Was that a win by enough points for everyone?
The Steelers demolished the Bengals, 36-10, Sunday afternoon. And later in the day, the Ravens dropped a 23-17 decision to the Patriots.
That puts the Steelers up three full games in the AFC North standings with a game in hand against the Ravens. The Steelers are going to the playoffs, folks.
The question now, is how far will they go?
The Steelers look like they are on a collision course with the Chiefs, who were off this weekend. It was probably a good thing they were off, given what happened this weekend to some of the AFC's other top teams.
As mentioned, the Ravens lost. The Bills? They were shocked by the Cardinals in Arizona on a Hail Mary catch by DeAndre Hopkins. Remember how the Titans were 5-0 heading into their game against the Steelers? They're now 6-3 after losing to the Colts on Thursday night.
Now, the Colts, Titans, Ravens, Browns and Raiders are all tied at 6-3 in the conference standings. The Bills still lead the AFC East, but at 7-3.
The Colts or Titans will win the AFC South.
The loser of that is now in a battle for the remaining three playoff spots in the AFC. That's five teams for three spots. Right now the playoff teams would be, in order, the Raiders, Dolphins and Ravens. The Titans and Browns wouldn't be in.
The Steelers? They don't have to concern themselves with that. They just keep taking care of business. And this win over the Bengals was very businesslike.
Fans and pundits can keep on saying the Steelers aren't this or that, or they can't do this or that. But the bottom line is that they're just the 19th team in NFL history to get to 9-0. They've got one more win than they had last season.
And they've set themselves up nicely for the remainder of the season. This was a game many pointed to as one the Steelers would lose. They opened as 7 1/2-point favorites and the game went off at 6 1/2. That means the betting public was favoring the Bengals in this game.
The Steelers were never really challenged in this one.
This is a good football team, folks, one capable of winning the Super Bowl. That won't stop some from complaining that it's not doing this or that. But the bottom line is that it just keeps finding ways to win.
That's the sign of a great football team.
• All of that said, the fact the Steelers have struggled to run the ball the past two weeks is troubling. The Cowboys last week and the Bengals this week both entered their respective games against the Steelers last in the NFL against the run.
The Steelers failed to gain 50 yards on the ground in either game.
Blame the play calling or whatever else you'd like. But quite frankly, it doesn't matter. Ben Roethlisberger is in the zone. And as long as he's in the zone, the Steelers will win.
And, as they showed in Tennessee earlier this year, even when he's not at his best, they can win because the defense is good enough to rise up and stop anyone when it matters most.
Some analysts have suggested that Roethlisberger hasn't been all that important to the Steelers this season. That's ludicrous. He's been everything to them.
"Ben's been doing this for a while, going 15-plus years being in the league and doing what Ben does," said JuJu Smith-Schuster. "For him, it's more like backyard football being out there and calling the plays, and as you can see, there's series where we'll go no-huddle down the field and put points on the board."
Roethlisberger now has 22 touchdown passes against just four interceptions this season -- though he could have had a couple in this one, but that's all part of the game.
Do you think if Tom Brady or Drew Brees had their team at 9-0 with a 22-4 touchdown-to-interception ratio that they would be talked about as the league MVP?
Heck, they'd already have their name engraved on the trophy.
Roethlisberger? He's not even the frontrunner any more for comeback player of the year. That's now Alex Smith in Washington because, you know, he played in a game.
Roethlisberger should be the biggest story in the league this year. He's gotten his team to a 9-0 record. Yet, he's completely flown under the radar.
He just threw for 333 yards and four touchdowns after a week of not only not practicing, but not even being in the building with his teammates all week long.
Then again, he won't even take credit for this when it's due.
"I attribute it to the guys around me," Roethlisberger said. "I attribute it to the offensive line, no sacks today. Gave me time to throw it against a lot of crazy looks and blitzes. I attribute it to the coaching staff for getting me ready to play, and all of us ready to play. Then, obviously, the skill guys, they made plays tonight. It wasn't easy out there. The wind was blowing the football around a little bit, and they were able to concentrate and make plays out there when sometimes plays weren't even there to be made."
• James Conner is a decent starting running back in the NFL. But he's not necessarily a difference maker.
That's the one thing this team is missing.
That's why so many -- including myself -- thought the Steelers should have drafted another every down back this year.
Don't misunderstand. Chase Claypool has been awesome. He now has nine touchdowns this season after catching two more on Sunday.
And linebacker Alex Highsmith looks like a future starter, as well. Same with guard Kevin Dotson.
But we still don't know about rookie Anthony McFarland yet. The rookie running back -- taken in the fourth round before Dotson -- still hasn't done enough to show that he's part of the long-term solution.
McFarland missed this game because of an illness, while Conner had 36 yards on 13 carries and Benny Snell had three carries for 12 yards.
