Preseason: Steelers 24, Eagles 14

By Mike Batista



Steelers coach Mike Tomlin long ago coined the term "January football" to refer to the NFL playoffs.



Just in case anyone hasn't noticed, it isn't January. It's summer, and what went on Thursday night at Heinz Field was "August football."



That means it's preseason. It doesn't count. So despite the Steelers' domination of the Eagles, my opinion of the Eagles' "Dream Team" campaign hasn't changed either way, just as my opinion of how good the Steelers are doesn't change with this game.



Who's going to remember this game five years from now? Two years from now? Or even in November? When people talk about the greatest games and performances they've seen, preseason games don't come up.



My thoughts on the Eagles both before and after Thursday's game is that the "Dream Team" concept never works in the NFL. Just ask the Redskins. It damn near worked with the Miami Heat in the NBA. They were two wins away from a championship. But there are many more moving parts in football. Despite their loaded free agent shopping cart, I wouldn't book rooms in Indianapolis just yet if I were the Eagles.



One last opinion from Thursday's game. I think Tomlin should suspend Troy Polamalu for the rest of the preseason. I know Tomlin might be putting his job on the line, but for the sake of Polamalu's health, the Steelers might just have to risk a 1-3 preseason record.



Polamalu should have taken a knee and/or curled up in a fetal ball position after making that interception. Instead, he risked injury in a meaningless game with one of his patented zig-zag returns and got turned upside down my Michael Vick.



Considering his injuries the last couple of years, the sight of Polamalu's flowing locks on the field in August gives me ulcers. Does he really need to play in the preseason? I think he'll make the team.

Brown bags Ravens

AFC divisional playoffs: Steelers 31, Ravens 24

By Mike Batista

The Baltimore Ravens looked scary during the offseason, having acquired wide receivers Anquan Boldin and T.J. Houshmandzadeh. This gave them some pop in their offense to go with their always stellar defense.

The Steelers, however, trumped the addition of those two stars with a sixth-round draft pick.

With the score tied 24-24, the Steelers faced a third-and-19 from their own 38 with 2:07 left in the game. The first playoff overtime under the new rules loomed -- until Ben Roethlisberger found Antonio Brown.

The rookie from Central Michigan caught the ball on a fly pattern, then went all David Tyree and used his helmet to secure the ball before going out of bounds at the Ravens' 4.

Since returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown in the Steelers' 19-11 win at Tennessee in Week 2, Brown has been overshadowed by draftmate Emmanuel Sanders, who was chosen in the third round.

Sanders had 28 catches this season. Brown had 16. Sanders dressed for 13 games this season. Brown dressed for nine.

But on Saturday, Brown did what Boldin and Houshmandzadah couldn't. He held on to the ball when it mattered most.

The Ravens could have gone ahead 28-24 with four minutes left, but Boldin dropped a 6-yard Joe Flacco pass at the goal line, so they settled for a game-tying field goal.

After Rashard Mendenhall's 2-yard touchdown run gave the Steelers a 31-24 lead, the Ravens' last chance came on fourth-and-18 from their own 44. Flacco threw what would have been a first-down pass right into Houshmandzadeh's chest, but proving you can take the player out of Cincinnati, but you can't take the Cincinnati out of the player, Houshmandzadeh let it bounce to the ground.

Game over. Steelers back in the AFC championship game.

The Steelers, however, dropped the ball their fair share of times on Saturday. In fact, infamy beckoned as they faced a 14-point deficit.

An immeasurable comeback

This was one of those games that gets me in a ranking mood.

The Steelers' dramatic win, in which they came back from a 21-7 halftime hole, got me going through the file cabinet of my mind, trying to think of other Steelers playoff comebacks and where this ranks.

I've been watching the Steelers since 1979, but I must admit I needed the Internet the morning after to jog my memory and dust off the Steelers' 36-33 win over the Browns in a 2002 AFC wild-card game. Maybe it's because it was pre-Roethlisberger and pre-Polamalu, but I kind of forgot about that game.

