Steelers smack talkin

[Raji]

This game has been on the Pittsburgh Steelers' minds for weeks and, finally, they can talk about it.

The Steelers (9-3) are convinced they can ruin New England's perfect season, and they were secretly rooting for the Patriots (12-0) to stay unbeaten so they would have the chance to do exactly that Sunday in Foxborough.

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They know something about stopping New England streaks, too, having halted a record Patriots run only three years ago and, with it, the possibility of an undefeated season.

Pittsburgh almost didn't get this chance to keep New England out of the record book, as the Patriots were forced to stage a desperation rally to beat Baltimore 27-24 on Monday night. The week before, the Patriots trailed in the fourth quarter of a 31-28 win over Philadelphia.

Now, the Steelers could be the best team standing in the way of the Patriots and the NFL's first 16-0 regular season. After Pittsburgh, the Patriots play the Jets (3-9), the Dolphins (0-12) and the New York Giants (8-4).

"Obviously you think about it, because everybody talks about them because they are undefeated," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. "Everything that has to do with news and sports is the New England Patriots, and deservedly so. They're a great football team offensively and defensively."

The Patriots could be at a disadvantage because they will have a short week of preparation for the Steelers, who own the AFC's third-best record and are in contention for a wild-card playoff bye. Still, that same scenario didn't hurt the Steelers last week as they beat Miami 3-0 on Monday and the Bengals 24-10 on Sunday.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin willingly heaped plenty of praise on the Patriots during his weekly news conference Tuesday but, by the end, seemed to be wearying of all the how-great-are-the-Patriots questions.

"This isn't Appalachian State against Michigan," he said.

Even if some of the Patriots' scores -- 52-7, 56-10, 38-14 -- resemble an early season college mismatch. The Patriots have, by far, the league's top offense, leading in scoring average (39.1), yards per game (425.3) and passing yardage (304).

The Steelers counter with the league's best overall defense (230.8 yards), No. 1 passing defense (154 yards) and the No. 2 rushing defense (76.8).

"We'd better get ready -- we know how explosive they are," linebacker Larry Foote said. "But we're confident with our own swagger. If we play our game, we can beat anybody."

Offensive tackle Max Starks said "some teams might be star-struck by them," but the Steelers won't be.

"Some defenses might be, 'Oh my gosh, I'm going against Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth. Tom Brady is the quarterback.' Some people might get enamored with that," Starks said. "But I definitely don't see that in our defense."

The Steelers have this going for them, too: Only three seasons ago, they stopped a couple of long Patriots streaks, as well as New England's chance for an undefeated season.

Pittsburgh's 34-20 win at Heinz Field on Oct. 31, 2004, ended New England's record 18-game season winning streak and a 21-game overall winning streak. It also was the Patriots' first loss that season after a 6-0 start; the Patriots would finish 14-2 during the season and win the Super Bowl.

Turnovers led to that Halloween loss in Pittsburgh, with Brady throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble and Roethlisberger, still unbeaten as an NFL starter at the time, converting four Patriots mistakes into scores.

Still, Tomlin said nothing in the past means anything in this game and that Pittsburgh will prepare for New England like it does for any other opponent.

"We're going to play our game," he said. "We don't let people dictate how we play defense. but we got to play our game and play it well."

Notes

All three injured Steelers regulars could return Sunday: wide receiver Santonio Holmes (ankle), left tackle Marvel Smith (back) and safety Troy Polamalu (knee). They have missed the last two games. ... The Steelers will play in Foxborough for only the second time since 1997. They lost there 30-14 in their 2002 opener. ... The Steelers have offered no explanation for RB Najeh Davenport's absence from Sunday's 24-10 win over Cincinnati, other than he may have a sore knee.




Raji

[Raji]

Conspiracy theorists can start lining up. Those waiting to cash their tickets on the New England Patriots finishing the regular season undefeated can do the same in the Las Vegas sports books.

One group thinks it has good reason to smell something fishy. The other knows it has good reason to start celebrating early.

It won't be official until sometime late in the evening of Dec. 29, but start spreading the news. After an escape Monday night that would have made Houdini proud, the New England Patriots will go 16-0 and become the first team to finish a season undefeated since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

I'm not exactly stepping out on a ledge predicting that. After all, the Patriots are 12-0 and favored by nearly two touchdowns against Pittsburgh this weekend in one of their two toughest remaining games.

There's another reason for the Patriots to win them all, one that will loom larger with each passing Sunday. That one has conspiracy types beginning to look under every rock to see if the fix could possibly be in.

Some members of the Baltimore Ravens think so. Hard to fault them after a bizarre series of plays turned what looked like certain victory into defeat and left them fuming at both the calls and the attitude of the referees.

''It's hard to go out there and play the Patriots and the refs at the same time,'' cornerback Chris McAlister said. ''They put the crown on top of them. They want them to win. They won.''

Laughable as that might seem in a league which prides itself on an image that everything is always on the up-and-up, it may not be too far-fetched. Almost to a man, the Ravens seemed to think it was not just fate lined up against them in Monday night's 27-24 loss.

Just the week before the Patriots seemed to get another break when a questionable touchdown pass with eight seconds left in the first half against the Eagles wasn't even reviewed in the booth, a decision that left Philadelphia fans steaming.

Silly? Maybe. But the NFL has only itself to blame for the perception even existing.

That's because there is money to be made if the Patriots go undefeated, big money, and not just the kind handed over the counter at the sports books.

No, the league isn't raiding its rainy-day fund to take the Patriots to run the table, a bet that is increasingly popular in Vegas. But a lot is riding on whether the Patriots are unbeaten going into the Dec. 29 game against the New York Giants.

The NFL wants it to be must-see TV, but to see it you must watch the league's own NFL Network. It's one of eight games the league kept for itself this year, and one which some 70 million households won't be able to see because of a bitter dispute the NFL is having with cable companies.

The more valuable the game, the more leverage the NFL figures it will have to force cable operators to carry the network on the lucrative basic cable tier. By far the most valuable game left this year will almost surely be Pats/Giants.

Take away the historic angle and it becomes a meaningless game between two teams most likely resting their stars for the playoffs. Make it mean something big and the NFL has a golden opportunity to force the hands of the cable companies.

The stakes are huge. If the NFL signs up all the major cable companies, it could be looking at revenues perhaps as high as $1 billion a year just for the network itself.

So do the referees have instructions to make sure the Patriots get the benefit of the doubt on crucial calls so they remain unbeaten? Hardly.

NFL officials have historically been unimpeachable, and not even the craziest of the conspiracy crazies have any evidence that there is a Tim Donaghy out there.

Then again, might they be subtly influenced by the rich intersection of history and money to bend just a little at just the right time?

Sure seemed that way Monday night to a lot of casual viewers when the Patriots survived three apparent fourth-down stops by Baltimore on their final drive to score the game winner on a pass that could have been called either way.

Sure seemed that way to Ravens linebacker Bart Scott, who was penalized 30 yards for yelling at the referees and throwing a ref's flag after the winning touchdown.

It was a brutal loss for the Ravens, who were hoping to salvage a dismal season by winning their biggest game of the year. They might be excused for reacting the way they did, though it's not likely the NFL will excuse what they had to say.

Fines will be had, mouths will be zipped, and the Patriots will move on.

Raji