PITTSBURGH — It's often tough to gauge an NFL team at the beginning of a season. Despite wall-to-wall coverage of training camp and four preseason games, defining a squad in its opening game can be a difficult task.

After the Steelers' 28-17 come-from-behind victory over Miami at Heinz Field Thursday night, only one word is necessary: resilient.

Losing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to an appendectomy Sunday night was a blow, but it came early enough in the week that the Steelers could prepare.

A harder blow came three minutes into the fourth quarter, when, with the Steelers down 17-14 and poised to score at the Dolphins' 1-yard line, quarterback Charlie Batch lost a fumble to Miami.

Miami quarterback Daunte Culpepper drove the Dolphins from his own 5-yard line to the Pittsburgh 43 before they were forced to punt.

However, the drive wound nearly six minutes off the clock, and the punt pushed the Steelers back to their 13-yard line.

Batch redeemed himself on first down by hitting tight end Heath Miller for a controversial 87-yard touchdown that put the Steelers up 21-17.

"It seemed like a long time to get there," Miller said. "I was running as fast as I could. I tried to take a peek at the screen and I saw them inching up on me, though."

The defense took it from there – and took the ball away from the Dolphins twice, once on an interception by safety Troy Polamalu and once on an interception by linebacker Joey Porter, who converted it into a 42-yard touchdown to seal Miami's fate.

"I can't say enough about our football team," said head coach Bill Cowher. "Their resiliency, the way they responded, they never had a state of panic set in for our team."

Miller, whose reception is the longest ever by the Steelers at Heinz Field and the team's longest since quarterback Kordell Stewart hooked up with Bobby Shaw on a 90-yard pass play in 2001, said the team's mental toughness Thursday wasn't a surprise to him.

"One characteristic about this team is that it doesn't really flinch," Miller said. "Even at the first of the week when Ben was sick, nobody really flinched. We just went about our business like we always do and we continued to do that in this game."

Porter said he was satisfied that the defense had played its part by forcing the interceptions with pressure on Culpepper when the Steelers needed it the most.

"We wanted to take away the run and make Culpepper beat us," he said. "That's our game plan for any guy we play. We don't care how good the quarterback is, we think when we pressure them we can make any quarterback frustrated."

Porter downplayed his own accomplishments, which included two sacks, while praising his team's ability to fight back when it counted.

"It's not about me. It's about how our team responds under adversity," he said. "And today was a big day for our whole team because we came out here under tough circumstances and came out with a big victory."