Were the coming Sunday's Steelers-Giants appointment characterized by a menu item at a high-end bistro, it would sound so delicious you almost would hesitate to bite for fear of a letdown. It would be full of reductions and encrustations and drizzled this over a free range that with a side of tender baby darling carrots.

And can I tell you about our multi-orgasmic mousse?

Will you look at it?

In Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning, it's got two of the six active quarterbacks whose jewelry collections include a Super Bowl ring (Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Brad Johnson being the others).

In Tom Coughlin, it's got one of the six active coaches who've hoisted the Lombardi obelisk (Bill Belichick, Mike Holmgren, Mike Shanahan, Jon Gruden, Tony Dungy).

In Hines Ward and Amani Toomer, it's got two of the three NFL wideouts who've been with their team longer than anyone except Marvin Harrison.

In the Rooneys and the Maras, the only families with multigenerational members of the Hall of Fame, it's got pro football royalty sloshing through its DNA.

It's got a national television audience.

It's got two 5-1 teams whose on-field issues started in The Great Depression and could extend into the next one.

And, don't forget, it's got Darnell Stapleton.

"It's a great feeling to be playing in a game like this, to be playing with these players at this level," said the 23-year-old blocker with all of two pro starts on his dossier. "I enjoy what I do when I come to work, and I'm blessed because a lot of people can't say that."

If you missed the whole Stapleton story, welcome to the part of the universe outside this 305-pounder's immediate family. I'll just give you the capstone to date: Unless Darnell Stapleton puts a picture-perfect seal block on Cincinnati's Antwan Odom in the second half last Sunday, there is no guarantee the Steelers would have beaten the Bungles.

"We talked about that play all last week," Stapleton said as the Steelers plowed into the several metric tons of homework necessary to contend with the Giants. "We thought if I was pulling and tried to get a kick-out block on him, he'd probably try to wrong-shoulder me. That's exactly what happened, so I was able to turn him around."

As Stapleton countered his own momentum to spin Odom to his right, Mewelde Moore slashed off his left flank for 13 yards and the touchdown that made it 17-7 on the way to 24-10 and 31-10, etc.

Stapleton is only playing because Kendall Simmons is finding it impossible to work with his right leg immobilized from knee to floor, courtesy of a ripped Achilles tendon against Baltimore Sept. 29. But this will not be Stapleton's first start at Heinz Field, nor are the kind of plays described above simply random occurrences in the football life of Darnell Stapleton.

"I started for Rutgers at Heinz Field," he said, remembering a 20-10 licking of the Pitt Panthers two years ago Tuesday. "Ray Rice had a big game."

Stapleton will take in Saturday's annual Panthers-Knights skirmish, and he might not recognize a program that went 18-7 with him at center, but 10-10 since. Stapleton was at the literal center of Rutgersmania, when the Knights were destroying the Big East, winning 11 times in '06, when coach Greg Schiano could have had any job in the country rather than just designing a way to embarrass Pitt every year.

Stapleton, though, keeps on winning. He made the club as an undrafted free agent in training camp 2007. Though he was deactivated in every game last year and didn't start until Simmons went down at the end of September, it's not entirely coincidence that the Steelers haven't lost since. In only one game this year has Ben Roethlisberger spent 60 minutes upright, and Stapleton started that one.

"There's just so much to learn," he said about a still-solidifying offensive line. "So many defensive schemes, and so much more. The Giants have a great interior defense. Their two big guys on the line, two inside linebackers, they're great at pressuring the quarterback and they do it all types of different ways. This is going to take a lot of film study."

The unbeaten New England Patriots studied New York's pass rush for two weeks before Super Bowl XLII, broke it down every conceivable way in a climate where it had become pretty much accepted that New York's only chance to win was to put Tom Brady on the ground repeatedly, and still couldn't prevent it.

What chance then, has an offensive line in which Marvel Smith, should he be ready to play, has more career starts than the other four members combined? Smith has 111. Stapleton and Chris Kemoeatu have 10 between them.

"This team just has a will to get it done," said right tackle Willie Colon. "No matter who's out there."

Winning builds a lot of confidence, and confidence fuels a lot of winning. A lot of delicious NFL Sundays get decided on the surging confidence of the inconspicuous.