STEELERS Sunday's frustration lingers into Monday

Even with the loss to the expansion Texans, Pittsburgh still controls its own destiny.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- For an NFL contender, dealing with a loss is never easy at this time of the year. Losing corrodes a team's confidence and weakens its playoff situation, and ultimately may create a road game next month rather than a home game.
What complicates matters for the Pittsburgh Steelers (7-5-1) is they're dealing with much more than a loss, even a totally unexpected one to a team that seemingly had no way to defeat them.
The Steelers still were struggling Monday with a 24-6 defeat to the first-year Houston Texans that was historical in its magnitude because never before had an NFL team so dominated another and lost.
Mostly one-sided
Houston was outgained 422-47 -- the fewest yards ever gained by a winning team -- and had only one first down after its opening series. The Texans went three-and-out on all but three of 12 possessions and never crossed the 50 without the aid of a penalty or a turnover.
Conversely, the Steelers moved the ball efficiently all day, piling up yard after yard against a defense that ranked among the NFL's upper third. But everything they did well came unraveled with three turnovers -- two interceptions and a fumble -- that the Texans returned for touchdowns.
"It's frustrating because we know we were our own enemy," running back Jerome Bettis said.
As quarterback Tommy Maddox said, "The more you watched it, the more sick you became."
Maddox, who created all three turnover touchdowns, expects to take all the heat for the loss. What he also expects is another chance -- namely, to start Sunday against Carolina (5-8).
Maddox was given no indication Monday by coach Bill Cowher he would be benched for Kordell Stewart, who directed victories over the Jaguars and Bengals when Maddox was out with injuries the two previous weeks.
"He didn't say anything else," Maddox said. "I'm going to expect to start until he tells me I'm not."
Lowly losses
The Steelers have a history of losing to first-year teams; this was the third time they've done so since 1995. But history doesn't give a clear picture of what might happen next.
In 1995, they rebounded from a loss to expansion Jacksonville and made it to the Super Bowl. In 1999, they had the playoffs in sight until a devastating loss to first-year Cleveland sent them skidding on a six-game losing streak.
"I'm probably more disappointed today [Monday] than I was last night because you realize there were a lot of good things we did," Maddox said. "But you've got to get past it because you realize we're in first place [in the AFC North] and we control our own destiny."