BALTIMORE -- Safety Lee Flowers bounded toward the locker room after the Steelers' fifth consecutive win and shouted, "Can we believe yet? Can we believe yet?"
His coach, waiting at the door, gave him a quick answer.
"Let's go!" Bill Cowher shot back. "We ain't done [anything] yet."
Not yet, but the Steelers moved closer to it by slipping past the slumping Ravens, 9-6, yesterday before the largest crowd in PSINet Stadium's 1 1/2 seasons.
Once at the bottom of the division, the Steelers skipped over Baltimore (5-4) into second place (5-3) in the AFC Central with a possible showdown for first place next Sunday at Tennessee. Even Cowher recognized the importance of it.
"It's a big win," he said. "Everything we've been fighting to do to get back in this position, we recognize it's in front of us now."
Eventually, they might have to get more production on offense, but against the Ravens, who haven't scored a touchdown in a month, yesterday's work was just enough.
The Steelers extended Baltimore's frustrating, touchdown-less streak to five games, nudged their own streak to four without allowing a touchdown and rode quarterback Kordell Stewart to a 3-0 record as a starter.
The Ravens gave away points on fumbles and interceptions as if they were M&M's on Halloween, and the Steelers wiped out their 6-0 lead by scoring twice in the third quarter.
"We were treating this like a playoff game," Flowers said. "And if you think about it, it really was. Guys were fired up, and it showed."
Trailing 6-0 on Matt Stover field goals of 51 and 49 yards, the Steelers did something totally out of character. Stewart threw deep.
From the Ravens' 45, Hines Ward ran a "comeback and go" down the right sideline. Cornerback Duane Starks bit on the fake. Ward caught Stewart's pass over Starks at the 5 and made it into the end zone for only the third touchdown pass of the season for the Steelers.
"It's been awhile," said Stewart, who has two of those scoring passes.
"We thought they would bite," said Ward, who has two of those scoring catches. "They have an aggressive secondary. Kordell gave me a chance to make a play, and I went back and did that. It was a great call."
Kris Brown's cleats caught in the grass on the extra-point try and he pushed the kick wide to the right to keep the score tied, 6-6, but he scored the winning points shortly thereafter, thanks to one of three crucial Ravens' turnovers.
Corey Harris fumbled the kickoff return after the touchdown when Jason Simmons and John Fiala hit him. Scott Shields recovered and, after a Baltimore challenge on instant replay was not upheld, the Steelers took over at the 27.
They reached the 6, where Brown kicked a 24-yard field goal for a 9-6 lead.
After that, "I was our defense's biggest cheerleader out there," he said.
The defense, overshadowed by the more famous Baltimore brand, gave up more yardage but also came up with more turnovers.
"I think ours is just as good as theirs," Steelers defensive end Kevin henry said. "We feel like, if we keep winning, all that other stuff will come. We're not worried about attention. Ultimately, if we go to the Super Bowl, who's going to be talking about the Ravens' defense?"
Cornerback Dewayne Washington, victimized in the past by wide receiver Qadry Ismail's big plays, came up with one late in the third quarter.
Trent Dilfer, sloppy in his first Baltimore start, threw into the end zone from the Steelers' 42 after Brown's go-ahead field goal. Ismail was behind Washington going into the end zone, but Washington had position and hauled in his team-high fourth interception.
Ismail caught just three passes for 41 yards.
"It's always good to shut down a top-notch receiver like him," Washington said.
Twice more in the fourth quarter,the Ravens got inside the Steelers' 40 -- at the 37 and the 33 -- and Baltimore Coach Brian Billick elected to punt rather than try long field goals into the wind.
"Matt felt it was outside his range," Billick said.
Baltimore, which waxed the Steelers, 16-0, in the opener at Three Rivers Stadium, blew an opportunity to take early command of this one.
On the game's first drive, the Ravens moved from their 23 to the Steelers' 9, most of it when rookie Jamal Lewis, who finished with 93 yards rushing, ran off right guard for 35 yards.
But on third-and-2, Dilfer fumbled the snap and Flowers recovered.
"Finally," Flowers said, "This defense had a chance to redeem ourselves from the Tennessee game. We still have a long way to go. We didn't care how much yards rushing or passing or whatever they got, we just wanted to win."
The Ravens outgained the Steelers, 274 yards to 231, but they also lost three turnovers, which meant a likely 9-point swing.
"Can we keep winning 9-6?" Washington wondered. "I really can't say. That's just the way this game turned out. Who knows, we might win some games, 21-20. As long as we win, we're really not worried about the score."
After three consecutive 100-yard games, Jerome Bettis was held to 65 yards on 18 carries, but that was better than the 8 yards he had against the Ravens in the opener.
Stewart completed only 9 of 18 passes for 133 yards, but he also ran nine times for 31 yards, threw a touchdown pass and did not have an interception.
Cowher said he will stick with Stewart next week at Tennessee. Stewart's three victories as a starter have all come on the road. His road record the past two seasons is 7-2, and he is 6-0 against Baltimore lifetime.
"God bless him," tackle Wayne Gandy said, "for all those times he was called all the names in Pittsburgh and all those things. He just adds another dimension as far as running the ball. He gets those tough first downs sometimes that might not have been there if he were not a mobile quarterback."
Stewart was sacked five times.
Said Bettis: "Kordell fought through it. It was a tough road. A lot of times you expect so much from a quarterback that you put some undue pressure on him. He didn't let it affect him."
Dilfer, who replaced the benched Tony Banks as the starter for Baltimore, completed just 11 of 24 passes for 152 yards.
"Right now, we're on a roll," Washington said. "This team is really coming together. This was a game that tested our will."
Maybe they haven't done anything yet, as their coach tried to remind them, but they're headed in that direction.
Defense dominates in 9-6 victory that extends Steelers' streak to five wins 
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