Safety Mike Logan is not sure what came over him when he taunted the Bengals' Brad St. Louis after knocking him near senseless Sunday.

"You get caught up in the emotion of the game, probably a little bit more because it was a division game," Logan said. "You're trying to get a spark here or you're not having a good game. For me, it was kind of frustration not being able to go out and make plays and, when I made one, I got a little outside of myself."

Logan said coach Bill Cowher yesterday addressed his penalty and the celebration penalty of Verron Haynes and Willie Parker.

Logan's 10-yard penalty made the Steelers start their last-gasp drive from their 11 instead of the 21. It ended on Cincinnati's 16 when Roethlisberger threw an interception in the end zone.

"It was frustrating for me because of the situation in the game," Logan said. "I was very outside myself for this game and I don't know why, I think it was just emotions."

A good bye time?

The Steelers prefer to have their off week a little closer to the end of October, rather than at its start, but after two consecutive losses, they're not complaining.

"I'd like to have it later in the year when your body's a little bit more banged up and you can get a little rest," defensive end Aaron Smith said. "But coming off two losses, there's a chance for us to regroup and refocus."

Smith compared the early rest to one they had after their first game in 2001, a loss in Jacksonville. They wound up with two weeks off because the games on the weekend after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were cancelled and that was followed by the Steelers' scheduled off week.

"I think that bye week was when we really turned it around, we really came together as a team," said Smith. The Steelers finished 13-3 and reached the AFC championship game that season.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger promised that the off week will change the Steelers.

"I think you'll see a new team come out of this bye week," he said.

Some rights and wrongs

Cowher issued a concise summary of what went right and wrong for his team through the first three games:

"We have got nothing out of the return game and the kicking game. Offensively, we lead the league in turnovers. That is not a good stat to lead the league in. We have had eight in three games. We have had some critical drops on third downs.

"We got the running game going. We did that two out of three weeks. We had the bad outing against Jacksonville. The line has played pretty solid. Defensively, while we have done a lot of good things, we have not done a good job of holding them in the red zone.

"One of the stats that was glaring to me from the other day was we were in the red zone six times and we scored two touchdowns. They were in the red zone three times and scored three touchdowns. Talking about holding them to field goals when you get down there and scoring when you get down there."

Polamalu practices

Everyone practiced yesterday, including safety Troy Polamalu, who has not missed a practice nor a game the past two weeks despite a sore right shoulder that caused him to be listed as questionable for each.

"His shoulder is much better if you watched this game as opposed to the first game," Cowher said. "He really had no setbacks."