PITTSBURGH Steelers, Ravens miles apart

Everything has changed since Pittsburgh beat Baltimore on Sept. 7.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Team chairman Dan Rooney walked around the Pittsburgh Steelers' locker room Wednesday, shaking hands and smiling, just as he did following the one highlight of their season.
That 34-15 rout of Baltimore in the Sept. 7 season opener was so long ago, it seems like last season to some players.
"We've played [14] games since that game," quarterback Tommy Maddox said. "I don't remember that game."
That's understandable, since everything has changed since the Steelers beat Baltimore for the fifth straight time, seemingly sending a message that the AFC North was theirs to win again.
Opposite directions
Most notably, the on-field presence of superiority the Steelers (6-9) possessed while winning the division in 2001 and 2002 seem to have transferred to the Ravens (9-6). As a result, Baltimore can wrap up the division with either a Cincinnati (8-7) loss Sunday to Cleveland (4-11) or by beating the Steelers, who were eliminated two weeks ago.
So, before their season ends much sooner than it did the previous two seasons, the Steelers are searching for answers as to what went wrong. The theories abound.
"The Ravens have got a head full of steam, they're feeling good, and we've got a losing record," linebacker Kendrell Bell said. "A lot of that stuff plays into your mentality. When you've got a losing record, especially when it's something you're not used to, it bothers you in a certain way. ... [Maybe] you slack off and not do your assignments."
Nearly all the Steelers' traditional strengths -- their running game, run-stopping ability, disruptive blitz defenses -- became exploitable weaknesses. Somewhere, maybe during consecutive home losses to Tennessee and Cleveland, they lost their edge and never regained it.
Bell said there are numerous reasons for a falloff that saw the Steelers go from winning 23 of 36 regular season games in 2001 and 2002 to losing five in a row and six of seven at one point this season.
Self-doubts
When a team starts losing, he said, it creates self-doubts -- and, perhaps, changes in game plans and strategy that wouldn't be made if a team was winning.
"I was thinking, 'We need to win, we need to win, we need to get back on top, ' " Bell said. "When you're losing, you think about a number of things and I'm sure I'm not the only guy on the team [doing so]. ... There was a lot of uncertainty with the players and the coaches, as a team period."
While the playoffs no longer are an achievable goal for the Steelers, keeping the Ravens out of them might be.
The Steelers haven't lost to the Ravens since Baltimore became the first visiting team to win at Heinz Field, 13-10 during the 2001 season. The Steelers beat the Ravens in the playoffs six weeks later, then swept the 2002 season series and can do so again this season by winning Sunday night.
The Steelers have won six in a row in Baltimore and are 6-1 since the former Cleveland Browns relocated there in 1996.
"We've never lost down there since I've been here, and I don't intend to start Sunday night," said wide receiver Plaxico Burress, who has three touchdown catches in his last two games at Baltimore. "For some reason, against these guys, we come together and play our best football."