Go ahead and have a laugh at the Steelers' offense.
Boo them and belittle them with taunts, if you will.
The Baltimore Ravens ask only that a sliver of credit gets deflected to their defense, which manhandled the home team in a 16-0 whitewash yesterday at Three Rivers Stadium.
"This defense was outstanding," Coach Brian Billick said. "For us to get a shutout on the road ... you look up at the out-of-town scoreboard, and I don't see many other goose eggs. That's not something that you're going to see very often at any level of football."
"Did you notice how we were flying around the football out there?" free safety Rod Woodson asked. "A lot of guys were making tackles. After one guy made the hit, two or three other guys are right there."
"We played great," linebacker Ray Lewis said. "We had fun out there, and we got the job done."
It was hardly a fluke. Baltimore, which had the NFL's No. 2-ranked defense last season, boasts some of the league's most gifted players. And the individual stars yesterday were many:
Defensive end Rob Burnett spent much of the afternoon in the Steelers' backfield, hounding Kent Graham repeatedly and finishing the game with four tackles, a sack, a forced fumble and a pass defended.
"I haven't seen a player have a game like that ... wow," defensive tackle Tony Siragusa said. "He was all over the place."
"I'm just contributing, man," Burnett said. "I'm just one of 11 guys who's part of something special."
Siragusa and Sam Adams plugged the interior of the line, and Lewis offered support from behind to thoroughly stifle the Steelers' running game.
Jerome Bettis managed 8 yards on nine carries, marking the fourth consecutive game in which the Ravens have prevented him from breaking a run longer than 10 yards.
"We knew we had to be up on the line, sticking with each other to stop Jerome," Siragusa said. "We were all there for each other."
Cornerback Duane Starks gave up 8 inches to 6-foot-6 Steelers rookie Plaxico Burress, but he found a way to stick with him stride for stride most of the day. Burress had four catches for 77 yards, but two long attempts were thwarted by diligent coverage from Starks.
"It didn't intimidate me at all, facing him," Starks said. "I've faced the biggest and quickest receivers in the league. All the Herman Moores. I mean, I'm sure he's good, but I can run with anybody and jump just as high as he can."
Burnett dubbed the Baltimore defense "an 11-man wrecking crew," and the numbers will support his contention that the Ravens turned in a terrific team effort: They didn't give up a first down until a minute into the second quarter. They allowed the Steelers to cross the 50-yard line only twice. And, most impressive, they held fast when the Steelers had seven cracks inside the 5 in the fourth quarter.
"I told the guys on the field, 'This is what makes champions,' " Lewis said. "We can stop anybody. It doesn't matter where they are, midfield, goal line, wherever. We know we have a defense."
An even better defense, Woodson suggested, than the outstanding one he played in with the Steelers for most of the 1990s.
"The line is the difference. The line we have here right now and the people we have backing them up are just unbelievable."
Billick made no such comparison, but he couldn't help but point out one irony he found particularly sweet after this game.
"We kind of played Steelers ball today. To do that in their back yard, I'd say, is a positive for us."
Ravens' defense kicks in the door 
