Steelers post slim win over Ravens

PITTSBURGH -- Nothing comes easy in the Ravens-Steelers rivalry, no matter the records or which team is healthy and which is hurting.

Jeff Reed kicked a 37-yard field goal with 1:36 remaining after Ben Roethlisberger opened each half with touchdown passes to rookie tight end Heath Miller, and the Steelers held off the depleted Baltimore Ravens 20-19 Monday night to tighten up the AFC North race.

But only with a sigh of relief did Pittsburgh (5-2) end a two-game home losing streak and stay within a half-game of division leader Cincinnati.

The Ravens (2-5), already in danger of falling out of the division race, were without the last two NFL Defensive Players of the Year, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, and, seemingly, much chance of ending what now is a seven-game road losing streak, but hung around to the end of a surprisingly close game.

The Ravens, two-touchdown underdogs, took a 19-17 lead after an uncharacteristic botched play by Pittsburgh's special teams, a failed punt attempt in which rookie Greg Warren's snap to Chris Gardocki deflected off upback Sean Morey and resulted in Gardocki's incomplete pass.

That gave the Ravens the ball at the Steelers 45 with 5 1/2 minutes to play and a chance to steal a victory in a stadium where they haven't won since 2001. Matt Stover followed with his fourth field goal, a 47-yarder with 3:21 remaining that gave the Ravens their first lead -- and, to the crowd of 64,178, brought back memories of a similar 23-17 upset loss to Jacksonville at Heinz Field only two weeks before.

But Roethlisberger then hit Antwaan Randle El for 14 yards and Quincy Morgan for 23 yards, and Jerome Bettis had an 11-yard run on the drive that led to Reed's go-ahead field goal.

Baltimore had one more chance to win it, but Anthony Wright's fourth-and-6 pass from his own 47 fell at Chester Taylor's feet and the Steelers ran out the clock.

The Steelers are 11-0 in Monday night home games under coach Bill Cowher and Roethlisberger is 18-1 as a regular-season starter.

Baltimore, seemingly in turmoil without its injured stars, was in trouble at the start as the Steelers drove 79 yards on their opening possession to take a 7-0 lead.

Roethlisberger was 7-of-8 for 55 yards with four completions to Hines Ward on the first opening-drive score against the Ravens this season, one that ended with Miller's 4-yard touchdown catch. It was Miller's fourth consecutive game with a touchdown, tying a Steelers record for a tight end set by Eric Green in 1991.

Baltimore, winless on the road for 350 days, couldn't have liked this, down 7-0 away from home against their biggest rivals before an offense that hadn't scored a touchdown in seven quarters got the ball.

But the Ravens, who insisted before the game they could turn their season around by winning, matched the Steelers by driving 73 yards to tie it on Wright's 13-yard TD swing pass to Taylor on a third-and-12 play. A holding call on Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend on a third-down incompletion kept the drive going.

Pittsburgh's Jeff Reed (42 yards) and Stover (22 yards) traded field goals that followed turnovers. Baltimore's Jamal Lewis fumbled after Roethlisberger pinned the Ravens back at their 1 with a quick kick -- a play the Steelers have revived from the 1920s -- but Roethlisberger later was intercepted for only the second time this season, by Adalius Thomas.

The Ravens could have had a touchdown rather than the field goal, but Wright didn't see a wide-open Derrick Mason in the end zone on a third-and-4 play. Mason waved his arms at the quarterback in frustration, angering Wright, and the two exchanged words as they left the field ahead of Stover's field goal.

Stover later missed a 43-yarder off the right upright that would have put Baltimore up. The Steelers then came out and started the second half exactly the way they did the first, with Roethlisberger going 6-of-6 on a 64-yard drive that again ended with a Miller touchdown, an 8-yarder that made it 17-10. Miller, the Steelers' first round draft pick, has six touchdowns in his first seven NFL games.

Stover later made a 43-yarder, then hit a 49-yarder -- the longest by a visiting kicker at Heinz Field -- midway through the fourth quarter to get the Ravens, who began the game as two-touchdown underdogs, to 17-16.