Ben Roethlisberger and his receivers created a little more history yesterday in Heinz Field as the Steelers' offense flapped its wings and beat the Cleveland Browns for the 12th consecutive time.

Roethlisberger passed for 417 yards, the third most in team history, and two touchdowns in the 27-14 victory. No Steelers quarterback ever threw for as many yards in a win.

The torrent of passing yards were such that even four turnovers by the Steelers and something all too familiar to them -- a 98-yard kickoff return by Cleveland's Joshua Cribbs -- could not hold them back. They won for the third consecutive time to go to 4-2 and tie Cincinnati for first place in the AFC North Division.

"I don't even think we know how good we can be here," Roethlisberger said. "Truth be told, I think we have to keep striving for excellence."

Roethlisberger completed 23 of 35 passes and nine of those catches wound up covering more than 20 yards on the Big-Play Ben afternoon. The Steelers' 543 yards in total offense were the most in 14 years.

"This is the best I've ever seen him play," tight end Heath Miller said of Roethlisberger.

Hines Ward, challenging for the NFL lead in receiving, caught eight passes for 159 yards -- third most in his career -- including a 52-yarder for a touchdown. Santonio Holmes caught five for 104 yards and Miller five for 80 yards, including one of 8 yards for a score, his fourth touchdown in the past three games.

It is only the second time the Steelers have had a 400-yard passer and two 100-yard receivers in the same game.

"He's really good," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of his quarterback. "He's in total command of the offense. It's fun to watch at times."

It was not so much fun for them at other times. But these, after all, are the Browns (1-4) and though they managed to score their fourth offensive touchdown of the season, they never really posed a threat.

The Steelers took a 14-0 lead near the end of the second quarter on Roethlisberger's touchdown passes to Miller and Ward, but Cribbs followed with his 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to make it 14-7 and prevent an early runaway. It was Cribbs' eighth career return for a touchdown, third against the Steelers.

Jeff Reed kicked a 32-yard field goal at the end of the first half to stretch the lead to 17-7. His kick came after a replay overturned a nifty catch by Ward in the end zone. The ruling was that Ward dropped the ball at the end of the play.

At the start of the third quarter the Browns pulled a shocker by driving 66 yards to score on Derek Anderson's 1-yard pass to fullback Lawrence Vickers.

The score was tight at that point with the Steelers holding a 17-14 lead, but it was not close on the playing field.

Rashard Mendenhall, who made his third consecutive start at halfback, ran for his fourth short-yardage touchdown in the past three games, this one from 2 yards, for a 24-14 lead in the third quarter. The only scoring of the fourth came when Reed kicked his second field goal, from 39 yards.

The third quarter turned sloppy when the teams combined for five turnovers on 12 offensive plays to end five series. Roethlisberger started it by throwing his only interception, overthrowing Ward. Anderson was sacked by Lawrence Timmons and fumbled, Willie Parker lost a fumble, Anderson was sacked again by Timmons and lost a fumble. Mendenhall ended the flurry by losing a fumble.

Ryan Clark ultimately put an end to the turnovers by intercepting Anderson at the Steelers' 1 with 4:21 left. Combined with Troy Polamalu's early interception in his first game back, the Steelers doubled their interception total for the season to four, two each by Clark and Polamalu.

Polamalu intercepted Cribbs early on to stifle a late first-quarter Cleveland drive with the game scoreless. Cribbs ran the wildcat offense yesterday on 13 plays, eight times in the first quarter.

"When it hit there early, we kept going with it," Browns coach Eric Mangini said of the wildcat.

Cribbs, a quarterback at Kent State when Steelers linebacker James Harrison played there, would take the direct snap and sometimes run, sometimes hand off and sometimes pass. His second pass is what got him into trouble because it came on second down at the Steelers' 14 and Polamalu intercepted it.

"The interception, in my opinion, was the biggest play of the game," Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel said. "They had the ball in the red zone and a little momentum. To turn the ball over right there was huge."

The Steelers' defense without end Aaron Smith performed well enough, although it was difficult to judge against the offensively challenged Browns.

Cleveland had 91 yards rushing. Anderson and Cribbs combined to complete 9 of 26 passes for 122 yards. Anderson was sacked twice.

"The D-line made it easier for me," Timmons said. "I think we had a good day."

A good day all around. Their third consecutive victory thrust them back into first place in the division with the Bengals, one game ahead of Baltimore, which lost its third in a row after opening 3-0.

"It doesn't mean anything right now," Keisel said. "It means we dug ourselves out of a hole a little bit but I don't think it's time to pat ourselves on the back."

Ed Bouchette's blog on the Steelers and Gerry Dulac's Steelers chats are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.