Steelers offense gathering steam as stretch looms

“We control our own destiny and in December, that’s what you want, ” cornerback Darius Butler said. “Ben was Ben tonight and those guys did a nice job of getting open and making”. Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander beat out Steelers running back “Fast” Willie Parker 236-225 with eventual Hall-of-Famer Jerome “The Bus” Bettis coming in 4th among post season running backs gaining180 yards after completing his final regular season as a player.

“Just awful”, said Hasselbeck, who believe he’ll be fine.

Meanwhile, the Steelers move to 7-5, just outside the bubble of the playoffs and in the heart of the AFC Wild Card race. In 2013, they wrapped it up with three games to play. While Markus Wheaton had nine catches for 201 yards and a TD last week, Antonio Brown has 33 receptions in the last three games. The mistake the Steelers made with Archer was drafting him in the first place. A fumbled opening kickoff and a DeAngelo Williams fumble gave the Colts excellent field position in back to back possessions, but the Colts were only able to net three points.

The Houston Texans lost, too, dropping a game to the Buffalo Bills earlier in the day. “And we know how he works, so for him to go out and have a game like that, he continues to show he still has it”.

-PASSING OFFENSE: A-plus. The Steelers tortured the Colts pass defense for a second year in a row. Charlie Whitehurst took over. “Obviously, at his age, being 4-0 as a backup quarterback it’s great for us”, Colts coach Chuck Pagano said. “They had me out of sync with dropping eight and rushing three”.

At any rate, Jones will probably be released at some point this week and it should go without saying but based on Steelers Twitter Sunday night it needs to be said. Hasselbeck found Frank Gore for a 9-yard score that put Indianapolis in front, a touchdown that seemed to remind Pittsburgh that Roethlisberger put up 522 yards and six touchdowns in a victory over the Colts last fall. Pittsburgh tried to run early on, and when it was ineffective, the Steelers opened up the playbook and started taking shots downfield.

Jacoby Jones was benched after fumbling two first-half kick returns in Pittsburgh’s win over Indianapolis on Sunday.

The star receiver finished with three total touchdowns on the day.

Despite this age-defying quarterback exiting Sunday night’s 45-10 loss at Pittsburgh with a sore neck and a mild rib separation, coach Chuck Pagano said Monday Hasselbeck is expected to practice Wednesday and make a fourth consecutive start Sunday when the Colts travel to Jacksonville for a critical AFC South matchup.

Opposing defenses should consider the option of triple-covering Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, who’s routinely burned the double coverage he has commanded in recent weeks.

Hasselbeck said that he initially got hurt in the first quarter before a third-quarter hit brought the medical staff onto the field.