You can see the headlines from two different extremes:

“Steelers seem to be heading toward lost season.”

“Steelers look like different team.”

You could see them because those two headlines ran in the Butler Eagle, the first that ran Oct. 16, just days after the Steelers dropped an incomprehensible 26-23 Thursday Night Football decision to the Tennessee Titans; the latter after the Steelers’ 24-17 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

I didn’t write the headlines, but I wrote the column, but who could have guess that since that Bengals win, the Steelers would have defeated the then-potent Washington Redskins 27-12 and the New York Giants 24-20 to improve to 5-3?

It doesn’t seem too long ago that the Steelers were blowing fourth-quarter leads.

Now, the defense has been clamping down.

In Sunday’s win against the Giants, New York had three fourth-quarter possessions and ran three plays and a punt on all three, totaling minus-19 yards in the process.

Quarterback Eli Manning has engineered plenty of fourth-quarter comebacks, but the Steelers defense made sure he did not get the chance on Sunday.

The Steelers pass defense is No. 1 in the NFL, allowing just 174 yards per game while the rush defense is seventh, limiting opponents to 88.6 per game.

Those numbers have been even better in the team’s three-game winning streak, which has kept Pittsburgh just one game behind the Baltimore Ravens (6-2) in the AFC North Division.

A running back with more than 100 rushing yards in each of those last three games — Jonathan Dwyer 122 and 107 yards against the Bengals and Redskins; Isaac Redman 147 against the Giants — has also helped the Steelers.

Time of possession in the Steelers’ favor has been a big by-product of the running game, eating more clock time and running out the clock late.

With all that said, the Steelers will enter the second half of the season two games over .500, 1-0 in the division.

If the Steelers are going to stay close and make their move — granted, in a weak AFC field this year — they’ll have to continue making their case in the next few weeks.

A Monday night win against the woeful Kansas City Chiefs — remember, the Steelers lost to Oakland and Tennessee on last-second field goals — will give the team a lift entering three consecutive AFC North contests against Baltimore before road games at the Cleveland Browns and then the Ravens again.

A strong showing in this stretch could help set the team up for a wild-card spot or possibly a division title.

I’ve said the Steelers will go as far as the Raven will allow them.

Pittsburgh has gotten stronger each week and it can control its own destiny by picking up wins against the Ravens — Baltimore won both last year and that was the tiebreaker on a home playoff game as the Steelers finished with the same record.

The Steelers are showing they can be a serious player this season after all, despite its lackluster 2-3 start. Who could have imagined that?

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.