• To be fair, Conner would have had 47 yards on 11 carries if not for taking losses of minus-5 and minus-6 on a pair of sweeps on which the offensive linemen pulled to get to the edge and just couldn't get there.
That has long been a staple of the Steelers' offense. But it might be time to scrap those runs. They take too long to develop and the way that opponents are defending the Steelers with more guys in the box because the passing game has been so predicated on Roethlisberger getting the ball out quickly, it allows too many defenders to get to the ball.
Look at the video. There were 10 defenders within five yards of the line of scrimmage when that ball is snapped. And the Steelers' line pulling in that situation allows the backside defenders to flow to the ball.
That's a run that isn't going to work before the ball is even snapped.
One of the things that teams do during a bye week is self-evaluate. But the Steelers' bye came so early, they haven't had time to do that. But these kind of long-developing plays would be ones I would throw out of the playbook.
• Special teams was a major issue last week in Dallas. This week, they were a big reason why the Steelers won, starting with Ola Adeniyi's forced fumble against Alex Erickson.
This came on the Steelers' first special teams coverage play of the game.
That, my friends, is how a unit makes people forget about a bad game in Dallas, where they had a multitude of issues.
One issue they don't have any longer on special teams is punter Jordan Berry. We can assume that Berry didn't get a bionic leg put on his body after being released by the Steelers at the end of training camp, but Berry has been nothing short of one of the best in the league since his return.
Berry averaged 49.3 yards on seven punts in this game with a 44.6-yard net. Berry is now averaging 47.4 yards per punt on his 19 attempts since returning to the Steelers a month ago. And that's while placing nine of his kicks inside the opposing 20.
Can't say enough about Chris Boswell converting all of his kicks in this game, either. It was ridiculously windy and it didn't phase Boswell.
• Several Steelers said after this game that they wanted to make sure Joe Burrow knew that things wouldn't be easy when he comes to Pittsburgh.
I'd say limiting Burrow to three completions on 11 third-down attempts for 10 yards did that. So did having the young QB throw for 24 yards in the second half.
Really, Burrow had one drive on which he was effective. Other than that, it was tough sledding.
"They just have really good players and have a really good plan," said Burrow of the Steelers. "They do what we expected them to do. They played -- we call it two carry (cover-2) and 3D (3-deep) -- and they're really good at it."
Yeah. The Steelers rushed four and dropped seven into coverage quite a bit in this game. And it worked, confusing Burrow and keeping a guy who had five 300-yard games in his first eight outings -- the NFL rookie record for 300-yard games is six -- in check.
• The Steelers have been searching for a package that would work on third downs since losing linebacker Devin Bush to a torn ACL for the season and nickel corner Mike Hilton to a shoulder injury that's sidelined him for a month, since the Browns game.
They settled on a package that had converted safety Marcus Allen play the linebacker spot in the dime with rookie safety Antoine Brooks playing the dime slot opposite Cameron Sutton.
The Bengals went 0-for-13 on third downs, so it worked well in this game.
"With Mike Hilton being out, we have a lot of talented young guys," said Joe Haden. "Coach (Mike Tomlin) just believes in that next-man-up mentality, and Marcus and Antoine are very good at blitzing and covering. So, (we're) just trying to get new bodies in there and get their feet wet. I think it went really well."
The Steelers should get Hilton back next week against the Jaguars, so Brooks will probably go back to the bench. But it drives home that point Tomlin keeps stressing that the Steelers are learning things about themselves each week -- while winning.
• Critics will look at the yards the Steelers allowed in this game and say the defense had a bad game. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Bengals had 240 yards in this game before the Steelers started subbing out starters. And though the Steelers allowed 139 rushing yards, 39 came on a fake punt with 7:53 remaining in the game with the Bengals trailing 36-7.
Another 36 of those rushing yards came after that point.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor got yelled at by the Ravens' coaching staff a few weeks ago for kicking a field goal down 27-3. The Steelers weren't yelling across the field following a fake punt down 29 points, but they did get a sack on Burrow by Robert Spillane after that.
And Burrow threw just one more pass, mostly handing the ball off the rest of the way. So, maybe Taylor learned something.
"We tried to manage it some with the runs," Taylor said. "We wanted to get some points, get some momentum going, to be honest with you, and we left him out there."
If a field goal is the kind of momentum you're looking for, you're a losing franchise.
• The Steelers seem to have really found something with their muddle huddle with Roethlisberger running the offense. And they even incorporated Conner into the package, as well as getting James Washington involved in it.
With the five receivers they can put on the field, along with tight end Eric Ebron, this is a really difficult team to defend.
No team has enough defensive backs to work against these receivers.
• The Steelers will likely lose a game at some point this season -- probably. And all of the angst fans show each week in the comments of our live file and on Twitter will be justified.
But can't you all just enjoy yourself a little bit with a 9-0 team? Just a little?
Every play isn't the end of the world. And any time the opponent makes a play doesn't mean somebody stinks or is the worst this or that in the league.
Just an observation.