Steelers cruise through first two games as winning streak hits 16
PITTSBURGH (AP) – In their 73 NFL seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers have never had a start like this. They’ve been 2-0 plenty of times – 15, including five times since coach Bill Cowher’s first season in 1992. But even during their four Super Bowls-in-six seasons run in the 1970s, they didn’t win each of their first two games by 20-point margins.
By beating Tennessee 34-7 on Sept. 11 and Houston 27-7 on Sunday, they’ve improved their two-season winning streak to 16 games, two short of New England’s NFL record they themselves broke last season. It’s the equivalent of a full season without a loss, and the Steelers have now gone a full calendar year without losing during the season.
Their last such loss came a year ago Monday, 30-13 in Baltimore in the game Tommy Maddox injured an elbow and Ben Roethlisberger took over.
Roethlisberger has since gone 15-0 in regular-season starts and, not surprisingly, is off to one of the best starts ever by a Steelers quarterback so far this season. He is 23-of-32 for 472 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, and a 153.6 passer rating that’s just short of the perfect 158.3.
Remember that dreadful preseason in which he could barely complete a pass? Apparently, he doesn’t, either.
Perhaps because of the foresight of an all-knowing NFL schedule maker, the Steelers now play Super Bowl champion New England (1-1) Sunday at Heinz Field. New England’s 27-17 loss Sunday to Carolina prevented both teams from being unbeaten, but it didn’t take anything away from a rivalry that has seen the teams meet twice in the last four AFC championship games.
The Patriots’ 41-27 victory at Heinz Field in the AFC championship game in January was the Steelers’ only loss in the last year and the only one by Roethlisberger in the 17 NFL games he has started, counting the playoffs.
“This is one of those games you circle on your calendar,” wide receiver Hines Ward said Monday. “You’re not going to put all of your chips in one game. But when anyone plays the Patriots, you’re going to play your best. You’re going to have to play your best.”
It would be difficult for the Steelers to play much better than they did in beating the Patriots 34-20 in Pittsburgh last season, during the two-week stretch in which they beat both Super Bowl teams, New England and Philadelphia, in consecutive games.
But that Patriots-Steelers game meant nothing when the teams were rematched 21/2 months later. The Patriots opened a 24-3 lead by halftime and led by as many as 21 points in the second half.
The Steelers may not have changed much defensively since that game, but the Patriots have not seen running back Willie Parker, the NFL’s No. 2 rusher with 272 yards in two games.
Parker had 161 yards against Tennessee and 111 against Houston, and now has more NFL 100-yard games (3) than he does NFL starts (2).
Parker adds a speed element that has never previously existed in the Steelers’ running game, and has run so well that Cowher plans to keep starting him even when Jerome Bettis (calf) and Duce Staley (knee) are ready to play.
Parker sounds like he doesn’t entirely believe his coach, but he isn’t about to argue.
“I’m still not convinced,” he said.
“I don’t care what coach Cowher or anybody thinks. I just need to go out and contribute from week to week and things will work out.”