Now that they reclaimed what they always thought was their rightful spot atop the AFC North Division, the Steelers want to shift to another gear: Overdrive. The boosters are ready to kick in for a team that began the season locked in reverse.
"We have to turn it up a notch," linebacker Jason Gildon said, after his team added another notch to what they hope will be an AFC championship belt Sunday in Baltimore. "We're in first place alone, and now it's time to put some distance between us and the next team. That's basically what we put ourselves in position to do."
The Steelers did more than that in their past four games. They not only buzzed into first place in the mediocre AFC North with a 4-3 record, they put themselves back in contention for the top spot in the conference.
Only three teams have fewer losses than the Steelers in the AFC. Surprising San Diego leads the conference with a 6-1 record, Denver is 6-2 and Miami 5-2. Just two of the Steelers' remaining nine opponents have winning records -- Atlanta (4-3), which comes to Heinz Field Nov. 10, and Tampa Bay (6-2), which plays host to the Steelers Dec. 23.
Their other seven foes have a combined record of 18-33.
By winning three in a row and four out of five, the Steelers have weathered a shockingly bad start to give themselves a shot -- dare anyone say it -- of seizing the best record in the conference for the second consecutive season.
"We're not going to look at it like that," safety Lee Flowers said, with the memories of a 1-3 start still fresh. "That was part of the problems when we came into the season -- we got overconfident. Right now, we need to stay humble and realize a couple games and we're right back in the same situation we were in the first couple of weeks if we lose. We need to stay humble and hungry. Just forget about the record. Let's take this one game at a time."
It was Flowers who was most vocal early in the season that his teammates fell into a trap of thinking they were better than they were. As a co-captain of the defense, Flowers does not want that to happen again even though the Steelers appear to have a better sense of themselves.
"It's definitely a sigh of relief," Flowers said of the turnaround. "The first couple of weeks, we couldn't do anything right. Now, all of a sudden, we feel pretty good. But that's what got us in trouble the first couple of weeks. We need to stay strong and forget about the record, forget about all that and just understand we have to take this thing one game at a time."
If he needs more evidence to sell anyone of that, he can point to the collapses of the Raiders and Patriots, the teams that vanquished the Steelers by a combined 60-31 score to open the season. The Raiders have lost three in a row to slip to 4-3 and the defending Super Bowl champions have lost four in a row to fall to 3-4.
"It seems like it's a whole new season since we were 0-2," said Gildon, the team's other defensive captain. "But you can never forget that. You always have to keep that in the back of your mind. You don't want to be in that position again, especially when we worked so hard to get to where we are now. You have to be aware of that. It's like, don't forget where you came from."
The Steelers came from nowhere. Their offense was in disarray, producing more turnovers than anyone in the league. Their defense was spread out and picked apart. Their special teams played as if it were 2001. But they gave rise to the "Tommy Gun" offense, and they have scored an average of more than 30 points the past four games, and over the past three games they have allowed an average of fewer than 12.
Quarterback Tommy Maddox has engineered touchdowns on the first drive of the past three games -- and on the first three drives in two of the past three -- to put the Steelers in front early, something that did not happen in their first four contests.
That helped the defense regroup, Flowers said.
"That's lovely, because you get to rest on the sideline," he said. "It keeps us fresh, keeps us playing fast defensively. Those guys are playing unbelievable right now. The offensive line is doing a hell of a job right now. I think that's the difference between them now and the first couple of weeks. They just need to keep it going, stay humble and keep that fire."
They will need to do that Sunday in Cleveland because the Browns are nipping at their heels with a 4-4 record. The Steelers needed Maddox to come off the bench in the final four minutes Sept. 29 in Heinz Field to lead them to a touchdown drive that tied the score against the Browns and help them win in overtime, 16-13.
The Steelers have been a good road team the past four years, aside from their 20-14 loss in New England to open this season. During their disastrous 6-10 season of 1999, they were 4-4 on the road and they were 5-3 on the road during their 9-7 season of 2000. Last year, they won six of eight on the road.
"Since I've been here, we've been a very decent team on the road," said tackle Wayne Gandy, who joined them in 1999. "It seems we were made to be on the road."
After Sunday, the Steelers will have five of their final eight games at home.
"This is promising," Gandy said. "We're playing the way we expected to play, which is physical and hard. Early on, those are things we didn't do. I think guys are intense now and hungry and getting into their stride.
"We got out of that first lap, we're in the second lap. We have to start turning it on."
Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.
Steelers are set to make their move 
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