Mathematically, that was a bigger comeback. They trailed 24-7 in the third quarter and 33-21 with less than five minutes left in that one.

But Saturday's comeback can't be measured with a calculator, a slide rule or an abacus. The Steelers not only needed to come back on the scoreboard, they needed to come back emotionally.

In a play that would have been talked about for decades had the Steelers lost, the Ravens' Cory Redding picked up a fumble at the Steelers' 13 and ran it in for a touchdown late in the first quarter.

Terrell Suggs hit Roethlisberger and forced the fumble, although the ball was fumbled forward, making it look like an incomplete pass. Even though there was no whistle, everyone on both teams stood around thinking the play was over.

Except Redding.

The Steelers' flub gave the Ravens a 14-7 lead and was reminiscent of blooper clips from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' first year as an expansion team. Or maybe the Steelers of the 1930s and 1940s.

Bucco Bruce would have been proud.

They once were lost

The Steelers and Ravens entered this game so closely matched that their previous four games all were decided by three points. The Steelers had won nine of their 17 meetings since 2003, and in those games both teams had scored 302 points.

So in a game where just a blink or a twitch could have been the difference, here was this big, fat gaffe that gave the Ravens seven points.

It was like a guy being on a date and getting caught looking at the women's breasts right after they sit down at the table. Makes it awfully hard to get a second date. The guy's probably one and done.

So it seemed with the Steelers. But their first-half ineptitude didn't end with that play. In the second quarter, Rashard Mendenhall, playing in his first playoff game, fumbled at the Steelers' 16. That led to a 4-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to Todd Heap and a 21-7 Ravens lead.

Even on the fumble, there didn't seem to be much awareness that there was a fumble. It seemed odd that the pile of bodies wasn't untangling like it usually does after an ordinary play. It turns out it was no ordinary play, and the Steelers were again asleep at the switch.

After the play, Mike Tomlin stared wide-eyed at the scoreboard. His mouth opened briefly, revealing the green gum he chewed throughout the game. But no words came out. He was out of challenges, although that didn't matter because Mendenhall clearly fumbled the ball.

Tomlin, as well as his team, seemed lost.

Now there's a turnabout

The second half didn't start out much better. The Steelers didn't do much with their opening possession and had to punt.

Then, CBS showed its little graphic saying the Ravens had seven road playoff wins, tied for third most in the NFL all-time.

It's funny how having your ass kissed by CBS often turns into the kiss of death in the NFL.

Right after that, James Harrison sacked Flacco. Two plays after that, Ryan Clark forced a Ray Rice fumble, and LaMarr Woodley recovered at the Baltimore 23.

I watched the game at Bob Hyland's Sports Page in White Plains, which is not far from Rice's hometown of New Rochelle. The fumble quieted Rice's homies, who weren't wearing Ravens gear, but to that point had a lot more to cheer about than the dozen or so of us wearing black and gold.

It also led to a 9-yard touchdown pass to Heath Miller, cutting the Ravens' lead to 21-14.

Late in the third quarter, Clark intercepted Flacco at the Ravens' 42. The pick, along with the forced fumble, absolved Clark for his role in the Steelers' first-half follies, when he tried to help out Ike Taylor covering Derrick Mason and hit Taylor instead, nearly taking him out of the game.

This turnover set up an 8-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward, tying score at 21.

Flacco, clearly shaken by the events of the third quarter, fumbled a snap at his own 23 two plays into the Ravens' next possession. Brett Keisel recovered, and it turned into Shaun Suisham's 35-yard field goal, which gave the Steelers a 24-21 lead early in the fourth quarter.

After the Steelers held the Ravens to the field goal thanks to Boldin's drop, Mendenhall provided the winning points on his 2-yard run.

Bang for the buck

Mendenhall had only 46 yards on 20 carries, but most of those yards came at crucial times. His winning TD was his second short-yardage score. He opened the scoring with a 1-yard run on a second effort in the first quarter.

