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Monday, September 23, 2002

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

From a corner cubicle where he can touch knees with Jerome Bettis, tackle Wayne Gandy waved his hand toward the rest of the Steelers' expansive locker room.

"Those same guys they tried to bury two, three years ago, who finally made it to the top, are still in this locker room," Gandy said. "Time will tell, but we can't do anything but go up.

"When you're at the top, and then you falter, people want to bury you real quick."

The Steelers put themselves where they feel the most comfortable, no longer as front-runners but as a team that must overcome odds in order to win. They fed off of that last season, and Coach Bill Cowher even brought it to their attention last week.

"Given the circumstances," linebacker Jason Gildon said, "I don't think it's going to hurt any, to have that type of attitude coming out of the bye."

Two games after they entered the season as every oddsmakers' favorites to reach the Super Bowl from the AFC, the winless Steelers must fight the long odds of history to even make the playoffs. Since 1999, 26 teams have begun the season 0-2, and only one made the playoffs. That was New England, which went all the way to win the Super Bowl last season after an 0-2 start.

The Steelers have done it twice in their recent history and under more difficult circumstances than they find themselves in today. In 1993, Cowher's second team opened the season losing its first two games to San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams by a combined 51-13. They made the playoffs as a 9-7 wild-card team and had Joe Montana's Chiefs beaten in Kansas City until the Chiefs rallied to win the game in overtime.

Chuck Noll's 1989 team opened the season with combined 92-10 losses to Cleveland and Cincinnati. That team also finished 9-7 and upset Houston in its first playoff game. The Steelers were beating the Broncos and seemed on their way to an AFC championship game in Cleveland when John Elway worked some late magic to pull out a one-point victory in Denver.

Two more examples: The 1976 Steelers started 1-4 when the NFL had 14-game seasons and reached the AFC championship. The 1995 Steelers were 3-4 and reached the Super Bowl.

Recent NFL history might show it's uncommon, but the Steelers have overcome rough starts to reach the playoffs.

"As leaders on this team, we have to be positive and take this one game at a time," receiver Hines Ward said. "I was here when we were 0-3. Everybody was saying we don't have this and we don't have that, and then we won nine of 13 games."

That still wasn't enough to make the playoffs, although the Steelers weren't eliminated until the final weekend of the season. No team has opened the season 0-3 and made the Super Bowl. Only one team in the past five years lost its first three games and made the playoffs, the 1998 Arizona Cardinals.

It's what makes the game Sunday against Cleveland the closest thing to a must-win the Steelers will have in a while.

"There's a sense of urgency," Ward said. "We don't want to dig ourselves a hole where we're short one at the end of the year. I think this bye week gives us time to reflect on it. We didn't start out the year like we wanted. We have to make sure we get back on the winning track."

To the Steelers' advantage, they play in a new division -- the AFC North -- that includes Baltimore, Cincinnati and Cleveland. If they can't win that division, Dan Rooney should demand all those signing bonuses back. The Steelers supposedly have the second-weakest schedule in the league, although that has been misleading as last year's weak sisters often turn into playoff contenders in recent NFL seasons.

After playing the Browns at home Sunday, the Steelers play four of their next five games on the road, with the only home game against Payton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts Oct. 21 on "Monday Night Football."

"We might go right back to being an underdog," cornerback Dewayne Washington said. "And it might be the best way for us to play. We have to play with that chip on our shoulder like nobody respects us, or what have you."

They don't have to go 13-3, as they did last season, and earn home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They've shown that doesn't work for them after losing three of four AFC championship games at home, including the one in January when they were 10-point favorites to beat New England. They were 7-1 favorites to win the Super Bowl entering this season, the shortest odds of any AFC team and second in the NFL only behind the St. Louis Rams, who also lost their first two games.

"It's just one of those things where everyone just has to realize that coming off last year, teams had a whole off-season to take a look at what we've been able to do," Gildon said. "Going into this year, you had to expect that it wasn't going to be the way it was last year. It's a long season. Two games do not make a season for us. We're a good football team, we're just not playing like that right now."

They had better hurry up.

"With 10 turnovers in two games," Ward said, "I don't see it getting any worse. It can't do nothing but get better."