Steelers hanging around with Batch
PITTSBURGH — Larry Foote has no illusions about the Pittsburgh Steelers catching the Baltimore Ravens to win the AFC North even after Sunday’s emotionally charged 23-20 victory over their bitter rivals.
He doesn’t exactly care either.
Sure, homefield in the playoffs — if the Steelers manage to make it — would be nice. But the 32-year-old doesn’t believe it’s necessary for Pittsburgh to get where it wants to go.
“We’ve just got to get a ticket,” Foote said. “The last few years, the Giants have done it, and Green Bay has done it.”
Heck, so have the Steelers (7-5), who revived their season in a dramatic fourth quarter in which they scored 10 points to snap Baltimore’s 15-game home winning streak.
Pittsburgh won three road playoff games on its way to the 2006 Super Bowl, a route it would like have to travel again if the Ravens can maintain their two-game lead over the Steelers and Bengals with a month to go in the season.
It’s a cushion Foote doesn’t see evaporating.
“I’m sure they’re probably going to win the division,” Foote said. “I can’t see them losing two more games.”
If Foote and the rest of his fellow 30-somethings can continue to muster the toughness they showed while rallying past the Ravens, they might not lose two more games between now and next season, either.
In one of the toughest places in the NFL to play — let alone win — backup quarterback Charlie Batch passed for 276 yards, directed two late scoring drives and played like someone ready to turn 28, not 38.
Linebacker James Harrison and his aching 34-year-old knees strip-sacked Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco to set up the game-tying touchdown and 31-year-old safety Troy Polamalu’s presence seemed to energize a defense that lacked the kind of “splash plays” that have been the unit’s calling card under coordinator Dick LeBeau.
It was a vintage performance few outside the locker room expected.
Not without Ben Roethlisberger, whose sprained right shoulder relegated him to the role of head cheerleader for a third straight week. Not with a patchwork offensive line that included a rookie seventh-round draft pick making his first NFL start. Not with cornerback Ike Taylor going down on the game’s second play with an ankle injury so severe he could miss his first game in eight years when the Steelers host San Diego on Sunday.
Yet the Steelers survived anyway, evening the season series with the Ravens and postponing Baltimore’s division title plans for at least a week or two.
“We’re still alive,” safety Ryan Clark said. “But we need some more games like this.”