More than half of Mendenhall's yards came on two carries that sparked the Steelers' touchdown drives in the third quarter.

Immediately after Rice's fumble, Mendenhall ran 14 yards to the 9. Then came the 9-yard pass to Miller that made it 21-14.

On the first play after Clark's interception, Mendenhall went 13 yards to the Ravens' 12. Three plays later, Ward tied it with his touchdown.

It was the first time the Steelers came back from 14 points down in any game since their last playoff loss, in 2007 at home to Jacksonville. They trailed 28-10 in that game and took a 29-28 lead before losing 31-29.

But that Steelers team was decimated by injuries and not expected to go very far in the playoffs.

Expectations are much higher for this team, a team that on Saturday not only escaped the Ravens, but also infamy.

Star power

Steelers 41, Browns 9

By Mike Batista

It was up to Steelers coach Mike Tomlin whether Troy Polamalu would play Sunday.

If he sat Polamalu, who had been sidelined with an Achilles injury, the hope would have been to give the defensive difference maker five full weeks of rest if the Steelers could beat the Browns without him and clinch a first-round bye in the playoffs.

If he played Polamalu, he would have risked a re-injury and losing him for the playoffs. What good would a first-round bye be in that case?

I don't think any of this had to factor into Tomlin's decision. He could have been swayed by astrology, because it seemed the stars were aligned for Polamalu to play in this game.

How else do you explain Polamalu, No. 43, intercepting a pass to set up a Steelers' touchdown 43 seconds into the game? Or that Mike Wallace, No. 17, scored that touchdown with 14:17 left in the first quarter after catching a Ben Roethlisberger pass?

Furthermore, the uniform numbers of Wallace and Polamalu add up to 60, as in "Steelers football is 60 minutes," which Tomlin gushed after the Steelers won Super Bowl XLIII (that's 43) two years ago. Or as in "60 Minutes," the show hosted by a Mike Wallace almost four times the age of the Steelers receiver.

The Steelers, who by the way allowed 43 rushing yards on 17 carries, didn't need 60 minutes to finish off the Browns and secure the AFC North title and a first-round bye. They scored touchdowns on their first four possessions and got tough in short-yardage situations for a change.

Rashard Mendenhall punched in the first of his two 1-yard touchdown runs to give the Steelers (12-4) a 14-0 lead with seven minutes left in the first quarter.

The Browns (5-11) seemed poised to make it a game on their next possession, moving the ball to the Steelers' 2. But on second down, Polamalu showed that he really is healthy again by dusting off one of his trademark spectacles: The Line of Scrimmage Leap.

On the first play of the second quarter, Polamalu timed the snap and vaulted the line of scrimmage like a missile. Browns' quarterback Colt McCoy rolled to his right, almost back to the 20, after getting out of Polamalu's flight path and threw an incomplete pass. After another incomplete pass, the Browns settled for a field goal.

Polamalu's work was pretty much done. The Steelers only needed him for a half, thanks in part to fellow defensive backs Ryan Clark and Anthony Madison, whose interceptions set up 10 points. Clark's pick led to a 4-yard touchdown pass to Heath Miller to increase the Steelers' lead to 28-3. Madison set up Shaun Suisham's 41-yard field goal to make the Steelers' halftime lead 31-3.

And Polamalu could start washing his hair.

The offense didn't earn its rest until it put together a clock-churning drive to start the second half. The 13-play, 77-yard march ended with a little flair. Antwan Randle-El took a pitch from Roethlisberger and threw a 3-yard TD pass to Hines Ward. The play popped the cork on some vintage 2005, when Randle-El connected with Ward in the Super Bowl and the Steelers won big in Cleveland during the holiday season.

With the Steelers up 38-3, most of their key offensive players were done for the day. Unfortunately, Pro Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey wasn't one of them. He left the game with a neck stinger and is the only new health concern that came out of this game.

