PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Kenny Stills ran all alone down the sideline, ball tucked under his arm, and the New Orleans Saints very much in charge.Suddenly a mess at home, the Saints found themselves on the road. Stills 69-yard catch-and-run in the third quarter served as the exclamation point of a 35-32 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday that finally had the Saints looking like a first-place team on the field, not just in the standings.Drew Brees passed for five touchdowns for the ninth time in his career. Stills hauled in five catches for 162 yards and his game-breaking score for New Orleans (5-7), which ended a three-game losing streak by dominating the ever erratic Steelers (7-5).Offensively, defensive and on special teams, we can play with the best teams in the league, running back Mark Ingram said. As long as we dont hurt ourselves, we can win football games.Certainly looked like it as Ingram finished with 122 yards rushing and the lacklustre New Orleans defence forced a pair of Ben Roethlisberger interceptions that Brees turned into touchdowns the other way. While the Saints werent perfect — allowing a pair of late Pittsburgh scores to make the final closer than the reality — they looked the part of a contender while winning for the first time in a month.One of the leaders of a division that has served as a punchline of late, New Orleans scored a blow for the NFC South by pushing Pittsburgh around.Winning is everything to this team, linebacker Junior Galette said. As long as Ive been here, we never lost three games in a row, especially at home, so this was a big win today. We entered this game professionally and went out there and did the job.And Pittsburgh continued to spin in place. Roethlisberger passed for 435 yards and two touchdowns to Antonio Brown but also tossed the two costly interceptions. LeVeon Bell piled up 254 total yards — 159 receiving and another 95 rushing — but the Steelers didnt exactly come out of their bye week with any sort of sizzle. Three of Pittsburghs five losses have come against teams at least three games under .500.Its got to stop, defensive end Cam Heyward said. Everybody. Top to bottom. Weve got to stop doing this. Were shooting ourselves in the foot and weve got too many good guys, too many good players to not win these games.For whatever reason, the Steelers are not winning them, and time is running out.Some other things we learned with a month to go in the regular season.NO GRAHAM, NO PROBLEM: New Orleans tight end Jimmy Graham spent four quarters as the most talented decoy on the field. It hardly mattered. With the Steelers focusing much of their attention on stopping one of the NFLs top targets, Brees went to work. His five touchdown passes went to Stills, Marques Colston, Erik Lorig, Ben Watson and Nick Toon.I dont care if I get zero catches, 10 catches or 20, as long as we win, Graham said.SO LONG TO DA BEARD? Pittsburgh defensive end Brett Keisel left in the third quarter with a torn triceps and didnt return. The 36-year-old Keisels locker was already clear by the time the media entered after the game. His season, if not his career, appears to be in jeopardy.It almost makes you want to cry when you lose a guy like that because hes a leader and so instrumental to what we do here, safety Mike Mitchell said.HANDS OFF: Roethlisberger hit just 32 of 58 passes but refused to place blame on a bum right hand. The quarterback shook the hand several times after slamming it into the helmet of New Orleans linebacker Curtis Lofton in the first quarter.It was just one of those days that the balls were coming out high, he said.FIGHT NIGHT: New Orleans coach Sean Payton and defensive co-ordinator Rob Ryan exchanged words in the third quarter when the Saints were forced to call timeout because they had 12 players on the field. Despite reports of dissention between Payton and Ryan, Payton said there are no issues between the two.I love what hes doing, Payton said.LOOKING AHEAD: Even though Pittsburgh trails Cincinnati by 1.5 games the Steelers are in control of their fate. Pittsburgh plays the Bengals twice over the final month, including a meeting next Sunday in Cincinnati. The Saints host Carolina next Sunday. New Orleans beat the Panthers 28-10 on Oct. 30.___AP NFL website:
www.pro32.ap.org and
http://twitter.com/AP_NFL . -- Alex Anthopoulos spoke volumes with what he didnt say on right-hander Ervin Santana. . Sources tell TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun the international tournament will likely return in September 2016 rather than 2015.
