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Tuesday, September 03, 2002

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Losing to New England at home in the AFC championship game was tough enough for linebacker Jason Gildon and his teammates. Having their noses rubbed in it made it worse.

	Patriots defensive tackle Richard Seymour sacks Kordell Stewart in the AFC championship game in January at Heinz Field. (Lake Fong, Post-Gazette)

"What bothered me the most," said Gildon, the Steelers' defensive captain, "was, honestly, it was a pretty well-played game on both sides. Then, at the end, I just remember the reaction of some of their players."

The Patriots, Gildon remembers, were not gracious victors.

"They definitely had the right to be happy because they had earned a trip for the right to play in the Super Bowl. At the same time, I feel that some of their players, it wasn't a reaction of excitement or appreciation. It was more a gloating reaction."

The Steelers have had a chance to stew about that and other aspects of their 24-17 upset loss to the Patriots in Heinz Field for seven months. Yesterday, they began preparations for the rematch of their disheartening setback in the AFC championship game Jan. 27. On Monday night, they open the season in Foxboro, Mass., the first regular-season game in the Patriots' new Gillette Stadium.

"You couldn't set a better stage for that," wide receiver Plaxico Burress said. "The [rematch of] the AFC championship game, an emotional game for them and for us. They have a new stadium. They are the world champions. We have a chip on our shoulder because we lost. It's the first Monday Night game of the year. You can't ask for anything better than that."

	More Steelers Coverage: Notebook Farrior ahead of Fiala at inside LB

Well, they could ask for a do-over, the winner take all for a trip to the Super Bowl. But New England not only earned that trip in January, the Patriots upset the St. Louis Rams to win the title. So, no matter how much the game might be billed as the Redemption Bowl here, there's nothing more in it for the Steelers than to win their opener for the first time in three seasons and get off on the right foot toward the Super Bowl in January.

"You can't pay them back," Jerome Bettis said, "but you can go out and win a tough football game on the road, Monday night, against the champs. Whenever you beat the champs, it's a feather in your cap."

For now, the feather has been stuck in their craw the past seven months because the Steelers feel they blew a chance to bring the Super Bowl championship to Pittsburgh for the first time in 21 years. Their offense outscored New England's, 17-10, and they outgained the Patriots, 306-259. But they lost four turnovers to none for New England and gave up two touchdowns on a blocked field goal and a punt return.

"I think it all hit us when we came back to minicamp, that we came up short of our goal, and we knew the reason why," Burress said. "A couple of unfortunate things happened to us that normally don't happen in a football game, and we wound up losing that game.

"All your life, you grow up dreaming about the Super Bowl. That's all you dream about, and now coming back to this point, we're so close to playing them again. I don't think it's about a revenge factor for us. It's more of a game to, like, get the monkey off our back a little bit because we think deep down in our hearts we should have won that game. But we lost it, and the closer it gets, the more it's on your mind."

It has been in the back of their minds for seven months, helping to drive them in the off-season and through training camp. When the schedule appeared in the spring, it reinforced their determination to get off to a fast start to the point that Coach Bill Cowher altered his approach to the final exhibition game Thursday. Instead of allowing his starters to make cameo appearances against the Vikings and then bow out after a series or two, he kept them in the game for nearly a half.

"We saw the schedule and we said what better way to start off the season than against the team we lost to," safety Lee Flowers said. "But I don't think this game is going to make or break us either. Guys around here are not treating this game more importantly than if it was a Cleveland or Jacksonville game.

"The expectations in this locker room are much greater this year than they have been in the past, being that we pretty much have everybody back. Therefore, there's urgency to start the season off fast. Fortunately for us, it is with New England, because despite what people want to say, you're a competitor and that's the team that got in our way for the Super Bowl.

"People can sit here and say, well it's over with, we forgot about it. But it's still in the back of our minds. It's a good way to wake us up instead of us starting slow the way we did the last couple of years when we got blown out in the first game. So we have to start fast this year."

Not that they begrudge what New England did to them on the way to winning the Super Bowl. The Patriots came from behind in a snowstorm to stun Oakland in Foxboro the previous week, then overcame long odds to upset the Steelers at Heinz Field and the Rams in New Orleans.

"You can't take anything away from them," Burress said, "because they went out and did what nobody else thought they would do. They're the world champions. You can't take that from them, you can't say they shouldn't have won because they went out and beat the St. Louis Rams and, if you beat the St. Louis Rams on turf, you deserve to be world champions."

Troy Brown began the Steelers' special-teams nightmare in the AFC title game with a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown. (Gabor Degre, Post-Gazette)

The Steelers also are sure the Patriots are not happy that many have called them fluke champions. The Steelers are AFC favorites to make it to the Super Bowl while the Patriots are way down on the list.

"They're probably upset right now," Flowers said, "being that there's a lot of things said, even by Oakland, that they shouldn't have won the Oakland game or they shouldn't have beaten Pittsburgh. They get a chance to try to prove all the critics wrong. And we get a chance to prove to ourselves that we're a better team."

The Steelers of long ago were in a similar position. They were trying to win their third consecutive Super Bowl when they played the AFC championship game at Oakland after the 1976 season. But running backs Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier could not play because of injuries from their previous playoff game, and Oakland blew them out, 24-7.

The Raiders were upset that the Steelers blamed the absence of their backs for that loss. The two teams met in the second game the following season, at Three Rivers Stadium and, with a healthy Harris and Bleier, the Steelers lost, 16-7.

"New England's in the driver's seat right now," Flowers said. "If we beat them, they're going to say they still have the ring. And if we lose, they're going to say, we told you so."