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Steelers offense lethal in many ways

By Chris Bradford cbradford@calkins.Com 5 min read
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Steelers Antonio Brown and Darrius Heyward-Bey celebrate a touchdown catch as Broncos DB Chris Harris Jr. watch during the game on Sunday.

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Steelers WR Markus Wheaton catches a pass during the game against the Broncos on Sunday.

PITTSBURGH — Whoever said the NFL is an acronym for the “No Fun League,” hasn’t been watching the goalpost-climbing, front-somersaulting, bow-taking and whatever-that chest-bumping-finger-pointing-thing-Mike-Tomlin-did Steelers lately.

When you’re winning in the manner in which Pittsburgh has been during its current 5-1 stretch, it’s fun. When you’ve put up a franchise record 30-or-more points in each of the last six games, it’s fun. And when you’ve got an offense that not even the NFL’s top-ranked defense could stop, you better believe, that’s fun.

The Steelers are 9-5, a six-seed in the AFC, in control of their own playoff destiny and have become the one team that no one — not even the one in Foxborough, Mass. — wants to play anytime soon. The Steelers are not only wining, they’re dictating the terms in which they’ve done so. “Unstoppable” might be a bit much, see the first half of last week’s 34-27 win over Denver, but let’s just say confidence is high going into Week 16 at Baltimore.

“We just play Steelers football,” said running back DeAngelo Williams. “We’re not trying to let other defenses dictate what we do. Now we do take advantage of what the defense gives us, but we have Seven (Ben Roethlisberger) in the game and the playmakers that we have and the offensive line blocking the way they’ve been blocking, the sky’s the limit for this team.

“We’re going to continue to play football and have fun and see what the score says at the end of the game.”

Beginning with their Week 9 win over Oakland, the score has read 210-140 in Pittsburgh’s favor. Since that win over the Raiders, the Steelers have averaged 35 points per game. That’s not just good but unprecedented in franchise history. It’s an impressive run but one that doesn’t weigh heavily on the minds of the players.

“For me, not really,” receiver Markus Wheaton said. “As long as we win the game, everyone’s happy. Obviously, we came here to win games whether it’s 10-7 or that game we just played (Sunday).”

Therein lies the beauty of the Steelers offense. Try to shut down the NFL’s fifth-ranked pass offense? Well, good luck with that. Not even Denver’s “No Fly Zone” could contain Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown for long. Even if an opponent can take away the pass, there’s always Williams and the Steelers’ 12th-ranked run game, which is seventh in yards per carry (4.7), to fall back on.

Making the Steelers even more dangerous has been Roethlisberger spreading the ball around even more of late. It’s not been just Brown, though, obviously, he remains a huge part of it. The emergence of Wheaton and the third-year pro’s increased role in the offense has coincided with the Steelers’ run.

Over the past four games, beginning with his career-best 201-yard performance at Seattle in which Seahawks corner Richard Sherman held Brown to 51 yards, Wheaton has 22 receptions for 378 yards and three touchdowns, including a 9-yard catch from Roethlisberger in the fourth quarter against Denver. Prior to that, in Weeks 1-10, Wheaton had 16 receptions for 273 yards and one TD, 72 of those yards and the TD came in Week 5 at San Diego.

Though he didn’t score a touchdown against Denver, matching a career-high two-game scoring “drought,” Martavis Bryant reached career highs in targets (14) and receptions (10) against the Broncos.

One of those catches was a crucial 10-yard grab on a third-and-9 in the third quarter which extended an eventual scoring drive. Though he’s best known for his go-routes and fades into the end zone, Bryant wrested the ball away from Denver cornerback Aquib Talib over the middle. The effort didn’t go unnoticed by his coach.

“We want consistent combat catches not only from him but from all the other guys,” Tomlin said on Tuesday. “I thought that was very positive aspect in Markus Wheaton’s game, for example, last week (against Cincinnnati). I thought he made some traffic catches, some catches in between the hashes. We’re going to need that from all our guys as this thing gets thick.

“Obviously, Antonio gets a lot of attention — and rightfully so — but when called upon, we expect those guys to deliver plays for us and some of those are going to be sticky. All those guys have the skill set to deliver those types of plays.”

No, maybe the Steelers aren’t unstoppable. But they can win any which way a defense plays it, and winning is something the Steelers have done more than most lately.

“We came out here to win a game, and that’s what we wanted to whether that’s running for 200 yards or passing the way did (55 times for 380 yards on Sunday),” Wheaton said. “Either way would have been cool.”

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