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Steelers logo (AP graphic / November 6, 2012)

By WILL GRAVES AP Sports Writer Daily American

11:52 p.m. EST, November 5, 2012

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Isaac Redman was talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers' convincing 24-20 victory over the defending Super Bowl-champion New York Giants. The running back may as well have been discussing his team's suddenly promising season as a whole.

 

"We knew that if we just kept playing our ball that everything would come along for us," Redman said after rushing for a career-high 147 yards and the game-winning touchdown. "The only person that can beat the Steelers is the Steelers."

 

At the moment, that's not happening, even if Pittsburgh (5-3) tried its best on a day the Giants looked out of sync following a week spent dealing with the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.

 

New York turned two Ben Roethlisberger turnovers — one of them a disputed fumble — into a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin inexplicably eschewed a gimme field goal that would have tied the game late for a trick play that fizzled. The Steelers committed six penalties for a season-high 119 yards.

 

Yet they also left little doubt in the end.

 

Pittsburgh scored the game's final 14 points and pushed the Giants all over the field in the final minutes. Eli Manning took nine snaps on New York's last three possessions and lost eight yards against a defense that looked like it could play well into January and perhaps beyond.

 

This from the same group that looked a step slow while squandering leads on the road to lesser lights Tennessee and Oakland earlier in the year.

 

"We're finishing the game now," linebacker LaMarr Woodley said. "I mean, that's the biggest thing ... we went to Oakland, we didn't finish and when we went to Tennessee, we didn't finish, but (Sunday) we finished."

 

As a result, the season may just be beginning.

 

Pittsburgh has won three straight and will play five of its final eight games at Heinz Field, where the Steelers are 17-4 since 2010. The only road trips are to Cleveland, Baltimore and Dallas, all winnable if Pittsburgh can play with the ferocity it showed in New York.