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After spending the last month-plus mired in a four-game losing streak, the Steelers have spent the last two weeks taking advantage of great matchups and are now in a perfect spot for a postseason run. Pittsburgh controls its own destiny heading into the home stretch of the 2016 season after thumping the Colts 28-7 in Indianapolis on Thanksgiving evening.

It was a classic Steelers effort, with Ben Roethlisberger hooking up with Antonio Brown for a trio of touchdowns, including a throat-stomping fourth-quarter touchdown that sealed the game.

The Steelers were never buried, per se. They lost to the Dolphins (better than we thought), the Patriots (very good, and Pittsburgh didn't have Big Ben), the Ravens (ultimate rivalry matchup) and the Cowboys (maybe the best team in the football).

Those aren't terrible losses; they just happened to be lumped together. For Pittsburgh, a team capable of losing to any bad team on any night in the Mike Tomlin era, stomping the Browns and then blasting the Andrew Luck-less Colts is a huge step forward.

It doesn't guarantee anything, because there are three divisional matchups left on the schedule, including a de facto playoff matchup against the Ravens coming up. But the Steelers' schedule is substantially easier than of the Ravens, who still have the Patriots, Dolphins, Eagles and the Bengals (twice) on the schedule in their remaining six games.

Pittsburgh gets the Browns, Bills and Giants in addition to the Bengals and Ravens. They're in a better spot than the Ravens because they took care of business on Thursday.

Here are seven things to know about the Thursday night blowout.

1. Injuries for Indy

The Colts looked like a possible contender for the AFC South after handling the Titans in Week 11. Things change fast in the NFL, because without Luck on Thursday night, the Colts were helpless. It got much worse for them too, because they took on a ton of really bad injuries.

Here's the list of players who were hurt for the Colts on Thanksgiving: T.Y. Hilton, Robert Mathis, Vontae Davis, Ryan Kelly and Denzelle Good.

To recap, that's the No. 1 receiver (who got blasted by Mike Mitchell on a huge hit), the top pass rusher, the top cornerback and two starting offensive linemen.

Being in the AFC South is quite a nice little bonus, but this team is hurting badly and has three of five games remaining on the road, including next week against the Jets.

2. Gee, Chuck, the date started out well ...

There was obvious concern coming into this game that the Colts wouldn't be able to hang with the Steelers offense because of Andrew Luck 's absence.

That concern grew quickly when, on the first play of the game, Tolzien was stripped by the Steelers defense.

The Colts would recover, but a few plays later were punting out of a fourth-and-25 situation. And a few plays after that, the Steelers were waltzing into the end zone.

3. It's a trap!

The Colts needed to pull out all the stops with Tolzien under center, so ...

4. Do the Billy Goat

Connor McGregor fashioned a celebration by strutting like Vince McMahon after a recent win. We've seen NBA star Marc Gasol pull it off recently, and on Thursday a group of NFL players busted it out too.

During the Cowboys 31-26 win over the Redskins, Dez Bryant did it:

And following the fake punt, McAfee pulled it off as well:

That's basically how I look after hitting a good golf shot, right before I miss an easy putt.

5. Here are your ankles, sir

Antonio Brown will destroy your world if you're not careful.

Brown went off for Pittsburgh on Thursday, posting a ridiculous three touchdown catches on just five catches overall, for 91 yards on the night.


In a year where the "best receiver in the game" title may have started to slip away a little bit, Brown was magnificent in a must-win game.

6. Red-zone woes

The effort put forth by Tolzien all night was incredibly impressive. Dude went out there and balled out in a spot where he shouldn't be balling. But the Colts, who remained aggressive for most of the evening, couldn't close the deal in the red zone, going for it on fourth down twice inside the Steelers' 20.

In a normal situation, Indy would have kicked and taken the three points to let Luck keep hammering out drives. But they needed to force the issue in the red zone.

What made their play-calling decisions odd was having Tolzien run multiple times; Frank Gore wasn't putting up huge numbers or anything in the rushing game, but letting the backup quarterback tote the rock was bizarre. Plus, the fourth-down decisions were basically to let Tolzien throw.

It was necessary, but going Robert Turbin run, Frank Gore run, Scott Tolzien run, Scott Tolzien throw isn't ideal. It's just part of what you're facing in this situation.

7. What's next?

The Steelers will spend Sunday rooting for the Bengals, hoping Cincy can upend the Bengals. What a weird feeling that will be. Their next game is Sunday, Dec. 4 against the Giants in a pretty spicy matchup between teams who have been kind of questionable but could very well end up in the playoffs. It wouldn't be stunning to see them square off in the Super Bowl because of how hot their quarterbacks can get.

The Colts will travel to the Jets next Monday with a banged-up offensive line against a dangerous defensive line. They'll hope to have Andrew Luck back for a must-win game, although obviously they could get help from the division this weekend.