INDIANAPOLIS — His shot wasn't falling early in the game, but Steelers point guard Ben Roethlisberger found his stroke when it mattered.
Called the team's point guard earlier in the week by quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner, the "future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback," as Indianapolis head coach Chuck Pagano would call him this Sunday at Lucas Oil Stadium, didn't flinch. In fact, he welcomed the role, saying it was his job to get the team into the right plays and distribute the ball to the team's playmakers.
Roethlisberger did that when it mattered most, throwing a pair of second-half touchdown passes and then leading the Steelers on a game-winning field goal drive in the closing seconds of a 20-17 win over the Colts.
It marked the 30th fourth-quarter comeback of Roethlisberger's career and his 40th game-winning drive, pushing him past Eli Manning into third on the league's list of active career leaders behind Tom Brady (51) and Drew Brees (43).
"He went out there and did what he did," said Le'Veon Bell, who had 80 yards rushing on 26 carries and 32 yards on five receptions. "For him getting confident and getting time, he gets into a groove. Earlier in the game, he was under pressure a lot. Once he got some time, he was confident and could make some throws."
Roethlisberger's final numbers — 19 of 31 for 236 yards, two touchdowns and one interception — weren't eye-popping like some of his previous performances against the Colts. He had thrown 13 touchdowns against no interceptions, averaging 363 yards passing in his previous three games against Indianapolis — all victories.
The victory improved the Steelers to 7-2 and guaranteed they would keep their spot atop the AFC North and conference standings. But it also was costly.
Cornerback Joe Haden left late in the second quarter with an injury Mike Tomlin said is a fractured fibula that will force him out of the lineup for at least a few weeks. Safety Mike Mitchell suffered an ankle injury, while tight end Vance McDonald was in and out of the lineup with an ankle injury.
"I liked the outcome. Don’t ever get that twisted. But there are things to be cleaned up on offense, special teams, defense," Cameron Heyward said. "That’s what you take away from the game."
This was another win, but it was in doubt until Chris Boswell's 33-yard field goal sailed through the uprights as time expired.
I asked Roethlisberger after the game what it showed for this team to come back from a 17-3 deficit in the second half after little had gone right in the first half.
"That it's strong," he replied. "We can face adversity and we can overcome it. Give (the Colts) a bit of credit. They came out and made plays and we didn't make the plays, and they took advantage of our missed opportunities and opportunities we didn't make. I'm just happy we were able to find kind of a groove a little bit in the second half offensively."
It certainly wasn't there early. Roethlisberger's second pass of the game, a deep ball to Martavis Bryant, was intercepted by cornerback Pierre Desir. He connected on just two of his next seven passes and his passer rating was just 2.8 when the Steelers got the ball back with 1:39 remaining in the first half, trailing 10-0.
But Roethlisberger connected with McDonald for a 9-yard gain on first down, then found rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster for 15 yards before hitting Bryant for a 13-yard gain. Roethlisberger did fumble a snap at the 25, but he earned field goal position by throwing to Antonio Brown for a 10-yard gain to set up a 41-yard Boswell kick that made it 10-3 at the half.
The no-huddle offense seemed to help Roethlisberger find the rhythm that had been missing.
"Obviously, throwing the pick on the second play of the game is not the greatest thing in the world," Roethlisberger said. "If it happened on third down, we would have had a great punt. You know, I need to start a little faster."
In this one, it was about how he finished.
Indianapolis quarterback Jacoby Brissett was just the opposite. He was finding plenty of success with the Steelers trying to rush him with only four defenders. The Colts established a running game early and the Steelers bit on play-action twice, resulting in long touchdowns of 60 yards to Donte Moncrief in the second quarter and 61 yards to Chester Rogers early in the third quarter for a 17-3 lead.
But the Steelers began blitzing Brissett more after that and sacked him three times in the second half while limiting the damage and giving the offense a chance for a comeback.
"We just knew we have guys that can cover," Sean Davis told me. "We sent the blitzes. We didn’t do that in the first half. We made adjustments and came out on top."
While the defense was shutting down the Colts, Roethlisberger was heating up. He followed up the Colts' touchdown with a drive of his own, moving the team 78 yards to score on a 7-yard pass to Smith-Schuster. But the PAT was blocked by 6-foot-8 defensive lineman Margus Hunt and scooped up by cornerback Mattias Farley.
"I looked around and saw a couple of guys gathering to my right, so I just started running to make sure I could cut that angle off," punter/holder Jordan Berry told me. "On a field goal, most of the linemen are up and if you can slow them up, maybe they can come in and clean it up. That’s what I was trying to do. I was lucky Jesse (James) was coming down and helping out."
