It might seem strange to mention Bum Phillips one week before his son Wade leads his Dallas Cowboys to Heinz Field for one of the better interconference matchups of the season.

Phillips coached that other team in Texas, the old Houston Oilers, a generation ago, when it was among the best teams in the NFL. Problem was, the Oilers lived in the same division and conference as one of the best teams in pro football history, the 1970s Steelers.

After the Oilers lost two consecutive AFC championship games in Three Rivers Stadium after the 1978 and 1979 seasons -- ones in which the third and fourth Lombardi Trophies would ultimately be delivered to Pittsburgh -- Phillips made a promise.

"One year ago, we knocked on the door," the Oilers' coach said before the 1980 season. "This year, we beat on the door. Next year, we're going to kick the S.O.B. in."

Pardon the current Steelers if they have that Bum Phillips feeling today as they approach the doorstep of the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass.

In this decade, the Patriots have stood in the path of what-might-have-been for the Steelers. They swiped two AFC championships away from the Steelers in Heinz Field after the 2001 and 2004 seasons and went on to win Super Bowls each of those years. The Patriots kept the Steelers from having the top playoff seed with a 30-14 victory in 2002 and almost ruined their playoff chances last season with a 34-13 smackdown.

Unlike the Oilers, the Steelers managed to win a Super Bowl amidst their Patriots carnage after the 2005 season, but they did not have to go through New England to do it.

Patriots-Steelers has become a rivalry, even if it has been one-sided.

"It certainly feels like we are in the same division," New England coach Bill Belichick said the past week. "They were one of the teams that we could have gotten matched up against [in the playoffs last year]. Whether we play them or not, it seems like we are planning for them."

New England has made a habit of beating the Steelers during the past decade; the Patriots won six of the past seven games. Today, they can put a crimp in the Steelers' plans for a top playoff seed and even their playoff chances.

"Every time we prepare for them, it's meant something," said cornerback Deshea Townsend, who has experienced this series since 1998, when a Patriots victory helped seal Bill Cowher's first losing record. "It's just time for us to try to get over the hump a little bit."

The Steelers thought they had done that in 2004 when they defeated the unbeaten Patriots, 34-20, at Heinz Field on way to a 15-1 regular season. It was their only victory against New England in the past decade. New England returned to Heinz for a 41-27 victory in the AFC championship game that season.

Former Steelers linebacker Joey Porter claimed last week that he was cheated out of two Super Bowls because of Spygate, the illegal taping performed under the Belichick's direction during those years.

"One thing I'll say about Joey," Townsend said, laughing, "I stand behind what he says."

"We thought we'd have had two more Super Bowls if we beat them because the AFC was so dominant," said linebacker Larry Foote, who experienced one of those defeats.

Today, the Steelers have a chance to do something about it, to deliver a blow to the playoff chances of the Tom Brady-less Patriots and boost their own.

"What happened in the past is in the past," said Hines Ward. "They don't have Brady, they don't have some of their other guys, like Adalius Thomas. It's a matter of us going out and with the players they have on the field, see if we can execute our plays."

Quarterback Matt Cassel has done nicely of late in Brady's absence, becoming only the fifth quarterback in NFL history to throw for consecutive games of 400 yards. But New England's ground game is not as strong without Laurence Maroney, out for the season with a shoulder injury. And their pass rush is not the same without Thomas and another linebacker slowed by injury, Mike Vrabel.

But they've beaten the Steelers with all kinds of casts, including worse secondaries than the below-average one the Patriots employ today. New England's mini-dynasty in this century was launched in large part on the backs of the Steelers.

Today, the Steelers have another chance to move in a different direction.

"I think we just have to get over that hump," nose tackle Chris Hoke said. "I don't know if it's a mental block, I don't know what it is, but if we beat those guys at their place, it'll be a big boost to this team."