Steelers' Burress cautious, but thinks 'this team can be special'

The receiver proclaimed Pittsburgh the team to beat in the AFC North.
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
PITTSBURGH -- Despite playing their all-around best game of the season, some Steelers downplayed their 4-1 start after Sunday's victory.
Not fifth-year wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who proclaimed the Steelers as the team to beat in the AFC North.
"We have maybe the best team collectively playing together since I've been here," said Burress who played on the 2001 team that finished 13-3 and played host to the AFC Championship Game.
"I've seen a lot of crazy things happen in this league [so] we have to keep a level head and stay humble," Burress said. "If we just keep coming together like we are doing, this team can be special."
Other opinions
Burress' teammates tempered their joy.
"We've still got to continue working hard because we're still not there," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "It's a great feeling to be 4-1 right now, but there's a lot of room for improvement."
Linebacker James Farrior, who led the Steelers with seven tackles, added, "I think we're growing, but we all know we didn't play our best game today.
"We missed some sacks, we blew some coverages, they got some big plays on us," Farrior said. "We have to stop that to be a good defense."
The Steelers' three-game winning streak has caught some NFL observers by surprise because they've relied on rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
But it was Roethlisberger's ability to scramble and buy time that impressed his teammates.
"Ben played an excellent game," Ward said. "[We] wideouts were trying to adjust our game to him scrambling around and trying to stay alive. The two big plays that Plex [Burress] made -- it was just Ben saving some time and scrambling around."
Improvision
One of them came in the first quarter when Burress sensed Roethlisberger was on the move and the wide receiver took off down the sideline, catching a 48-yard pass while being pursued by Browns cornerback Anthony Henry.
"It's something that you really can't practice, but we always have one guy going deep, one guy coming short and one guy coming back to the quarterback," Ward said of the strategy when a play breaks down.
The play came shortly after Browns safety Chris Crocker intercepted a tipped pass and scored a 20-yard touchdown.
"He has great poise and that's the biggest thing," said wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, a former college quarterback who bobbled the pass. "When you have a quarterback like that who can bounce back like he does, that's tremendous. It's a trait that a lot of guys don't have."
Defensively, the Steelers stopped the Browns on 10-of-12 third-down chances.
Still, linebacker Clark Haggans said the run defense could have been better.
Must be corrected
"We got gassed a couple of times and we can't have that," said Haggans after the Steelers limited Browns running backs Lee Suggs and William Green to a combined 57 yards.
Browns quarterback Jeff Garcia completed 16-of-34 passes for 210 yards.
"With his game, it's pick your poison the way he can run well and throw with accuracy," Haggans said. "We just tried to contain him so that he wouldn't improvise any other kind of play for a big gain."
williams@vindy.com