In two games against him last season, the Steelers did more than just sack San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers six times and hurry him into a number of bad throws. They also hit him and threw him to the ground enough to make him even antsier in the pocket.

"I'm assuming he didn't like [it]," said defensive end Brett Keisel, who had two of those sacks against Rivers. "Quarterbacks don't. I've talked to ours quite a bit when he's gotten popped, and he sure doesn't like it. And he's as good as there is at making them miss."

The Steelers have not done that enough times during their 1-2 start this season. After leading the AFC with 51 sacks last season, they have only five sacks heading into the game tonight against the Chargers at Heinz Field.

And they have none from outside linebacker La Marr Woodley, who had 11 1/2 sacks during the regular season last year and six more in the postseason, including two against Rivers. He was fined $10,000 by the NFL for one of them when he threw the Chargers quarterback to the ground. But they were able to do that with great regularity against the Chargers last season, both in the 11-10 regular-season victory and the 35-24 divisional playoff victory at Heinz Field.

"It's important to get him on the ground, get him tired a little bit, get him banged up and lose some yards," Woodley said. "Then they start thinking about us coming a little more."

"We felt like we did a good job of keeping pressure on him and not letting him get too comfortable in the pocket," said outside linebacker James Harrison, who had two sacks, a forced fumble for safety and an interception in two games against them. "Any time you get pressure on the quarterback, it's going to affect anything you do, passing-wise. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is."

Even Rivers, who is averaging 330.3 yards passing per game this season.

"They never let you get settled in," Rivers said. "When we watched those two games last year, we feel we left plays on the field and didn't execute in some instances. Obviously, they had something to do with that."

It was part of the reason Rivers was unable to get the ball to his tall wide receivers -- Vincent Jackson and Malcolm Floyd, both 6-foot-5 -- and was forced to check down to his running backs.

Jackson, who leads the Chargers with 16 catches, 317 receiving yards and two touchdowns, had four catches for 74 yards in both games, though one was a spectacular one-handed 41-yard touchdown. And Floyd had just two catches for 29 yards.

"One thing about these guys, they need time to get deep," safety Ryan Clark said. "They're big-play receivers, but they're longer, rangier. They have to start running for a while before they get to top speed. Our pressure has to keep them down."

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