FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Dominated in total yards, time of possession and most offensive statistics Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, the Pittsburgh Steelers held an advantage in the most important category:

The scoreboard.

Thanks to a defense that produced five turnovers, the Steelers overcame their offensive struggles and escaped with a 21-14 victory against the New England Patriots on Calvin Austin’s 17-yard go-ahead touchdown catch with 2 minutes, 16 seconds left.

Austin’s back-shoulder reception from Aaron Rodgers on third down represented the first points for the Steelers since early in the second quarter. Despite blowing a 14-0 lead, the Steelers rallied for their first win here since 2008.

The winning drive was set up by Nick Herbig’s strip sack and T.J. Watt’s fumble recovery at the Steelers 38. It was the fifth turnover produced by a defense that got two takeaways in the end zone.

“Without the defense, we definitely wouldn’t be sitting in this locker room cheering and happy we got a win,” said wide receiver DK Metcalf, who caught the other touchdown pass from Rodgers.

Held to one first down on their previous five possessions — and that was courtesy of a pass interference penalty — the Steelers got four on their go-ahead touchdown drive, which covered 62 yards in nine plays.

“The defense came up extremely big in each of those moments,” said Austin, who caught three passes for 34 yards. “Obviously, you want to convert on all of them so we wouldn’t be in this type of game. But sometimes there are games like this. Sometimes you may not win pretty, but it’s about executing at the end.”

After allowing the Patriots to convert four times on fourth down in the game, the Steelers made a fourth-down stop at their 29 with 1:03 left to preserve the win. It was the fifth time the Patriots had a drive end in Steelers territory without any points to show for their work.

Cornerback Brandin Echols, whose interception in the end zone with 7 seconds left in the first half ended one threat, stopped DeMario Douglas for a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-1, enabling to Steelers to run out the clock.

“We put a heavy emphasis on it every week, day-in and day-out. Get the ball back to the offense,” Echols said. “That was our primary focus coming into the game.”

New England ran 71 plays compared to 49 for the Steelers. The Patriots had 26 first downs, the Steelers 17. And the Patriots became the third consecutive opponent to control time of possession, keeping it for 33:20.

The Steelers, though, turned two of those New England turnovers into touchdowns. The Patriots forced just one — a Rodgers interception in the second half — but gave it right back to the Steelers.

“We were able to blow up when we needed to,” said Watt, who had his first two sacks of the season. “We are on the field way too much. Really good, successful defenses spend a lot of time on the bench.”

The Steelers survived the defensive lapses — New England had drives of 17 and 15 plays — thanks to the end zone turnovers. After Echols intercepted Drake Maye at the end of the first half, inside linebacker Payton Wilson pounced on a fumble in the end zone to end New England’s first drive of the third quarter.

The Steelers’ oldest defensive player, defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, had a hand in each turnover. He tipped Maye’s pass that Echols intercepted, and he forced the ball loose from running back Rhamondre Stevenson that led to Wilson’s recovery.

Heyward also had a sack, his first of the season.

“We do a good job of studying our opponents, looking for ways to create turnovers,” Heyward said. “We preached all week that we were going to have some opportunities to punch at that ball. That was very apparent today.”

Stevenson entered the game with 14 career fumbles and added two to his ledger, losing both. Jabrill Peppers, starting at safety in his second game with the Steelers, had another fumble recovery of running back Antonio Gibson.

“From Tuesday on, we were very steadfast about creating turnovers,” Heyward said. “We were very locked in on that, and it paid dividends in the end.”

The offense, meantime, went into hibernation after scoring touchdowns on its first two possessions. Kenny Gainwell scored on a 1-yard run, and Metcalf had a 12-yard touchdown catch on a fade from Rodgers. The Steelers had 53 yards rushing after the first quarter and finished with 64.

“We were feeling pretty damn good about ourselves,” Rodgers said. “Then, I just didn’t play great. We kind of lost our rhythm, too many penalties and negative yardage plays, and we didn’t make them pay when we had opportunities.”

For the next five possessions, the Steelers had five drives that gained a combined 19 yards. It ended with four punts and an interception.

“You’re going to have your ups and downs,” Austin said. “The biggest thing this week is we continued to be ourselves and communicate. There was no panic.”

Rodgers completed 16 of 23 attempts for 139 yards. His last pass turned out to be his most important one of the game as he spotted Austin near the end zone and hit him with a back-shoulder throw for the winning 17-yard score.

“When you’re as gifted as he is, as long as we do our part as receivers, getting open, he’ll put the ball where it needs to be,” Austin said. “That’s the advantage we’ve got with (No.) 8 back there.”

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