Nov 24, 2013 4 min read

CLEVELAND – As Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin ran into the locker room Sunday following Pittsburgh’s 27-11 dismantling of Cleveland, he yelled out a little reminder.

“Let’s get going, men,” Tomlin said to no one in particular. “It’s Tuesday already.”

Tuesday indeed.

Tomlin’s message was clear. With yet another big game looming Thursday night in Baltimore, the Steelers don’t have time to enjoy their latest victory.

Bigger things loom on the horizon.

“I’m not looking at records, who won, who lost,” said Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. “I don’t even know what’s going on around the rest of the league. The only thing that matters to us is what happened in this stadium.

“It’s all about focus. This game is over now and we can only focus on one game. That’s all we can control.”

And the Steelers control their own fate, thanks to Roethlisberger.

A few weeks ago, a report surfaced that Roethlisberger would seek to be traded in the offseason, and the Steelers would be more than happy to rid themselves of his contract.

Both the Steelers and Roethlisberger quickly denied any such thing was going to happen, but that didn’t stop some from running with the story as if it were a fact.

The fact is that nothing could be further from the truth.

There are plenty of reasons why, but the biggest is this, with the win over Cleveland, the Steelers are now 37-11 in games started by Roethlisberger against AFC North opponents. More importantly, he’s 18-5 in AFC North road games.

Entering Sunday, no team in the AFC North had won a road game against a division opponent.

Now, there is one.

As long as winning your division remians the easiest way to earn a playoff spot, Roethlisberger isn’t going anywhere.

The Steelers probably aren’t going to win their division this season. Their 0-4 start pretty much guaranteed that.

But they’re very much alive in the AFC wildcard race. And Roethlisberger has been a huge part of that, just as he was a huge part of the team’s horrible start.

Roethlisberger had five touchdowns passes and five interceptions in the first four weeks. Since then, he’s thrown 14 touchdowns with five interceptions.

In other words, after a slow start, he began playing like an elite quarterback again. And you don’t trade an elite quarterback unless you have a viable replacement. The Steelers do not.

In the last two games, the Steelers have put the offense in Roethlisberger’s hands, allowing him the freedom to run more no-huddle, which he has longed for since joining the Steelers in 2004.

It’s working.

And the Steelers just might no-huddle themselves right into the playoffs.

With this latest win, the Steelers joined a logjam of AFC teams at 5-6.

One of those teams is going to make the playoffs. It says here that the Steelers have the best quarterback of that group.

With two Super Bowl victories and three trips to the NFL championship game, Roethlisberger is certainly the most accomplished.

If he can take the Steelers into the postseason after that horrendous first month, it just might be his biggest accomplishment.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.