Gene J. Puskar, Associated Press Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis runs for a short gain in the second quarter as New York Jets defensive end Brett Keisel moves in to make the stop. Click photo for larger image.

Pittsburgh native Curtis Martin pulled ahead of Jerome Bettis in the NFL rushing standings, but it was the Steelers running back who engineered the victory as Pittsburgh beat the Jets 17-6.

The victory this evening allowed the Steelers to clinch the AFC North title.

The first half was a defensive struggle as Ben Roethlisberger was held to 24 yards passing, completing only 3 of 11 throws.

Chad Pennington also had a rough start. He had passes intercepted by James Farrior and Troy Polamalu in the first half.

The second half belonged to Bettis.

In a familiar pattern, the Steelers brought in Bettis late in the third quarter. He pounded into a tired Jets defense as the Steelers drove 70 yards in seven plays.

Then the Steelers broke open the gadget bag in the fourth quarter as Bettis took a handoff from Roethlisberger, feinted forward, freezing the Jets defense and allowing tight end Jerame Tuman to drift toward the end zone. Bettis lofted the ball ten yards to a wide open Tuman and the Steelers broke a 3-3 tie with the touchdown catch.

"I got behind the safety and I couldn't see him (Bettis), I could just see the ball coming," Tuman said. "When we practiced it Friday it didn't look good, the throw was a little low, but he got it up today. We had it set up perfectly -- we could hear their defense calling out (a run)."

Bettis scored again, on a 12-yard run, and Chris Hope swiped a Pennington pass to thwart a late Jets scoring threat and effectively end the game.

"Everybody keeps waiting for us to have a letdown, but each week someone steps up and makes big plays," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "Really, Jerome won the game by himself."

On the day, both Bettis and Martin went over 13,000 yards rushing.

The Steelers overcame a spotty game by Roethlisberger to win a club record-tying 11th in a row. The 1975 Super Bowl champion Steelers won 11 straight during a 12-2 season.

Roethlisberger kept his unprecedented rookie winning streak going, too, winning his 11th in a row in the NFL and 24th straight the last two seasons, counting his final 13 games at Miami of Ohio.

Pittsburgh's victory, its 15th in 17 games against the Jets (9-4), also secured the AFC North championship that has been a foregone conclusion for weeks and kept the Steelers in the lead for home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. New England also is 12-1 after beating Cincinnati 35-28 earlier in the day. But the Ptriots would yield home-field advantage because of their loss earlier in the season to the Steelers.

Bettis' third career touchdown pass in six attempts came on Pittsburgh's only sustained drive of the day until that point, an 80-yard possession keyed by Roethlisberger completions of 26 yards to Hines Ward and 21 yards to Duce Staley. On third-and-3, Bettis tossed the ball to a wide-open Tuman, who also caught Bettis' last scoring pass in 2001. Bettis also had a TD throw in 1999.

The Jets' defense had shut out three consecutive opponents in the second half and six this season until Bettis' throw, which broke a 3-all tie and helped keep New York from being 10-3 for the first time since 1986.

"They made the plays, and that's what good teams do, what championship teams do," Jets coach Herman Edwards said. "Their guys played better than us in the fourth quarter."

Bettis' 147.9 passer rating for the day eclipsed that of celebrated Giants rookie Eli Manning, who had a low-as-can-go 0.0 rating in a 37-14 loss to Baltimore.

Bettis also carried 10 times for 57 yards to push his career total to 13,037. Martin ran 24 times for 72 yards to move past Bettis into fifth place with 13,046 yards in the first game in NFL history in which two backs each surpassed 13,000 yards.

Until late in the game, Roethlisberger's passer rating wasn't much higher than Manning's, but it didn't need to be as the Jets' offense constantly broke down amid an uncharacteristic series of penalties and breakdowns.

The Jets were the league's second-least penalized team until being flagged 12 times for 84 yards -- all in the first half, when the only scoring came on Jeff Reed's 34-yard field goal for Pittsburgh following Troy Polamalu's interception of a pass by Chad Pennington.

New York threatened late in the half by driving from its 4 to the Steelers 30, but Pennington was intercepted by James Farrior. Pennington was 17-of-31 for 189 yards and three interceptions -- only one fewer than he had all season.

Notes: Steelers LB Clark Haggans missed most of the game with a groin injury. ... The Steelers are 4-0 against winning-record opponents (Patriots, Eagles, Jaguars, Jets). ... Roethlisberger has thrown for 150 yards or more only once in five games. ... The Jets have scored only 12 points against Pittsburgh the last two seasons, all on field goals. The Jets won 6-0 last season in a snowstorm in East Rutherford.