As he had done earlier in the season after the Steelers had a kick blocked in Chicago, Berry raced down the field and forced Farley to cut back. James tackled him inside the 5 to keep the Colts from turning the Steelers' touchdown into a negative play.
"Helluva play by Jordan Berry and Jesse James," Heyward said. "We don’t get that, things might go differently."
With a crisis avoided, the Steelers still trailed, 17-9. That's when Ryan Shazier responded with one of the splash plays Tomlin had said the team needed earlier in the week.
With the Colts facing third-and-8 from their own 13, Shazier sniffed out a screen pass to tight end Jack Doyle. He peeled off to make a diving interception when Brissett's pass caromed off Doyle's hands:
"I was actually part of a blitz," said Shazier, who also had his first sack of the season in the game. "I couldn't find a lane to blitz through, and I know Doyle is one of his main targets, and Doyle gets a lot of catches on check releases and things like that."
The film study paid off as the Steelers took over at their own 10 and Roethlisberger threw a third-down pass to Vance McDonald for a touchdown.
The Colts only rushed three at Roethlisberger on second and third downs, dropping eight into coverage. He had a pass to James broken up on second down after spending several seconds in the pocket. But the Colts completely lost McDonald in the right corner of the end zone on third down and Roethlisberger found him again after several seconds.
"As soon as (the defender) fell off me, I remember thinking, ‘Ben, you’d better look over here,' " said McDonald, who was waving his hands as he stood all alone. "I kind of blended in with the people on the sideline. He kind of went into a scramble drill a little bit, and it worked out well."
Roethlisberger didn't immediately see McDonald but eventually found him:
"I really thought I threw it into the first (row)," he told me. "I mean it just felt like it was a really bad throw and, luckily, it came down in time for him to catch it."
Down 17-15, Tomlin decided to go for a two-point conversion to try to tie the game. But the Steelers were using a new two-point play they hadn't used much and didn't get lined up correctly. Then, after Roethlisberger called a timeout, they again failed to get lined up correctly.
"We had a specialty play there called and just negligence," Tomlin said when I asked about the confusion. "I accept responsibility for that. We couldn't get lined up even after the timeout. Some of those specialty plays, two-point plays and stuff are somewhat obscure. We didn't get it done."
With the ball moved back to the 7 for a delay-of-game, there was some discussion on the sideline whether the Steelers should just kick the PAT or if they should still go for a conversion.
According to Roethlisberger, Todd Haley wanted to kick to make it a 17-16 game. Tomlin overruled him and went for the tie with 12:01 remaining.
Roethlisberger found Bryant on a crossing route and put the ball on him for the conversion to tie:
The Steelers then got a three-and-out from the Colts on their next possession and quickly drove down the field again. But a 37-yard field goal attempt by Boswell hit the right upright with 6:21 left, keeping the game tied at 17-17.
After another Indianapolis punt, the Steelers took over at their own 15 with just 3:10 remaining. But after an initial first down, Bell was stopped for a 7-yard loss just after the two-minute warning.
It appeared the game could be headed to overtime, where the Steelers had lost on the road at Chicago earlier this season. But Roethlisberger had different plans. He completed a 13-yard pass to Bell to get back the lost yardage on second down, then connected with Bryant for a 19-yard catch-and-run on a crossing pattern to get the ball to midfield.
"I wanted to get us into a look I thought would be good against what they were showing us," Roethlisberger said. "I switched AB and Martavis, and it looked like once he caught the ball, I saw it was man and he was going to have a chance."
The Colts did an excellent job on Brown, the NFL's leader in receptions and yardage entering the week, holding him to two catches for 15 yards to that point with corner Rashaan Melvin following him all over the field with safety help over the top. But Roethlisberger found his favorite target for a 32-yard gain to the Colts' 18, scrambling in the pocket a bit to buy time and taking a shot from linebacker Jabaal Sheard:
"That was a screen to the left," Roethlisberger said. "I changed AB and Le'Veon's route at the last minute. You know, when AB and I start making plays, it's pretty fun because I just got to give him the ball and he does the rest."
From there, it was just a matter of getting Boswell where he wanted while also running the clock down.
"I want to show what I can do every time I’m on the field," Boswell of his game-winner. "It’s not about redeeming myself."
The result was the same.
The Steelers found a way with their point guard leading the way.
"At the end of the game, I felt like, let's not take this thing to overtime," Roethlisberger said. "It kind of felt like that was where it was leaning and why I said I'm just going to call this play and see what happens."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY