Matt Freed, Post-Gazette Bill Cowher: 15-1, 8 division titles, 13 years, 14-game win streak, 137 career victories, 4 AFC title games, 1 Super Bowl, .617 winning pct., age 47, 1992 Coach of the Year, 9 playoff berths, and 7 playoff wins. Click photo for larger image. More Steelers coverage NFL Insider: A staff of Chiefs Steelers Buzz: What's being written about the Steelers going into this wild-card weekend Finder: Opportunity knocked, Steelers backups answered

The Steelers finished last season with a 6-10 record, and then the real bad breaks began.

Nearly half of Bill Cowher's coaching staff, including both coordinators, departed for one reason or another. The team missed the premium free-agent player it wanted. One star receiver boycotted all of the Steelers' spring practices and the other threatened to skip training camp.

Then they stood by and watched starter after starter disappear from the lineup through one mishap or another, beginning one week before training camp and continuing through the end of the season.

Oh, and the Steelers were forced to start their No. 3 quarterback, a rookie, from the third through 15th games.

Through it all, they lost only one game. At 15-1 they have the best record in the NFL, the best in their history and hold the AFC's No. 1 seed. For this, Cowher should earn more than NFL coach of the year. He should receive the first Nobel Prize for Wizardry. The Associated Press voters, stunningly, did not see it that way. They selected San Diego's Marty Schottenheimer as coach of the year; Cowher finished second.

"To come off 6-10 and have a team go 15-1, what can you say?" asked fullback Dan Kreider. "We had a lot of guys go down and a rookie quarterback in there. It's about his best coaching year to date."

Cowher will not reflect on a season unfinished. He impressed a command on his team to wear blinders -- no peeking anywhere but straight ahead. Maybe his teams followed that instruction in past years, but not to the extent they did this season.

"It's one thing to say it, it's another thing to be able to do it on a regular basis," Cowher said. "I think you need to be reminded. I need to remind myself about it all the time."

No one needs to remind Cowher that for all his success, a hole remains in his resume: Super Bowl winner. Five times his teams held the AFC's home-field advantage in the playoffs, and four times they failed to reach the Super Bowl, losing three AFC championship games played here. His 1995 team advanced to Super Bowl XXX and lost to Dallas.

"I think we all know that a measure of every team is how far they go," Cowher said. "That in the truest sense is the only way you really can measure great teams. So, from that perspective, it's hard to compare because this season is not over yet."

Their 6-10 record a year ago hit them like a football between the eyes and began some soul-searching by Cowher and his players. The coach decided to dump his one-year flirtation with the passing game and return to a run-most offense, and he promised to turn up the aggression on defense.

"This year it was a lot more physical camp," linebacker Larry Foote said. "There were a lot more running plays, a lot more contact. As you see, it's paying off on the field."

Strangely, losing starters might have added to the determination that carried them through a season nearly unscathed. It began when linebacker Clark Haggans -- re-signed when free-agent Marcus Washington snubbed them for the Redskins -- had his hand broken 10 days before training camp began. Then No. 2 quarterback Charlie Batch and starting right guard Kendall Simmons were lost for the season with knee injuries in August. Casey Hampton, Chad Scott, Kendrell Bell, Duce Staley, Tommy Maddox and Jay Riemersma all missed considerable time with injuries. Players such as Ben Roethlisberger, Chris Hoke, James Harrison, Keydrick Vincent and Foote began to take hold.

"You come back with a little bit of attitude to prove that last year was disappointing," Cowher said, "that it wasn't going to happen again, recognizing it was going to take everybody.

"There was the never-ending amount of injuries we had and had to overcome. I think with each injury it created a bond -- recognizing that so and so went down, we all have to pull together, we all have to do this for this guy."

A culture developed in the locker room that helped players accept reduced roles. It began when Jerome Bettis, perhaps the most respected player on their team, accepted a pay cut of nearly $2.7 million to return as a backup running back. After that, it was difficult for anyone to protest his role on the team, his contract or decisions he felt weren't in his best interest.

Plaxico Burress, who stayed away from the club during spring workouts, eased any potential problem when he returned in great shape at the start of training camp. When Cowher heard that fellow receiver Hines Ward might boycott camp because he felt he was underpaid, he convinced Ward to put it behind him for another year.

"The leadership has been phenomenal," Cowher said, "starting with a guy like Jerome, who's had the year he's had and accepted the role he has. We brought in unselfish players like Duce Staley into a new team.

"There's just a lot of guys who have stepped up. Tommy Maddox -- Ben comes on the scene and he stays humble and Tommy accepts his role. That makes it very hard for other players to maybe complain about not being used enough.

"I think each guy has just seized each opportunity, accepted his role on the team and watched other guys have roles expand based on circumstances. A lot of things transpired that led to a realism that it is a team filled with a bunch of good football players, that even though your role is this this week, it can expand next week because it's happened so much around me."

Instead of being cocky, the Steelers were wary of each opponent, Cowher said.

"I really believe this team really does realize that we're not that much better than the teams we're playing and we can't afford to take anything for granted. We have to respect everybody, we have to continue to take the same approach every week. That's just been an ongoing theme we've tried to live by."

This has been Cowher's best season coaching in Pittsburgh, after he put together what might be his best coaching staff. As he noted, the upcoming weeks will determine just how good a season it becomes.

"We realize right now there's only one goal. The time to sit back and reflect is when it's all said and done. We realize right now we're in the middle of this and it's more important than ever to stay very focused.

"We got here because we just took each game as it came, and we know we're going to be playing next week and we know there are no guarantees after that.

"We're not going to change our approach. You don't change what got you here, and I don't think this team will."