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One bold soul tried to ask Bill Cowher yesterday if his team might be looking ahead to playing the New England Patriots, and the Steelers coach vocally stomped on him as if he were an insect invading his living room.

Think of Jim Mora screeching "Playoffs! Playoffs!" and you get Cowher's level of reluctance to discuss his team's next game in Heinz Field.

"No!" Cowher thundered. "We know better than that. Ahead is going to be there; you just worry about Houston. That's the only team we are worrying about."

It probably was not a good time, then, to ask him what he thought about his team bearing down on the NFL record for winning streaks in the regular season. The Steelers' streak stands at 15; 18 is the record, which is owned by the Patriots and was stopped at Heinz Field on Halloween last year.

But it is right there in his team's news release this week. The Steelers, the first team in AFC history to win 15 regular-season games, can move into a tie with the Miami Dolphins for the second-best streak in NFL history if they beat the Texans Sunday in Houston. The Dolphins won 16 in a row twice.

Looking ahead, the Steelers could go for No. 17 against the Patriots Sept. 25, tie the record Oct. 10 at San Diego and break it Oct. 16 in Heinz Field against Jacksonville. Looking ahead, though, became unfashionable in Pittsburgh last season.

"I'm not worrying about anything more than Sunday afternoon at 1 o'clock," Cowher said.

Sunday's big opening win against Tennessee? Meant nothing, Cowher implied.

"I still think that we have a ways to go from an execution standpoint, and I say a ways to go because we still have to show an ability to do it week in and week out. We played one game and I'm not ready to pass judgment on any element of our football team -- offense, defense or special teams -- based on one game."

Cowher also was not ready to call his passing game perfect even if Ben Roethlisberger's passer rating in the opener says so. Cowher, along with many others, showed concern about the passing offense this summer.

"We only threw it 11 times," Cowher said. "It's not like we've suddenly arrived, I don't think. Too much comparison has been made to [the preseason]. I'm not concerned with that. I'm not ready to sit there and say everything is set with one game."

One thing is set after one game -- Cowher's philosophy for the 2005 season. His news conference Sunday tipped it off when he talked about his team not being "crisp" after a 34-7 win and worried about his defense.

"The first month of the season you are creating an identity," Cowher said yesterday. "It's not what you do in one game; it's not what you've done in two games. That first month, you become who you are and find out about people.

"You have to start doing things week in and week out. You have play at a consistent level. I'm not ready to make any final judgments or pass judgment on any element of this football team until we're able to see an ability to do something week in and week out."

Another part of Cowher's weekly strategy, it appears, is an old coach's trick -- try to make the next opponent appear to be invading Huns. It becomes more difficult when the opponent has never had a winning season and opened with a 22-7 loss to Buffalo.

"Offensively," Cowher said before anyone had a chance to ask a question at his news conference, "they have a lot of weapons. Dominic Davis is a quality running back. Andre Johnson is a Pro Bowl receiver. David Carr is very, very mobile. A little bit like [Steve McNair], the guy we played last week."

Carr has to be mobile, because he's forever running away from a pass rush. He was sacked 76 times as a rookie in 2002 and after an injury limited him to 11 starts in 2003, he was sacked 49 times last season. The Bills sacked him six times Sunday.

That compares to the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger, who was sacked 30 times as a rookie and not once Sunday.

The opposite of Roethlisberger's perfect passer rating of 158.3 Sunday was Carr's imperfect 12.1 against the Bills. Davis' quality running produced 48 yards in Buffalo and Andre Johnson averaged 6 yards on three receptions.

But in Cowher's world, they are the New England Patriots and if he can convince his players of that, they indeed will look ahead this week.