Speaking of Pouncey and the offensive line that the 21-year-old rookie pretty much runs, Roethlisberger was unsacked for the first time since the Steelers' first meeting against the Browns. Roethlisberger was sacked 32 times in 12 games this season. That's a pace of about 43 sacks over a full season. That would have been the fewest times he's been sacked since 2005.

It was oddly comical, then, when Byron Leftwich was sacked on his first play. Leftwich was brought down twice, but did a good job minding the store along with the likes of running back Jonathan Dwyer, linebackers Stevenson Sylvester, Keyaron Fox and Larry Foote and defensive backs Will Allen and Keenan Lewis.

The Steelers put three more points on the board to hang 40 on an opponent for the first time since 2007. This was after becoming the first team to score 30 on the improved Browns this season.

What the Steelers do to teams like the Browns and Panthers, however, won't matter a whole lot in two weeks.

As Tomlin would say, it's time for "January Football."

Bad date

Jets 22, Steelers 17

By Mike Batista

This was like "Hitch" in reverse.

Mike Tomlin, who despite looking like Omar Epps could be played by a bulked-up Will Smith, might be smoother and more articulate than blowhard Jets coach Rex Ryan, who could be played by a bulked-up Kevin James. But on Sunday, Ryan outwitted Tomlin in the Jets' win over the Steelers.

With the Steelers leading 17-10 in the third quarter, Ryan decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 from the Steelers' 7-yard-line. Jets' quarterback Mark Sanchez, a pretty boy who probably doesn't need Hitch-type counseling, faked a handoff to Shonn Greene and ran untouched around the left side for the game-tying touchdown.

Riverboat Rex gambled and won. And so did the Jets.

Hopefully the postgame handshake between Tomlin and Ryan didn't go like this:


Safety pin

There's something emasculating about a safety, considering the indignity of being tackled in your own end zone, then having to give the ball to the other team.

But emasculation was the least of the Steelers' problems when Jason Taylor, another Jets' pretty boy, tackled Mewelde Moore in the end zone. Those two points increased the Jets' lead to 22-17 and took away a field goal as an option as the Steelers tried to come back with 2:45 to play.

Because of his sure-handedness, Moore often gets the ball when the Steelers are deep in their own end. But Taylor, who by the way was born in Pittsburgh on Sept. 1, 1974, exactly two weeks before the Steelers opened their first championship season, got through because there was a missed blocking assignment on the left side of the Steelers' offensive line.

It's too bad, because the O-Line was just one of the problems the Steelers seem to have solved in this game.

Stupid is as Stupid Does

Ben Roethlisberger was sacked just once in the first three quarters, but twice in the fourth quarter to stunt Steelers drives after they had fallen behind.

The Steelers even curbed the penalties. They were good boys in the first half with no infractions. Unfortunately, they got stupid in the second half. An unnecessary roughness penalty on Ryan Clark (and yes, it was a penalty) added 15 yards to a 15-yard reception by Braylon Edwards, putting the ball on the Steelers' 16 and leading to Sanchez's tying touchdown.

On the ensuing possession, Flozell Adams apparently let Darrelle Revis get under his skin despite having eight inches and 140 pounds on him. The personal foul just about negated a 17-yard pass to Mike Wallace and dragged the Steelers back to their 31.

The Steelers regained their discipline, but that brief flurry of knuckleheadedness proved costly.

Even Rashard Mendenhall didn't make me want to hit myself in the head with a hammer for a change. His dance moves were actually effective Sunday as he gained 100 yards on 17 carries. He also had a touchdown to give the Steelers a 17-10 lead in the third quarter.

But the lead was short-lived, and the Steelers (10-4) lost despite looking better in a lot of areas than they have in a few weeks. Perhaps looks don't matter and "Hitch" was full of shit.

Nothing special

No, the Steelers didn't lose because Troy Polamalu was out, even though he might have been able to cover some ground on the perimeter when Sanchez scored his touchdown.

