Monday night magic: The Steelers won their 23rd consecutive home Monday night game when they defeated the Miami Dolphins, 28-15, at Acrisure Stadium.
The win also moved Coach Mike Tomlin into 10th place overall in the NFL with 191 career regular season wins. Tomlin, who was hired by the Steelers in 2007, is in his 19th season with the team. His career regular season record is 191-113-2. Tomlin's 191 wins put him in 10th place, right behind Steelers Hall of Fame Coach Chuck Noll, who had 193 career regular season wins over 23 seasons with the team.
After the game though, it was all about the team.
"Man, we love Monday Night Football," said Tomlin. "Mission accomplished. Certainly, we wanted to engineer victory, but we wanted to do it in a certain way.
"That was a hot football team, and they had rode their run game over the last month or so. I think they averaged 192 a game over the last five weeks, so we needed to stop the run, and certainly we needed to run the ball in the effort to flip that component, and I think that made the engineering of the victory more fluid."
The win was one of the most balanced performances of the season, with the offense controlling the scoreboard and time of possession, while the defense was stingy and aggressive.
"It took us a while there to get going, but you got to give a lot of credit to the Dolphins," said Tomlin. "Over that same five-game stretch I think they averaged giving up 13.2 points a game. They've been really stingy in the red area. Only about 20% of those possessions were touchdowns.
"So, we didn't expect it to be easy, but certainly after we got it going, we had a little bit of fluidity there."
Weathering the storm: When the Steelers signed quarterback Aaron Rodgers this offseason, they did it for games like Monday night against the Dolphins.
Rodgers completed 23-of-27 passes (85.2%) for 224 yards, and two touchdowns and a passer rating of 125.9.
He also kept the offense balanced, as the ground game put up 135 yards and the Steelers controlled time of possession, 33:33-26:27.
The Steelers scored on four straight possessions, including ending the first half with a touchdown and opening the second half with a touchdown.
"Yeah, it's been a while," said Rodgers. "Probably not this year.
"It was slow going. We had to be efficient. Dink and dunk at times and take what was there. Once we started to run the ball, everything opened up. The action game opened up. We had a couple of keepers, finally converted some third downs, held the football.
"That drive was a big one after they got the field goal, right, to go up 3-0. They had the short kick and went 60. For us to keep the ball for the last four, whatever it was on the clock and give them no time was good. Then we came out and we got a first down and we scored.
"So that was good to double up like that. Kept the momentum going.
"A lot of guys made plays today. We would like to get some more opportunities for DK (Metcalf), but Kenny (Gainwell). Pat (Freiermuth) had some nice plays. Marquez (Valdes-Scantling) had a touchdown, that was awesome. Asante Samuel had a pick. Junior I should add, because I played against his dad (Asante Samuel Sr.)."
With the win over the Ravens last week, this is the first time the Steelers have had back-to-back wins since they won three straight in Weeks 3-6.
"These are two huge games," said Rodgers. "Obviously, division game is the most important game. These guys have won four straight coming in. We know the first way to get to the playoffs is to win your division.
"Having beaten Baltimore already there is tiebreakers that come into effect, including divisional record, conference record, so winning your AFC games are really important. Keeping the one-game lead plus the head-to-head is big as well."
With the temperature at kickoff 17 degrees, and dropping, and the wind chill of 7, it could have made for tough sledding in the passing game.
Not for Rodgers, though, who had a stretch of 13 straight completions.
"Probably the cool weather," said Rodgers. "I'm a California kid but always enjoyed playing in the cold weather. Feel like there can be some advantages to the offense, especially when you're playing on a field that's a little beat up or super slick like Green Bay became over the years.
"So, I've always enjoyed that. I'm gifted with hands that can handle a cold ball, a ball that's a little slick when the weather gets cold like that. Always been able to throw pretty good.
"Doesn't tell the whole story. There were some nice catches, good adjustments, dink and dunks, but I knew I needed to be efficient today, especially if they played a bunch of shell, and I felt like we were pretty efficient."
Time to play their best ball: It is something that is preached weekly in the Steelers locker room by everyone on defense.
Stop the run.
And on Monday night, the defense did just that.
Dolphins running back De'Von Achane was held to just 60 yards on 12 carries, and overall, the Dolphins had only 63 yards rushing.
"I thought we were able to limit as much as possible," said defensive tackle Cameron Heyward. "Got off the field early in some instances.
"I thought our tackling was a lot better. One play I loved was PQ (Patrick Queen) on that third down late in the second half, really shooting the gap.
"I just felt like a lot of guys played downhill from there."
The defense was missing linebacker T.J. Watt, who was out due to the lung issue that occurred last week.
While you always miss a player like Watt, others did step up.
"Obviously we miss T.J., but I think we've had other guys step up," said Heyward. "In the past we haven't really had Alex (Highsmith), Nick (Herbig), Jack (Sawyer) to kind of make up that collective. But it's not a one-man team, a one-man defense.
"We all got to thrive. We all got to play our best ball in December."
And there is no better time than now to play their best ball.
When asked if they are hitting their stride, Heyward responded.
"We'll see," said Heyward. "We've got a lot of work to do.
"We got a lot in front of us, and I love the challenges that are in front of us. I think our group does too."
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