Peter Diana, Post-Gazette Will Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers be able to deal with the crowd noise at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis Sunday? Click photo for larger image.

Legal or not, the din in the RCA Dome Sunday again will test a Steelers offense that came unglued Nov. 28 at Indianapolis.

Five false starts on offense that night became a symbol of the Steelers' inability to deal with the crowd noise that, combined with the Colts' defense, disrupted their offense in a 26-7 Colts victory.

Since then, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, a Steelers official and even Jacksonville coach Jack Del Rio charged that Colts management artificially enhances the sound level by capturing the home crowd noise and piping it back through the public address system at the RCA Dome.

The following week, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue sent a memo to each team reminding them that artificially enhancing crowd noise violated league rules and that if caught, a team could be fined and lose draft choices. Practically, however, it is a violation difficult to prove.

Their experience Nov. 28 did prompt the Steelers to change the way they run their offense on the road.

"The main thing is, how can we handle the crowd noise?" Roethlisberger said. "The last time we played them we couldn't do it. I think we tried to use the count too much -- my count, my cadence. This time we're going to go in with the silent count; that will be to our advantage. Hopefully we'll be able to get off the ball a little bit better and slow down their pass rush."

They used the silent snap count -- a predetermined physical indicator signals each player to count to himself -- three weeks later at the Metrodome in Minnesota. While they had better success on offense, they still were flagged for four false starts that day. Sunday, the Steelers had three false starts in the first quarter at Cincinnati.

Assistants in demand

The Steelers remained secretive yesterday on which teams had requested interviews with which of their assistant coaches this week, and the reason may be that there are too many to count.

By many indications, a number of teams have asked to interview assistants Russ Grimm and Ken Whisenhunt for head coaching vacancies. That could cause a major headache for the Steelers as they prepare for their next playoff game.

Each interview generally lasts about three hours, and this is the week the NFL has set aside for interviews involving teams still in the playoffs. But there is not a day off for coaches, and a handful of teams may want to talk to Grimm and/or Whisenhunt. Even if there are three teams interested in one of them, that could take nine hours of an assistant's time and coach Bill Cowher would consider that a major distraction.

Grimm is considered a leading candidate for the opening in Detroit, and he will interview with Lions president Matt Millen in Pittsburgh Thursday night. Grimm also will interview with Green Bay on Friday. Houston and New Orleans also have requested to talk with Grimm.

The St. Louis Rams have requested an interview with Whisenhunt and likely will have one with him at the end of the week. A few other teams are interested in talking with him.

Cowher is expected to say something on the topic today, and may try to limit the number of interviews each coach will have this week. After this week, no assistant coach on any playoff team can be interviewed until its playoff run ends.