Roethlisberger comes alive to lead Steelers to win, AFC North title
PITTSBURGH — Their once-promising season on the brink of a full-out collapse, the Pittsburgh Steelers headed to the locker room for halftime at Heinz Field on Sunday still searching for the team that began the season with 11 straight victories.
Ben Roethlisberger believed it was still in there somewhere. Even as the losses in December piled up. Even as the offense spent weeks stuck in neutral. Even as attrition pecked away at one of the NFL’S best defenses.
And even as the Steelers spent the first half against Indianapolis seemingly in a full-out sprint to get to the offseason as quickly as possible.
“Sometimes you need a little shock to yourself to believe again,” Roethlisberger said.
Listless and lifeless for the better part of a month, Roethlisberger threw three second-half touchdowns — starting with a third-quarter strike to a fully horizontal Diontae Johnson — as the Steelers rallied past stunned Indianapolis 28-24 to win their first division title since 2017.
The 38-year-old Roethlisberger, who looked every bit his age and then some during Pittsburgh’s recent slide, snapped out of it while completing 34 of 49 passes for 342 yards. He ditched the dink-and-dunk approach that had worked during the early portion of the season but became far too predictable during his team’s December swoon.
The reward is at least one home playoff game. The Steelers (12-3) sported T-shirts that read “Won Not Done” during a celebration fueled equally by joy and relief.
Indianapolis could not have clinched a playoff berth with a victory anyway after Miami and Baltimore won. Still, it would have made the path significantly easier. Now, not so much.
“We gave them (the Steelers) life,” Rivers said. “We’ve been on the other side of those. They were the aggressor as it got to be a 10-point game, a 3-point game and I don’t mean that from a play-calling standpoint, it just had that feel like ‘oh boy,’ and we were trying to hang on.”
Rivers finished 22 of 35 for 270 yards with a touchdown and a pick. Taylor ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns but basically disappeared over the final two quarters.
“Very disappointed,” Indianapolis coach Frank Reich said. “When we had everything to play for, we just didn’t have all the answers in the second half of a game we had to have. I’m not doubting the coaches or the players. We had a bad game, a bad half and we weren’t able to finish it off. We’ve got to learn from it, get better next week and get some help.”
■ NEXT: Steelers at Browns, 10 a.m. Sunday. Jaguars at Colts, 10 a.m. Sunday.