Somehow I can never get through a column without mentioning the Steelers' Five-Game Losing Streak of 2009. It's hard to forget considering its Titanic-like effect.

Polamalu's injury wasn't the only reason the Steelers lost five in a row last season. Special teams was another culprit. The Steelers allowed two touchdowns on kickoff returns during that slide, including one on the opening kickoff against the Chiefs.

That's exactly what happened Sunday. The Jets came into Heinz Field with their heads hanging after a 45-3 loss at New England and a 10-6 loss at home to the Dolphins. But on Sunday the Steelers allowed Brad Smith to return the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown. That got the Jets (10-4) back on the right track a lot more effectively than Ryan burying the football after the loss to the Patriots.

Tomlin might make empty promises to unleash hell, but he wouldn't do anything that cheesy.

The Steelers eventually answered Smith's touchdown. But they had no answer for Nick Folk's 34-yard field goal with 10:11 left in the game, which gave the Jets the lead for good at 20-17.

As debilitating as it was, the safety didn't finish off the Steelers. They forced a three-and-out and got the ball at their 8 with 2:08 left and one timeout. A 22-yard scramble by Roethlisberger and a 29-yard pass to Emmanuel Sanders on third-and-24 highlighted the Steelers' march to the Jets' 10 with nine seconds left.

But that's as far as they went. Perhaps Heath Miller would have come in handy.

Minimal Damage

Funny how there's less Pittsburgh talk-radio chatter about the Steelers getting another shot at the Patriots in the playoffs.

But somehow the Steelers clinched a playoff berth Sunday, and to figure out the mathematical formula that got them in the playoffs, we need the help of this New Englander:

There's no need to fill a blackboard to figure out how the Steelers get a first-round bye. They just have to win their last two games.

Even though there's been talk about Polamalu sitting out the rest of the regular season, from Tomlin's press conference Monday, it sounds like he could be back Thursday against Carolina. I say let him rest for two more weeks, and have him ready for Cleveland if the Steelers need that game. If the Steelers can't win at home against the 2-12 Panthers, Polamalu or no Polamalu, they don't deserve to be in the playoffs.

The Steelers might have lost five in a row without Polamalu last season, but they also won three in a row without him to end the season, two of those wins coming against playoff teams.

Considering their playoff berth and the fact they control their own destiny, the Steelers got off light with this loss. Losing to Carolina or Cleveland would be a lot more costly.

You Bastards!

Patriots 39, Steelers 26

By Mike Batista

When Tom Brady sets foot in Heinz Field, the Steelers turn into Kenny from "South Park" or Georgie from "The Sopranos."

Sunday's 39-26 loss to the Patriots followed the same plot line, to the letter, as the Steelers' 41-27 loss to the Patriots in the 2004 AFC championship game at Heinz.

Not only were the scores almost identical, but in both games, it was clear the Patriots had the Steelers figured out early. In both games, the Steelers fell behind by three touchdowns. In both games, the Steelers made it mildly interesting, getting as close as 11 points in the second half.

Steelers fans had seen this show before. When the Steelers mounted their futile comeback attempt Sunday night, the sea of yellow seats at Heinz Field were speckled by the foolish few who thought they had a chance.

It was the same predictable television as Kenny dying in every "South Park" episode or Georgie getting bludgeoned with a phone receiver every time he rubs Tony the wrong way on "The Sopranos."



Only once have the Steelers beaten Brady, when they ended the Patriots' 21-game winning streak in 2004. But even then Brady, the Hoodie and his henchmen had the last laugh when they went back to Pittsburgh and won the AFC championship game that season.

The Steelers beat the Patriots at Gillette Stadium during their 2008 championship season, but those Patriots were quarterbacked by bed wetter Matt Cassel.

The last decade, which has included two Super Bowl wins, certainly has been a glorious one in the history of Steelers football. However, the fondness of this era will be tempered somewhat by their inability to beat Brady.

