The Steelers woke up yesterday morning to discover they are the No. 2 seed in the American Football Conference.

Not that they care, and perhaps few of them know that if the playoffs began today they would have a bye week and then a home game with only New England seeded higher.

"We got the wins that we needed when we needed them, and now we go back on the road," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. "We play the Jets this week and that's who the focus is going to be on."

The Steelers, in coach Mike Tomlin's first season, and Indianapolis are tied at 7-2 behind unbeaten New England in the AFC. The Steelers at the moment would win the first tiebreaker because they have one loss in the conference to the Colts' two.

There's a long way to go, but the Steelers play only two teams in their final seven games with winning records -- the Patriots (9-0) and Jaguars (6-3). After their game at the Jets (1-8), they play the only winless team left in the league, the Miami Dolphins (0-9), at home.

Other games remaining are Cincinnati (3-6), St. Louis (1-8) and Baltimore (4-5).

A pair of twos

Roethlisberger and Willie Parker each remain No. 2 in the NFL nine games into the season.

Roethlisberger is second to Tom Brady with a 110.2 passer rating. Parker leads the AFC with 873 yards rushing and is second in the NFL to Minnesota rookie Adrian Peterson.

Even though he bagged his sixth 100-yard game of the season against Cleveland Sunday, Parker wasn't happy with it.

"We have a ways to go in this running game," Parker said. "We're not doing what we want to do right now in this running game.

"It felt good because we won, but I know there were a lot more yards on that field."

Defense finishes strong

The Steelers' defense did not have a sack or an interception, but its play in the second half helped Roethlisberger and his offense bring them from behind for a victory.

The Browns managed a mere 48 yards in total offense against the Steelers in the second half -- 5 rushing (on five tries) and 43 passing. They had 163 total yards for the game.

But the Steelers said they did not adjust anything on defense at halftime.

"Honestly, we really didn't do much," defensive end Brett Keisel said. "When we came in [to the locker room] we just all kind of took a deep breath and said, 'All right, we dug ourselves a little hole, let's respond to this. We haven't really been in this position all year.'

"Coach Tomlin talks about when the rubber meets the road, when you have a little adversity, how are you going to respond and we showed him."