Pats fan here. First off let me say how STUPID it was for the Steelers to look past you guys. I have no idea why they just assumed they would win. The Patriots certainly won't do the same. You obviously have a very talented team.

As for how to beat the Patriots you need to do a few things.

#1 Get pressure on Brady with 4 while stopping the run. If you send only 4 and drop 7 Brady will audible to a run until you prove you can stop it with 4 guys and your LBs 5 yards deep.
#2 Cover in man. Brady tends to crush zone. Our WRs are good but not great talents really. They can be taken away man to man with your DBs a fair amount I think.
#3 Limit the RBs and Gronk. There is no solution to stop Gronk 1v1. You need to bracket him to limit him. If you put too many guys on Gronk it will create a weakness. The way to deal with Gronk is to accept the loss of the mismatch but not letting it kill you and don't let other players go off. The RBs are going to be hard for your team to deal with I think. If Rex Burkhead is back it will be even harder. White/Lewis alone are dangerous enough and I expect them to go with that a lot.

Do those 3 things on D and you will slow the Pats offense down. On Offense you need to...

#4 Give up the run up the middle. The Pats won't give it to you. Once you realize it won't work you need to quickly walk away from it except for very short downs. Focus on runs to the outside as they have a better chance.
#5 Patients between the 20s and force the issue in the redzone. The Pats give up a lot of yards but not points. You can get into the redzone playing safe but once there guys won't usually be open. If you get a 1 on 1 challenge the CBs with a 50/50 ball. The Patriots CBs aren't great at making solo plays isolated.
#6 FGs will not help you. Settle for them only when needed. You are probably not going to win a straight up game and so need to take a few measured risk. 4th and 1 in FG range is a go for first situation. To win you need to put up multiple TDs. I'd Guess you'd need 30 points most likely and maybe more. FGs just won't be enough.

That is how I see it. BTW. Vegas has the spread at 9 points. Seems kind of large to me. I don't know what you are still not getting any respect.

---