T.J. Watt stopped the early-season criticism on Sunday when he had two sacks.

Those were part of the five sacks the Pittsburgh Steelers had in a 21-14 victory over the New England Patriots in Foxborough. Watt, the star outside linebacker, did not record a sack in the Steelers' first two games, which left the four-time All-Pro open to the critics after signing a three-year, $123-million contract extension in July.

Watt is more pleased with the distribution of sacks than his personal statistics. Nick Herbig, Cole Holcomb, and Cam Heyward had one each as the Steelers raised their record to 2-1.

The Steelers had just three sacks in their first two games.

"We always want to get home. We do," Watt said Monday. "Some weeks it just doesn't happen. Obviously, you want it to happen each and every week. We feel like we've had a unit for a lot of years here, where you look and you see three, four, sometimes six, seven sacks in a game, and we haven't been doing that lately. So, it feels better to be able to get five on the board and be able to contribute as a front."

Patriots quarterback Drake Maye threw for 268 yards and two touchdowns. However, the Steelers were able to put enough heat on the second-year QB to disrupt his timing.

"We knew early on in the game that he had trouble diagnosing coverages," Watt said. "We just threw a different mix of things at him that made him hold the ball, and we were able to get home. Obviously, the guys in the back did a great job. The guys up front just did really well.'

Watt also forced a fumble on Sunday, leading to one of the five Steelers' takeaways. The Patriots lost four fumbles.

The defense keyed on running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who had seven fumbles last season. He lost the ball twice on Sunday.

"It's an interesting thing," Watt said. "We work turnover circuit every day, every week. We always preach the culture. This week, the only difference was that we actually had some victims that have fumbled a lot."