Steelers win AFC North crown
506 yards and two touchdowns, completing team records for both 44 completions and 66 attempts with no interceptions. Antonio Brown caught 11 for 213 yards. Le’Veon Bell scored three touchdowns.
Roethlisberger guided the Steelers on the winning field-goal drive that had them backed up at their 8. He completed two big thirddown passes to Jesse James and Brown, the latter for 34 yards to the Ravens 30, in field-goal range.
“Ben does what he does,’’ Bell said. “He never gets rattled.”
Roethlisberger visited Shazier Thursday after practice and said seeing him smile took a weight off his shoulders. Other teammates followed.
The Steelers comeback from 11 points down in the fourth quarter, their eighth consecutive victory, lifted them to 11-2, the best record in the NFL heading into their showdown Sunday at Heinz Field against New England, which is 10-2 and plays Monday night.
If the old Cleveland Browns hadn’t coined the nickname of Kardiac Kids decades ago, the Steelers could claim it this season. Besides winning four of their past five on last-minute field goals, they have won three others by six points or fewer.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to win a football game, by 30 or by 3,’’ Roethlisberger said. “We just want to win the football game.”
The Ravens slipped to 7-6 as they try to keep their playoff hopes alive. Baltimore, which trailed, 14-0, at one point, outscored the Steelers, 17-0, in the third quarter to take a 31-20 lead.
After coming up empty on their first three series of the second half, the Steelers scored on their fourth try, Boswell’s 24-yard field goal that brought them to 31-23 early in the fourth quarter.
They scored a touchdown on their next series, a 1-yard pass from Roethlisberger to fullback Roosevelt Nix. Before that play, Brown caught a medium-length pass and turned it into a 57-yard gain to the 10.
But the Steelers failed on their 2-point conversion to tie it and trailed, 31-29, with 9:15 left.
Then Baltimore scored another touchdown when Javorious Allen ran 9 yards around right end and for the score that put the Ravens ahead, 38-29, with 6:44 to go.
Back came the Steelers on a 68-yard touchdown drive that ended on Bell’s third touchdown of the game, an 11-yard run around right end.
Baltimore opened the second-half scoring with a 47yard Justin Tucker field goal to narrow the Steelers’ lead to 20-17 with 10:06 left in the third quarter.
The Ravens then took their first lead with 5:20 left on Allen’s 1-yard run to cap a 60-yard drive. Joe Flacco’s 6yard pass to Patrick Ricard stretched Baltimore’s lead to 31-20 before the Steelers outscored them, 19-8, in the final quarter.
Baltimore came from down, 14-0, to make a game of it in the second quarter.
The Steelers’ first two drives ended in Bell touchdowns and Boswell polished off the other two with field goals of 52 and 43 yards.
Bell’s second touchdown completed a 90-yard drive with a 1-yard run in which he bulled over Tony Jefferson, victimizing the Ravens safety twice for scores.
The Ravens responded with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco to Chris Moore, making it 14-7.
Boswell ended the Steelers’ third drive with a 52yard field goal for a 17-7 lead.
But Baltimore responded as well. Alex Collins, who had 120 yards rushing, completed a quick, five-play drive covering 85 yards by breaking tackles around right end for an 18-yard touchdown run. It was 17-14.
Boswell’s second field goal boosted the lead to 20-14 as the Steelers scored with one second left in the first half after taking over at their 25 with 1:53 to go.
The Steelers had opened the scoring on their first series after Sean Davis intercepted Flacco and returned it 35 yards to the Steelers 41. Bell polished off that drive when he caught a 20-yard touchdown pass to start the night’s scoring avalanche.