One of the main reasons Brady has been impervious to the Steelers' feared defense is his quick, short-range passes, which neutralize the Steelers' blitz and serve the same purpose as running the football. That's exactly how he carved up the Steelers' defense in 2007 during the Patriots' perfect regular season.

The Brady who beat the Steelers Sunday is a lot different from the one who beat them in 2007. Brady now sports long, romance-novel hair. That new look, combined with the drama he displayed when he screamed at his teammates after a failed third-down conversion in the first half, make it clear that he's auditioning to be either a model or an actor after football. He knows where the cameras are.

Despite the fact that he's as much of a pretty boy as ever, Brady out-toughed the entire Steelers' defense in the third quarter by plowing through for a 3-yard touchdown run, giving the Patriots a 23-3 lead and officially making the game a bitchslapping.

If Brady's life after football involves walking on the red carpet, he got a lot of practice Sunday night, because the Steelers defense only got close enough to take pictures of him. They didn't sack him and barely even touched him.

Sure, the Steelers might get another shot at Brady. But from what I've seen over the past few weeks, I have my doubts whether they will this season.

Not only did the Steelers (6-3) suffer their most lopsided loss at Heinz Field since Mike Tomlin became coach in 2007, but they haven't won impressively since beating the Browns 28-10 nearly a month ago. Since then they got a favorable replay review to beat the duller-than-dogshit Dolphins by a point; lost to the Saints and nearly blew a 20-point lead to the Bengals. And let's face it, the Bengals flat-out suck.

The Steelers' win over the Browns seems like a long time ago. Are they still better than the Browns? For the second time in three weeks, the Steelers lost to a team the Browns kicked the shit out of the week before. The Steelers once again couldn't pick up the chick their roommate banged.

Now historically, failing their BBT (Beat Brady Test) doesn't mean the Steelers can't win the Super Bowl. They recovered from an early-season, 23-20 loss to the Patriots to win the Super Bowl in 2005. But it took a last-minute drive in that game to set up Adam Vinatieri's winning field goal.

If the Steelers want to show that they're good enough to win a championship, they have to at least stand up to Brady. They didn't do that Sunday.

Happy Mondays

Steelers 27, Bengals 21

By Mike Batista

Now the season can finally start.

For the fourth straight year, the Steelers won on a Monday night to complete the first half of the season with a 6-2 record.

It's the fifth time in the last six seasons the Steelers have been 6-2 at the turn.

In 2005, they recovered from a three-game losing streak in the second half and won the Super Bowl.

In 2007, they experienced a slow, steady decline in November and December and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

In 2008, they went 6-2 again in the second half and won the Super Bowl.

In 2009, they completely collapsed.

That covers all the possibilities, right? I've just described every way the second half of an NFL season can unfold. There's no way the Steelers can show us anything we haven't seen before, right?

Well, they tried their hardest to do just that Monday night.

Just like old times

The Steelers were on the verge of blowing the first 20-point lead in franchise history. Not even those horribly dressed, laughable Steelers teams of the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s managed to blow a 20-point lead.

With 40 seconds left in Monday's game, the Steelers were 12 yards away from not only blowing a 20-point lead, but blowing it all in the fourth quarter. They'd have been the first team to do that since the Giants in November of 2006.

Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer threw to Jordan Shipley on fourth down. Had Shipley held onto the ball, the Bengals, trailing by six, would have had a first-and-goal at the 5.

But Ike Taylor and James Harrison did the Malachi Crunch on the rookie, the ball popped out of his hands, and it was Happy Days for the Steelers.

To give the Steelers their 20-point lead, Antwan Randle-El didn't quite turn the clock back to the days of the Fonz, but he did make like it was 2005 again when he took the ball from Ben Roethlisberger on an end around and fired a 39-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace to open the fourth quarter, making the score 27-7.

Unfortunately, the defense took its foot off the gas pedal, letting the Bengals back into the game with Terrell Owens' second touchdown just 98 seconds later.

