Though he has played in only 8½ of 11 games this season due to injury, Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons set a career season high in sacks with six after bagging two in a loss to Baltimore this past Sunday.

Timmons has tied LaMarr Woodley for second on the team with six, a rare total for an inside linebacker in the Steelers’ 3-4 defense. Kendrell Bell’s nine sacks in 2001 were the most by a Steelers inside linebacker in at least the past 20 years and the red-hot Timmons, now fully healthy, has a good shot at getting to that total with five games remaining in the regular season.

Timmons, the 15th pick of the first round in the 2007 draft out of Florida State, is in his third year with Pittsburgh. After a rookie season in which he played sparingly and recorded no sacks, Timmons showed flashes of brilliance in spot play for the 2008 Super Bowl champions and finished with five sacks in a reserve role.

This season, Timmons has been the starter at right inside linebacker since training camp. He missed the first game of the season and did not get his first sack until Week 5 in a win at Detroit. He followed with two against Cleveland the following week, but an ankle injury again slowed him.

The last two games Timmons has come on strong, recording a sack and a forced fumble in a loss to Kansas City and seven tackles and a forced fumble to go along with his two sacks against Baltimore.

Even Super Bowl champions have to make adjustments.

Just months removed from winning their sixth Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh Steelers will feature several new faces and a few changes on the depth chart.

The most prominent change comes at right inside linebacker, where third-year pro Lawrence Timmons takes over as the starter in place of Larry Foote, a solid veteran who signed as a free agent with Detroit in the off-season.

Timmons, the 15th pick of the first round of the 2007 draft out of Florida State, is in the third year of a five-year contract he signed prior to his rookie season. Timmons, who has shown glimpses of magnificent athletic ability and speed, threw a key block when James Harrison returned a fumble 100 yards for a touchdown in the Super Bowl and finished the regular season with 5 sacks in a reserve role.

“I miss Larry Foote,” Timmons says. “He was a good guy who helped me out a lot and made it fun. He was always happy, always joking around. He brought a lot of camaraderie with the guys.

“I’m not going to change anything as a starter. It’s still football, nothing has really changed. Even last year I was playing a big part of the games. So I don’t think I need to change anything.”

Timmons also intercepted one pass last season, returning it 89 yards before he was tackled at the 1-yard line for a key play in a 33-10 victory over New England in Week 13.

It was “one for the other thumb,” as the Pittsburgh Steelers became the first NFL team to win six Super Bowl championships, taking the title with a 27-23 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday in Tampa, Fla.

The resulting celebration included a parade through the streets of Pittsburgh today that drew an estimated 250,000.

The Super Bowl was watched by an estimated audience of 95.4 million, the second-highest total in NFL history, trailing only the 97.4 million who watched the previous Super Bowl.

Lawrence Timmons, in only his second year in the NFL, earned his first Super Bowl ring as an invaluable backup linebacker. Timmons, who won’t even turn 23 until May, was third on the Steelers with five tackles during the Super Bowl. He also had one pass defended and made two key blocks during teammate James Harrison’s 100-yard return of an interception for a touchdown after time had run out in the first half.

Timmons, who applied pressure on Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner with a blitz while Harrison fell back into coverage on the key play, threw a block at the line after the interception, then raced down the sideline following Harrison. Timmons threw another block into a Cardinals lineman that bumped Cards receiver Larry Fitzgerald out of bounds. Fitzgerald recovered and caught up to Harrison at the 5-yard line, but by then it was too late and Harrison fell forward into the end zone, giving the Steelers a game-changing TD and a 17-7 halftime lead.

Had Harrison been tackled at the 1, the half would have ended with the Steelers leading, 10-7.

Timmons also came within inches of blocking a punt in the first half.

Timmons was a first-round pick out of Florida State, 15th overall, by the Steelers in 2007. As an outside linebacker, he earned more and more playing time as the season progressed and earned valuable experience while playing with linebacking veterans such as Harrison, James Farrior and Larry Foote.

Timmons finished his second season with 5 sacks and one interception. A third- and fourth-down specialist, Timmons combined superior speed, size and instincts to bolster a fierce pass rush that was fronted by Harrison and LaMarr Woodley with a combined 27.5 sacks. Harrison was honored as AP Defensive Player of the Year after racking up 16 sacks and one interception.