How do you like them now?
The Steelers have won their past five games and have done so in increasingly impressive fashion. And in this 52-21 whipping of the Panthers, they showed just how dangerous they can be moving forward with seven different players scoring touchdowns and No. 3 receiver James Washington not even catching a pass.
This is a dangerous, explosive team.
As I wrote in my game report, Ben Roethlisberger might have played better games in his career, but I've seen every start and can't recall one. His perfect passer rating was his first since 2007, when he had two such games. But this one was different. And it was unexpected.
The Steelers were working on a short week -- as were the Panthers. They couldn't come up with and institute a game plan that extensively schemed to what the Panthers would do. But Mike Tomlin and his staff jammed several days worth of work into just a couple and had solid offensive and defensive plans on the best way to attack the Panthers.
They also had Roethlisberger.
This is a team that can make a lot of noise this season. And by noise, I mean the good variety.
• It wasn't all good news for the Steelers. James Conner left in the second half with a concussion and is now in the league protocol.
That makes things interesting going into Tuesday's 4 p.m. deadline for Le'Veon Bell reporting to the Steelers this season or not being able to play at all.
Bell is back in Pittsburgh, something that at least hints that he will return to the Steelers sometime over the next few days.
"I don't know what his plans are, but I would say that at this point we expect him to come back next week," team president Art Rooney II told Sirius NFL radio. "We know he's back in Pittsburgh, so we're hoping to have some communications with him over the weekend. We're kind of expecting he'll be back next week."
For the people saying they just want Bell gone, they got a reminder in this game exactly why the Steelers aren't of the same thinking. Conner's backups Stevan Ridley and Jaylen Samuels averaged 3.3 and 1.4 yards, respectively, on 13 combined carries in this game, though Samuels did score his first career touchdown on a reception.
Would you rather have Bell spelling Conner and serving as his backup or Ridley? No disrespect to Ridley, but Bell wins that without a thought.
Whether Bell reports or not, we'll see. But it is interesting that Tomlin gave the team off until Wednesday following the win over the Panthers, the first time this season they haven't at least had a Monday meeting let alone a practice.
Yes, it was a Thursday night game and the team responded well to playing on a short week. But even when they were coming off their bye, the Steelers practiced on Monday. Take from that what you will.
• Mess with Roethlisberger and you're going to feel the wrath of the Steelers offensive line.
It's been that way for a long time, but the line really went after Eric Reid after his hit on Roethlisberger at the end of a scramble.
"We’re very close," Maurkice Pouncey said. "Ben took me right in and showed me how to be a leader without really going overboard with it. I appreciate everything he’s done. He’s a heck of a guy and one of my closest friends."
That line gets mad when someone gets near Roethlisberger, let alone hits him illegally.
He was the least-pressured quarterback in the league coming into this game and was sacked just once and pressured twice by the Panthers.
For the season, Roethlisberger has been sacked just 12 times. And one of those came on purpose last week at Baltimore.
The bottom line, however, is that this is a close team that enjoys playing with each other. They stand up for each other. It's not the chaotic locker room that some seem to think.
• Chris Boswell was a perfect 7 for 7 on PAT attempts in this game and also kicked a 50-yard field goal, his first attempt this season from 50 yards or beyond.
It looked like this:
It was a big show of faith in Boswell by Tomlin. The Steelers were leading 21-7 early in the second quarter and a miss would have given the Panthers the ball at their own 40 and a feeling that perhaps they could regain some momentum.
And for a kicker who uncharacteristically missed three field goals early in the season and has missed four PATs, it was kind of a big deal.
"It was important for me," Tomlin said when asked if it was an important field goal for Boswell. "I don’t know if it was for him, but I enjoyed it."
• The Steelers' defensive game plan likely had you screaming at your TV early in the game as Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt ran past Christian McCaffrey several times early in the game on their way to Cam Newton.
But it was a solid plan. They wanted to hit Newton early and often and force him to give the ball up. It was the same plan they had the previous week against the Ravens and Lamar Jackson.
And it's a big reason why read-option stuff is tough to run at the NFL level. The outside linebackers at the collegiate level are typically in the 210- to 225-pound range. Dupree and Watt are both around 250 and can run.
They didn't get Newton every time, but they got to him enough to make a difference. It also didn't hurt the offense was scoring points every time it had the ball.
• The Steelers had just one penalty in this game, that coming on an Artie Burns pass interference penalty after he had replaced Joe Haden in garbage time.
It was a tough play on an underthrown ball. And I'm sure there were a lot of people who took some kind of strange satisfaction out of that.
But the Steelers would still be better served with Burns regaining his mojo.
It was interesting to note, however, that Haden had been following receiver Devin Funchess throughout the game. And when he left, the Steelers did the same thing with Coty Sensabaugh.
• Roosevelt Nix might be the best special teams player in the NFL. He showed it again in this game with his forced fumble on a kick return.
The Steelers also got the former college nose tackle into the mix on offense, as Nix caught two passes for 17 yards. He's just a good football player.
• The Steelers have now held four consecutive opponents under 300 yards of offense. Two of those opponents, Carolina and Atlanta, have some things they do very well on the offensive side.
This is no mirage. The Panthers had scored more than 30 points in half of their games entering this one. But they struggled to gain any traction against the Steelers after their opening drive.
The defense is now allowing 336.1 yards per game, which moves it into the top-10 in the league going into this weekend's games.
With an offense that is averaging 31 points per game, that's easily good enough in today's NFL.
• Everyone is fretting the Steelers' schedule the rest of the way. Yes, it's tough. But while the Steelers have to play some tough games, so do the teams they are playing
As this team showed Thursday night, it can beat anyone. And yes, I'm including the big, bad Patriots on that list.
Remember, New England and the Chargers both have to come to Pittsburgh. And after watching a very good Carolina team get dismantled, that can't be a promising prospect for those teams.
• Matt Feiler made his third consecutive start at right tackle. I just wanted to make mention of that because otherwise, you wouldn't have noticed.
Feiler has been really, really good. The Steelers have started a pair of tackles in four of their wins this season who were undrafted guys cut by other teams.
Think the Bengals and Eagles, two teams that released Alejandro Villanueva, and the Texans, who released Feiler, couldn't use those two now?
Mike Munchak deserves a ton of credit for that.