http://www.cheaptigersjerseysauthentic.com/. "Its amazing to do this coming from such a small island, where tennis isnt necessarily recognized as one of the main sports," Puig said. "Im just happy Im able to be here playing tennis not only for myself, but for my country too. . Meanwhile, the Jets extended their winning streak to four and remain perfect under Paul Maurice. Its the Jets second four-game winning streak of the season, the other coming in mid-November. . The Canucks figured to be active prior to Wednesdays trade deadline, getting a jump on things the previous day when they dealt goaltender Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers for netminder Jacob Markstrom and forward Shawn Matthias.ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- DeMarcus Ware boarded the plane for Denver on Wednesday morning, looked in the row across from him and saw a sleeping Aqib Talib. Yep, the Broncos mean business. Before Ware even had a chance to sit down with Broncos boss John Elway, he saw exactly how serious the team was about fixing its defence. Ware became Denvers latest defensive addition in free agency, agreeing to a three-year, $30 million deal. Thats $110 million -- $60 million guaranteed -- for Ware, safety T.J. Ward and Talib, the last two of whom signed Tuesday. "Theyre trying to make a statement -- a statement were a team to be reckoned with," the 31-year-old Ware said. "Their mentality is a now mentality. Not looking forward to next season or the season after that, the time is now." Out of work less than 24 hours, Ware wasnt fully intending to agree to a deal right away with Denver when he flew into town. But he was persuaded by Elway, the Hall of Fame quarterback turned executive who stressed to Ware the Broncos commitment to defence even with a prolific offence led by Peyton Manning. Elway got his man -- again. He did so two years ago with Manning and last off-season with Wes Welker. Its really no surprise the Broncos are concentrating on defence in the wake of a 43-8 loss to Seattle in the Super Bowl last month. Ward thinks the trio of new players brings not only leadership but a level of physicality to the field. Denvers defence surrendered nearly 25 points a game last season, which was 22nd in the league. "I think you see with Seattles defence last year -- definitely defence wins championships," Ward said. "(Ware and Talib) are two great players. Im eager to get to work with them. I dont know them personally yet, but I know what they do on the field. Those are two players I admire. I think well work well together." Talib flew in from Dallas on the same flight as Ware, not even realizing it until halfway through the trip. He was ecstatic to later hear that Elway enticed Ware to join the Broncos. "Every year you just want to better your team," Talib said. "Mr. Elway decided to better his team on defence this year, since the offence looks pretty good." Ware was let go Tuesday by Dallas in a salary-cap move. He had a franchise-record 117 sacks for the Cowboys since being drafted in the first round in 2005.dddddddddddd He had a career-low six sacks last season and missed games for the first time in his career because of a thigh injury. He underwent off-season surgery to fix his elbow. Now that Wares fully healthy again, hes "going to be able to get after the passer," Elway said. No doubt, especially playing opposite Von Miller. This was a rough season for Miller, beginning with a six-game drug suspension and ending with a torn ACL on Dec. 22. Ware said he has a good relationship with Miller and hopes to get the 2011 rookie of the year back on track by serving as a mentor. "Von is one of those incredible athletes," Ware said. "If you can really hone in on what you do best, and make yourself not think as much when youre out there, hell be an even better athlete." Talib said theres no bad blood between him and the Broncos after he tweaked his knee early in the AFC championship game against Denver when he was bumped by Welker on a crossing route. Maybe at first, but not anymore. Not after watching the replay "1,000 times." "Wes is a good friend of mine," Talib said. "I can tell you he didnt do it on purpose." Talib appreciated Patriots coach Bill Belichick sticking up for him after the game. Belichick called it "one of the worst plays" hed seen in nearly four decades of coaching. The leagues officiating chief later ruled it a legal hit by Welker. "I told (Belichick) thank you and I respected what he did," Talib said. As for Talibs balky hip, well, thats not an issue. Hasnt been since his days with Tampa Bay. "The Patriots have their way of reporting stuff," Talib said. "The injury I had was actually a quad injury, reported as a hip injury. Thats how they do things." Talib said he received some interest from Washington, New Orleans, San Francisco and, of course, New England, but liked the fit with the Broncos. "I think we all are guys who play with attitude on the field," Talib said. Ware couldnt agree more, especially with the Super Bowl loss being a motivator. "Theyre saying, Were going to act right now and not let that happen again," Ware said. ' ' '
