Pittsburgh upends Baltimore behind another powerful Roethlisberger effort

Coming into the season, NFL observers pegged the NFC West as the league's finest division. Halfway through this nobody-knows-anything year, and it's clear we were all wrong in both division and conference. The AFC North is the finest top-to-bottom division in the game, and second place isn't even close.

The Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) and the Baltimore Ravens (5-4) squared off in a critical divisional matchup on Sunday night, and while the division lead wasn't at stake, a potential playoff berth is. All four teams in the AFC North are above .500, the only division in football where that's the case, and Sunday night's game provided not just an important barometer on the relative strengths of the Ravens and Steelers, but an edge in the ever-present sibling rivalry between these two teams.

The Steelers ran away with this one after a slow start, burying Baltimore 43-23 in a trench battle. How nasty did this one get? This nasty: even the Steelers kickers were ready to fight. It didn't come to that, fortunately for them, but everything else was on the table for this game.

Roethlisberger looked initially like he'd expended most of his energy in last week's near-record performance against Indianapolis. He couldn't put points on the board in the first quarter, and endured three sacks on three straight plays. Roethlisberger shook off the pain, appearing to try to realign his jaw, and that was the beginning of the end of Baltimore's brief 7-0 lead. Roethlisberger threw three second-quarter touchdowns, even managing an impromptu two-point conversion when an extra point attempt faltered. Pittsburgh entered the half with a 22-10 lead.

At halftime, the Steelers honored Pittsburgh legend Mean Joe Greene, retiring his number and showing a compilation tape of his greatest hits that didn't exactly fit with the current safety-conscious NFL. A few minutes of gametime later, both the Ravens and Steelers did Mean Joe proud by scrapping hard enough to draw official warnings from the referees.

The third quarter was the only one that featured no scoring. Once the fourth quarter began, both teams unleashed a back-and-forth anything-you-can-do-we-can-do-better scoring barrage. The problem for the Ravens was, Pittsburgh was already out in front by 12 points, and you can't close that gap matching score for score.

In all, Roethlisberger threw six touchdowns to five different receivers, finishing with 340 yards passing on 25 of 37 attempts. Baltimore's Joe Flacco had two touchdowns of his own, but also threw an interception and took four sacks. James Harrison returned from retirement to help record seven tackles and continue the Steeler rep for defensive tenacity. Pittsburgh has gone back and forth between brilliance and obscurity all season. For the moment, the Steelers are on the right track.

Looking ahead, Pittsburgh faces the Jets and the Titans, while Baltimore has the Titans and then the Saints. Roethlisberger is riding an astonishing two-game streak in which he's thrown for 862 yards and an NFL-record 12 touchdowns; if he keeps this play up, he'll have this team ready for a solid January run. Baltimore, meanwhile, has to toughen up and smarten up; the Ravens beat themselves in a way that doesn't bode well for the rest of the season. Either way, these two teams won't meet again in the regular season in 2014 ... which might be for the best for both teams' doctors.

____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter.

Follow @jaybusbee

And keep up with Jay over on Facebook, too.

from Yahoo Sports http://ift.tt/1rPZkrt