Oct 18, 2015 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – Forget last week’s improbable win at San Diego on a touchdown run by Le’Veon Bell as time expired.

That was child’s play compared to what the Steelers did in a 25-13 victory over the Arizona Cardinals.

How so?

Consider:

• The Steelers had 1 yard passing in the first half, compared to 233 for the Cardinals, who entered the game as the NFL’s highest-scoring team.

• The Steelers not only lost starting left tackle Kelvin Beachum to a season-ending ACL injury in the second quarter, they were forced to go to third-string quarterback Landry Jones in the third quarter after starter Mike Vick, who had been ineffective to that point, went down with a hamstring injury.

• The Cardinals hit a number of big plays, averaging 7.1 yards per play on their 66 snaps compared to 5.8 yards on 53 plays for the Steelers.

That usually spells defeat for a team but every so often you see something special happen like this at Heinz Field.

“It was just a great team win,” said safety Mike Mitchell, who had an interception in the end zone late in the fourth quarter with the Steelers clinging to an 18-13 lead.

“And that’s what we are, a team. It doesn’t matter who’s in there, we’re going to rally around that player.”

The Steelers like to repeat head coach Mike Tomlin’s mantra of “Next man up.”

It sounds like an overused cliche, meant to convince the backups to play well. But let’s be honest, starters are starters for a reason. They’re better than the backups.

But this team has already shown a great deal of resilience.

The checklist of players one figured the Steelers couldn’t do without going into the season would have included center Maurkice Pouncey, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Beachum, running back Le’Veon Bell and wide receiver Martavis Bryant.

All have missed time and Beachum’s injury is the latest blow. Still, the Steelers have continued to march on, winning four of their first six games.

Heck, the Steelers are even on their fourth placekicker, Chris Boswell. If they had him a few weeks ago in an overtime loss to Baltimore instead of Josh Scobee, they might be 5-1.

“It is unbelievable,” said third-string quarterback Landry Jones, who threw for 168 yards and two touchdowns in his first NFL regular season action subbing for the injured and ineffective Mike Vick.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. The guys are resilient, and it’s the next man up. Whoever is next, they go in there. They play hard. They play the way they’re capable of playing. We showed the world what kind of team we are. I don’t know what the Cardinals’ statistics are. They might be the No. 1 or No. 2 offense in the league and our defense held them to 13 points.”

That has been the key. The overall numbers don’t look like anything special – the Steelers came into the week a mediocre 18th in total defense. But the Keith Butler-led defense has made play after play to give an offense playing without Roethlisberger the past three weeks a chance to win each game. As a result, the Steelers, despite their low overall ranking, also entered the weekend seventh in points allowed.

Yesterday, it was the Steelers turning the tables on the Cardinals, who entered the game with an NFL-best 13 forced turnovers. The Steelers forced three while the Cardinals had none.

That’s how you win a game when the statistics and odds are stacked against you.

Despite all the yards put up by the Cardinals, the defense not only stiffened at the right time, it took the ball away.

As Tomlin has said in each of the past two games, both wins, the defense “held the rope” until the offense could take care of its end of things.

His meaning? The defense weathered the early storm until the offense could make a few plays to win.

With Roethlisberger to return either next week at Kansas City or the following week against Cincinnati, the defense might not have to hold the rope much longer.

“Our coordinator, Keith Butler, has done a great job keeping us in the game,” said Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons, who also had an interception.

“You can bend but you can’t break. An offense like that, they’ll take the roof off. We bent but we didn’t break. We stayed together as a unit.”

And as a team.

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