Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown knows a thing or two about catching a football.
In fact, he even proved he could catch a football off a defender's helmet Thursday night.
That defender? Malcolm Butler, who was tasked with trying to contain Brown all game. Butler has gone from undrafted and unheard of last season to the team's No. 1 cornerback this season.
That means he'll see plenty of talented wide receivers on a weekly basis. But none of them could be more talented than Brown, who finished with nine receptions for 133 yards and a touchdown - though the touchdown came in the final seconds of the game.
It might seem based on the stats as if Brown dominated Butler, but Brown made a number of impressive catches with Butler on him in tight coverage Thursday night.
Speaking on a conference call the morning after the game, Bill Belichick thought his cornerback held his own.
"First of all, Brown is a great receiver – there’s no doubt about that," Belichick said. "I thought Malcolm competed really well. Both guys made some plays. But, I agree with you – it won’t get much tougher than that. Antonio is really a good player that’s good in the deep part of the field, he’s good on catch and run plays – the screens they try to throw to him and the under routes and stuff like that and the intermediate routes. He ran a real good route on a double move.
"I think it was a good battle. Hopefully we can learn from it all the way around. I thought it was a great battle. They’ve got a great receiver and a great quarterback. There were a couple plays there and even the play on the sideline to [Markus] Wheaton, the coverage obviously wasn’t good enough, but it was a great throw and a great catch. Sometimes you’ve got to give it to them and say it was a great play."