Then Roethlisberger threw a lollipop to Heath Miller that was intercepted by Robert L. Williams, and the Steelers entered full collapse mode.

On a day in which the incompetence of the Cowboys was highlighted with the firing of Wade Phillips, Flozell Adams paid tribute to how much his former team sucks by getting called for unsportsmanlike conduct on the interception, giving the Bengals the ball at the Steelers' 36.

The officials then got into the spirit of 2005 when they flagged Casey Hampton for roughing the passer. Hampton approached Palmer's knee much the same way Kimo von Oelhoffen did five years ago, but he just grabbed his calves and flipped him down. Palmer's knees were not in danger. Nonetheless, a five-year-old makeup call was issued, putting the ball on the Steelers' 21.

Next was a pass interference penalty on Ike Taylor in the end zone. The flag came late after Terrell Owens bitched and moaned for it. What a diva wants, a diva gets.

The penalty moved the ball to the 1. A drive that featured more flags than the United Nations ended with Cedric Benson's touchdown, pulling the Bengals to within 27-21 with 9:21 to go.

The Steelers appeared to restore order by going back to their smashmouth roots and handing off to Rashard Mendenhall seven straight times. Mendenhall gained 43 of his 99 yards on the clock-chomping drive. But Jeff Reed, despite looking like Big Foot with his monstrous beard, came up very small with his foot, missing a 46-yard field goal and keeping the Bengals in the game.

Damage control

This whole scene was reminiscent of the Steelers' inability to put teams away last season, when they didn't have Troy Polamalu. The Steelers do have Polamalu this season, but even with his flowing locks, he's been invisible at times. After performing at a Pro Bowl trajectory in the first two games of the season, there's been a curious lack of "splash" plays from Polamalu.

Monday night was no different. However, Polamalu was in position to prevent further damage on the biggest play of the Bengals' final drive. Like a one-man stone wall, he whacked Terrell Owens right after he caught the ball at the 17 after a 20-yard pass from Palmer with 1:01 left.

That stop seemed to stall the Bengals' momentum just enough. A holding call on the next play dragged them back to the 27, and three of Palmer's final four passes fell incomplete.

Dick LeBeau, the Steelers defensive coordinator who 40 years ago Monday was on the Lions team that was beaten by the Saints and Tom Dempsey's record 63-yard field goal, raised his arms over his head in relieved celebration when Taylor and Harrison broke up Palmer's final pass.

A way with words

In the grand scheme of things, however, there isn't much to celebrate. We now know that a Steelers season is far from over after their standard 6-2 start. The season really begins -- and ends -- Sunday night.

Huh?

You see, the Steelers host the Patriots in The Game You Must Not Lose. The Steelers have the upper hand -- kind of -- in this rivalry right now, having won two Super Bowls since the Patriots' last championship, and beating them in New England the last time the teams met. But the Steelers' only win over a Tom Brady-led Patriots team came on Halloween in 2004.

This is the third straight time the Steelers face the Patriots after beating the Bengals in prime time. In 2007, they were home on a Sunday night before going to Foxboro, Massachusetts the following Sunday. In 2008, it was a Thursday-night game, giving them a 10-day break before facing the Patriots.

This time, the prime time win over the Bengals costs the Steelers a day of preparation. When the weary Steelers got back to Pittsburgh in the wee hours Tuesday morning, Cranky Pants Belichick already had been at work for a full day, thumbing through a dozen dictionaries trying to find a meaning for the word "scalded" that might make good bulletin board material.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin labeled the Patriots as "scalded" Monday night, alluding to their 34-14 loss in Cleveland on Sunday. Tomlin might be too articulate for his own good.

Sure, the Browns bitchslapped the Patriots Sunday, but they did the same thing to the Saints two weeks ago and the Steelers couldn't beat them.

That puts another layer of importance on Sunday's game. A loss to the Patriots would suck not only because it's the Patriots, but also because it would hint that the Steelers aren't even as good as the Browns.

Yep, 6-2 means nothing.