Steelers snap slide, while Seahawks clinch division 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 trailing 21-7 and 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.
One 39-yard rope from the player who has symbolized the team’s erratic play perhaps more than any other provided that jolt. It revived Pittsburgh’s floundering season and delivered the Steelers the AFC North title.
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 three- game slide, snapped out of it while completing 34 of 49 passes for 342 yards.
The reward is at least one home playoff game. The Steelers (12-3) sported Tshirts that read “Won Not Done” during a celebration fueled equally by joy and relief. The swag had been at the ready for a few weeks only to be shelved as losses to Washington, Buffalo and, shockingly, Cincinnati piled up.
“It’s a fine line between drinking wine and squashing grapes and sometimes it was very subtle,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
Maybe, but the difference between the team that went into the locker room bullied and the one that outscored the Colts 21- 0 over the final 18:16 was not. The defense kept Philip Rivers, rookie running back Jonathan Taylor and Indianapolis out of the end zone in the second half.
Johnson sparked the rally with a diving grab as he sailed across the goal line.
Pittsburgh scored on its next two possessions, a 5-yard flip from Roethlisberger to Eric Ebron and a 25-yard dart from Roethlisberger to JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Indianapolis (10-5) , so dominant during a first half in which it outgained the Steelers 206-28, had two chances to reclaim the lead. The first drive ended with Rivers throwing an interception deep in Pittsburgh territory. The second ended with Rivers’ heave to Zach Pascal sailing high on fourth down.
Rivers finished 22 of 35 for 270 yards with a touchdown. Taylor ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns but basically disappeared over the final two quarters.
“Very disappointed,” Indianapolis coach Frank Reich said. “We had a bad game, a bad half and we weren’t able to finish it off. We’ve got to learn from it.”