The Pittsburgh Steelers' Antonio Brown gave us one of the season's defining celebrations in one of the season's definitive performances.
The exclamation point on the Steelers' 45-10 victory over the Indianapolis Colts came when Brown returned a punt 71 yards, and then leaped crotch-first into the goalpost, bouncing off and terrifying the poor security guard behind the padded post. The rest of the Steelers' night was a bit more restrained ... and a bit more successful.
"I was trying to stick it at the goal post," Brown laughed after the game, "but it didn't work out."
There was a time not so long ago— say, August —when observers targeted the Steelers as preseason Super Bowl favorites. Then the season began, the injuries piled up, the Bengals/Patriots/Broncos roared out to strong starts, and everyone pretty much forgot about Pittsburgh.
After a thorough dismantling of the Indianapolis Colts, nobody's taking Pittsburgh for granted any longer. The division championship is all but out of reach, but the Steelers are now officially the team that no one will want to face in the first round of the playoffs.
The first half was nastier than the Thanksgiving leftovers still in your fridge. The teams combined for four first-half turnovers, three in the first three minutes and two in the first 51 seconds. But while the Steelers found their footing, the Colts never got to their feet.
Ben Roethlisberger, who coming into Sunday night had started and completed only three games all season, threw like he had himself on his fantasy team, hurling remarkable touchdown passes to Brown (twice), Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton. All in all, Roethlisberger was 24-of-39 for 364 yards and four touchdowns. Running back DeAngelo Williams never got into the end zone, but he nonetheless rolled up 134 yards on 26 carries. It's a balanced attack that will overwhelm all but the most determined defenses over the season's final games.
On the other side of the field, the Colts may have ridden the Matt Hasselbeck train about as far as they can. Hasselbeck looked overmatced all game, throwing interceptions, failing to get the team lined up, taking sacks and surrendering the ball. Down 38-10, the Colts formally surrendered with just under seven minutes left in the game, sending in Charlie Whitehurst for mop-up duty as Hasselbeck suffered what the Colts termed neck and shoulder injuries.
The Steelers have now totaled 450 yards of offense over four straight games, tying an NFL mark. As ESPN's NFL Twitter account noted, Roethlisberger also threw for 200 yards in the first half of each of those same four games, the first quarterback to do so since Dan Fouts in 1981.
The Colts fall to 6-6 and are now tied with the Houston Texans for the AFC South division lead that was once their birthright. The Colts close with three of four games against divisional rivals, including a critical game in two weeks against the Texans.
The Steelers (7-5), meanwhile, have two brutal matchups in the immediate future in Cincinnati and Denver, then close with two should-be victories against Cleveland and Baltimore. There's much left to be settled in the AFC wild-card race, but if Pittsburgh can maintain this momentum, the Steelers can beat anyone in the league. They will probably try to keep Brown from leaping into any more goalposts, though.
Listen to Yahoo Sports' Grandstanding podcast for more NFL coverage:

Grandstanding: A Yahoo Sports podcast
Subscribe via iTunes or via RSS feed
____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
Follow @jaybusbee
And keep up with Jay over on Facebook, too.