Allowing a total of 12 points in the past three games makes it clear the Steelers have peaked at the right time -- if they can clinch a playoff spot this week
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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If the Steelers make the playoffs as a wild-card team, they will not own the ideal formula for reaching the Super Bowl. But they have found an excellent blueprint for winning games and have followed it to perfection the past three games.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been efficient, dangerous as a deep threat and nearly error-free. Their ground game is at its peak. And their defense is in crushing form.
The Steelers have outscored their past three opponents, 80-12, including two games on the road, where they will play in the postseason if they make it as a wild card.
Their 209 yards rushing Saturday in Cleveland completed their best three-game stretch of the season. They have amassed 541 yards on the ground and Roethlisberger has not thrown an interception in those three games. Yet five of his 20 completions for 25 yards or more came in the past three games.
Then there is their defense. It has allowed three points in the past two games, both on the road, and one touchdown in the past three. The Steelers' defense has allowed an average of 64 yards rushing in the past three games and 146.3 passing, their best three-game stretch in both areas.
Their eight sacks of Browns rookie quarterback Charlie Frye lifted them to 46 with a game to go, surpassing their 41 from last season.
The Steelers have reasserted themselves as a dominant defense, ranked No. 3 in the NFL overall (281.9 yards per game) and No. 2 against the rush (84.2). As a team, the Steelers have allowed the third-fewest points per game in the NFL at 15.8, but one touchdown came on an interception return and another on a blocked field goal. There also was a kickoff returned to their 3 that became a touchdown two plays later.
If not Blitzburgh, their defense certainly is controlling offenses at the perfect time.
"If we do have an opportunity to go into the playoffs, we're going to move that way," linebacker James Farrior said, pointing his finger at the ceiling.
Those 12 points allowed in the past three games are the fewest they have surrendered over such a stretch in the past 51/2 seasons.
"We're peaking at the right time," linebacker Larry Foote said.
No player epitomizes the rising play of the defense better than outside linebacker Joey Porter. His three sacks Saturday left him with 101/2, five over the past three games. That ties his career high from 2000, which is 12th most in one season for the Steelers. He has 53 career sacks and needs one more to move past Greg Lloyd (53.5) and into fifth place in club history.
Porter wears No. 55 after changing his number from the No. 95 issued to him as a rookie after a training camp in which he felt too many people compared him to Lloyd, who previously wore that jersey number. Porter's play as a three-time Pro Bowl at outside right linebacker, though, compares favorably to one of the leaders of the mid-1990s Blitzburgh defense.
Plus, for the second time in the past three seasons, Porter has had to overcome a summer injury. In 2003, he was shot in the buttocks and thigh outside a nightclub in Denver one week before the regular season opened. This year, he had arthroscopic surgery to remove some cartilage in a knee the first week of August.
"I'm definitely healthier than I was in the beginning of the season," said Porter, who has not missed a start this year. "I'm going to go out there and play under any circumstances because I know I have a lot of young guys following my lead."
The linebackers have rounded into top form after earlier injuries. Clark Haggans missed three games in October after groin surgery, yet has a career-high nine sacks. Farrior missed two games in November with a sprained knee ligament.
"Right now, we're getting a lot of guys back healthy," Porter said. "You want to play your best football in the month of December to get you into the month of January, and, right now, we're playing our best football."
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)
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