The Steelers take their longest winning streak of the season into their game Sunday against the New York Jets -- one victory in a row. That ties their high for the season.

John Beale, Post-Gazette Jerome Bettis tries to break loose from Derrick Gibson of the Raiders as he fights for yardage in the fourth quarter yesterday at Heinz Field. Click photo for larger image. More Steelers coverage Steelers Report: Dewayne Washington finalist for NFL's Walter Payton Man of the Year Award AFC North: Browns plummet to division basement Photo Journal: Game Thirteen, Steelers vs. Oakland Raiders

Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, they've never gone an entire season without winning two in a row. The last time they went a full season without consecutive victories was '69, when they went 1-13. Even when they slumped to 5-11 in '88 and 6-10 in '99, they were able to win two in a row.

That lack of consistency has been their problem all season, and it's why they head to New York with a 5-8 record. They've lacked it on the field and it has translated into an inability to string victories together.

"Exactly," linebacker Joey Porter said. "If we win two in a row, it will look good for us. Then we just have to find a way to fight and get these games. We're never going to stop fighting. We ran into stuff this year. I have no answer for how we played this year and the things that happened to us. We just have to go out and keep fighting and finish up 8-8."

That would be asking a team that has not won two in a row to finish by winning four in a row. But they do play the last-place team in the AFC East, the Jets (5-8), and follow by playing the team tied with Oakland at the bottom of the AFC West, San Diego (3-10), Dec. 21. So winning the next two is not farfetched.

They also play two of the worst run defenses in the league the next two weeks, so they likely will follow the blueprint that mapped their 27-7 victory against the Raiders -- run first, then throw. They abandoned that philosophy much of the season and their best offensive player believes that might have been a mistake.

"I don't know, when we first came into the season, everyone was talking about Air Pittsburgh," said Hines Ward, who leads the AFC with 82 receptions. "I think we have to be balanced, and I think we did that [Sunday]. We established the run and we made some plays in the passing game. That's a sign of a team having success and winning ballgames. If you can be balanced like that, you should win a lot of ballgames. If you're just one-dimensional, wins are hard to come by."

Last season, the Steelers ran 46.7 percent of the time and passed 53.3 percent. This year, they've run 42.3 percent and passed 57.7 percent, more than doubling the difference between the run and the pass from 6.6 percent more passes than runs last season to 15.4 percent this season.

Two years ago, when the Steelers had their second-most victories in their history in a 13-3 season, they reversed those percentages -- they ran the ball 54.5 percent of the time and passed it 45.5 percent. Some of that came about because Kordell Stewart was their quarterback and he ran for more yards than any quarterback in the league in 2001 with 537.

Still, there's been a philosophical swing in the Steelers' offense and it has not helped them this season. Last season, they ranked fifth in the league in offense -- ninth running and seventh passing. Today, they rank 21st in offense -- 30th running and 10th passing.

Clearly, the unbalanced offense has dragged them down. Their inability to run has hurt their passing game because as defenses lost respect for the Steelers' ground game, they dropped safeties into deeper coverage and rendered the play-action pass useless.

They made a concerted effort to run against Oakland, which came into the game ranked at the bottom of the NFL run defense. The Steelers ran the ball 40 times and passed it 28. Jerome Bettis ran for 106 yards, the first time this season the team had a 100-yard runner. The Steelers averaged only 3.3 yards a carry and gained only 133 yards, but they controlled the ball on offense for nearly 36 minutes.

That's an old philosophy, and Sunday it worked. It also might be why Tommy Maddox threw for 266 yards on only 28 attempts, a hefty average of 9.5 yards an attempt. That brings their puny average per attempt to 6.85 on the season. Maddox spread the ball around to eight receivers. Ward caught four passes for 67 yards, Antwaan Randle El caught three for 48 and Plaxico Burress caught three for 38 yards and only his second touchdown of the season.

"We wanted to establish the run and I think we did that," Ward said. "The offensive line blocked their tails off, the wide receivers blocked their tails off. Plax, myself and Antwaan, we were out there blocking for Jerome."

It's not every day you get to do that against the worst-ranked defense in the league. But they get it again this week, because the Raiders climbed to No. 31 and the Jets dropped to No. 32.

"It's all about finding what is working that day," guard/tackle Alan Faneca said.