Steelers Prepare For Second Season
By Jerry DiPaola

The Steelers were the hottest team in the National Football League for months.

Whether rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hit his targets with regularity or missed more than half of the time (as he did for two of four games in December), the Steelers still won.

If the Steelers sacked the quarterback more frequently than any team in the league or allowed him to carefully scan the secondary without ever leaving his feet, it didn't matter. Victories still kept gushing over Heinz Field and other NFL venues, like oil from a Texas derrick.

Meeting the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots or the Philadelphia Eagles, best team in the NFC, brought the same results as games against the sorry Browns or Dolphins: Win, win, win ... win, win, win ... win, win, win, win, win. As sure as turning on the radio last month and hearing a Christmas carol.

There were almost too many to count. More consecutive victories than any team in franchise history, including those super squads of the 1970s that people around these parts just can't stop praising.

But here's the point: Throw out all those victories achieved in the regular season. They gave the Steelers the home-field advantage in every postseason game this side of the Super Bowl, but what does that mean? The Steelers played four AFC Championship games in Pittsburgh under coach Bill Cowher and lost three of them.

"When the playoffs start, everybody's season is 0-0," Pro Bowl linebacker James Farrior said. "So anybody can beat anybody. It's going to be a tough tournament."

Tougher than the regular season, because the Steelers may have to play two excellent teams that they didn't meet in the regular season (the Indianapolis Colts and San Diego Chargers) and/or the Patriots, who will have the benefit of running back Corey Dillon this time. Dillon was injured and didn't play at Heinz Field on Oct. 31 when the Steelers beat the Patriots, 34-20.

Still, Dillon rushed for 1,519 yards through the first 15 games of the season. You think he might have something to say about the outcome of the Steelers/Patriots rematch (if there is one)?

The Steelers earned a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC tournament, so their first game won't occur until Jan. 15 or 16 at Heinz Field where they are 25-8-1 since the stadium was built prior to the 2001 season.

The Steelers will avoid the Colts and record-breaking quarterback Peyton Manning in their first game because Pittsburgh earned the top seed while the Colts entered the postseason No. 3 in the AFC. That means the Colts will play the No. 6 seed in the first round and - if they win - the No. 2 Patriots in their next game. Meanwhile, the No. 1 Steelers either play No. 6 or the winner of the Nos. 4/5 game in their first game at Heinz Field.

Thunderbolt Balance

That could be the San Diego Chargers, who were 11-4 with one game left in the regular season. The Chargers would be a dangerous foe for the Steelers. Quarterback Drew Brees, whose irregularities forced the Chargers to use their first-round draft choice on rookie quarterback Phillip Rivers, suddenly became one of the top players in the league. Brees threw only seven interceptions among his first 400 passes, and 27 of them were touchdowns, with more than 3,100 aerial yards.

The Steelers, however, had success against other top quarterbacks this season, including Donovan McNabb of the Eagles and Tom Brady of the Patriots.

The Chargers have built a balanced offensive attack, with Brees throwing to tight end Antonio Gates, who had 13 touchdowns among his first 81 receptions; and running back LaDainian Tomlinson totaling more than 1,300 yards. Sure, the Steelers' victories against the Patriots and Eagles were impressive, but neither team had the two-pronged attack on the days they played the Steelers. The Chargers have shown that balance all season.

The Steelers also must do something that the 2001-02 Pitt basketball team couldn't do - stop Gates, who played basketball for Kent State and helped to knock the Panthers out of the NCAA tournament a few years ago.

If the Steelers are able to defeat the Chargers or another lesser opponent in the first round, they will play either the Colts or Patriots.

Offensive Juggernaut

Defeating the Colts may be only as simple as keeping Manning on the sideline where he can do no damage. Manning broke Dan Marino's single-season touchdown pass record, but if Jerome Bettis has the ball, Manning is helpless. The Steelers should be able to control the football with the running game, thereby weakening the Colts' greatest weapons - Manning, running back Edgerrin James and pass rusher Dwight Freeney.

The Colts' defense is best when the team is leading, and the opponent must pass, freeing Freeney to rush the passer and largely forget about the running game. But if the Colts score first and the Steelers can't immediately counter, catching up might be difficult.

Although Colts' coach Tony Dungy and offensive coordinator Tom Moore have been gone from Pittsburgh for so long their presence won't give Indy an advantage, it will create a lot of talk in the week preceding the game. Moore and Dungy were in Pittsburgh during the Super Bowl years.

New England Revisited

A rematch with the Patriots is certainly a possibility and something the Steelers would welcome. Many Steelers have pointed to the 2001 AFC Championship Game loss to the Patriots as the motivating factor this season. The Steelers lost that through two special-teams failures, and they would be trying to prove that the victory that ushered in the legend of Brady, a two-time Super Bowl- winning quarterback, was a fluke.

But the Patriots' experience and success in big games would be a factor that the Steelers might not be able to overcome. Plus, Dillon has emerged as one of the top runners in the NFL since missing the previous Steelers' game.

The Steelers most likely would attempt to exploit the weaknesses and injuries in a Patriots' secondary that has been forced to utilize wide receiver Troy Brown as a defensive back. Brown allowed the winning touchdown in the loss to the Miami Dolphins near the end of the season.

It sets up as a perfect situation for Steelers' offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt. The Patriots will worry about Bettis and sneak a safety near the line of scrimmage to protect against the powerful Steelers' running game. Meanwhile, that could put on one of the Patriots' cornerbacks on an island, and even the Dolphins were able to take advantage of that mismatch.

Home Field Curse

Perhaps the toughest opponent facing Cowher is the curse of the home-field advantage that didn't help the Steelers get to the Super Bowl in 1992, 1994, 1997 or 2001. Cowher is 1-3 in conference title games at home, and his legacy most likely will be shaped by what happens over the next few weeks.

He is one of the most successful coaches in the NFL during the regular season, with 10 of 13 seasons with nine or more victories. But he has a losing record in the postseason (7-8). The Steelers were favored to defeat the Chargers, Broncos and Patriots in previous conference title games at home; a 20-16 victory against the Colts that carried the Steelers into Super Bowl XXX after the 1995 season is the only exception.

That's why everyone was smiling, but no one was shouting in delirium, after any of the big victories late in the season.

"We have certainly accomplished our second objective," Cowher said after the Steelers had earned the bye and home-field. "Certainly, we wanted to win the division and now we were able to clinch the home-field advantage. We recognize that the next season is the playoffs and that is what we are going to gear ourselves for."

Jerry DiPaola covers the Steelers and NFL for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.