney 56 pass from T.Brady (Gostkowski kick)

NE—Welker 2 pass from T.Brady (Gostkowski kick)

NE—FG Gostkowski 28

A—68,756.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Pittsburgh, Parker 21-124, Davenport 6-33, Roethlisberger 4-24, Ward 1-0. New England, Maroney 8-18, T.Brady 1-4.

PASSING—Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger 19-32-0-187. New England, T.Brady 32-46-0-399.

RECEIVING—Pittsburgh, Ward 5-39, Miller 4-28, Parker 4-23, Washington 2-29, Wilson 2-23, Davenport 1-32, Holmes 1-13. New England, Welker 9-78, Moss 7-135, Gaffney 7-122, Watson 4-33, Faulk 3-15, Stallworth 1-9, K.Brady 1-7.

MISSED FIELD GOALS—New England, Gostkowski 48 (WR).