PITTSBURGH Last-place Steelers finally get a break

A five-game losing streak has Pittsburgh three games behind Baltimore.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers must feel as though someone is playing a cruel joke on them.
Halfway through their season, right when they expected to have the super-soft AFC North wrapped up, the Steelers (2-6) inexplicably find themselves in last place going into today's game against Arizona.
Behind the Ravens (5-3). Behind the Browns (3-5). Behind even -- could it be? -- the Cincinnati Bengals (3-5).
A team that returned virtually intact after winning 25 games the previous two seasons is running out of words to explain how so much could go so wrong so quickly. As offensive lineman Alan Faneca said, "Two-and-six? You'd expected it to be the other way around." Now, a season that has brought unpleasant surprise upon unpleasant surprise provides another unexpected twist. The Cardinals (3-5), long the NFC's version of the can't-do-anything-right Bengals, arrive in town with a two-game winning streak and a newfound, Steelers-like tough guy persona.
With the undrafted Marcel Shipp running for 306 yards and four touchdowns the last two weeks, Arizona suddenly has new life in a season that began like so many other dreadful Cardinals seasons.
Shipp will try to become the first Cardinals running back to run for 100 yards in three straight games since Stump Mitchell in 1987.
"I just like the confidence our team is playing with," coach Dave McGinnis said. "And I say confidence, and that's it. Not overconfidence. We understand where we are right now."
Today they'll be on the road, and that's usually not a good place. They've lost eight straight away from the Valley of the Sun since winning at Carolina on Oct. 6, 2000. This season, they've committed eight turnovers and scored just 44 points in three road losses.
Steeler antagonist
But Shipp's breakout gives them room for hope and so does quarterback Jeff Blake, a longtime Steelers antagonist. Blake threw for 1,242 yards and five touchdowns in his last four starts against Pittsburgh while with the Ravens and Bengals.
"I always have a lot of fun playing against the Steelers," said Blake, who passed for 336 yards and two touchdowns in Baltimore's season-ending 34-31 loss in Pittsburgh in December.
What the Cardinals must be wondering is whether they're catching the Steelers at the best possible time, or the worst.
The Steelers have dropped five in a row during the second-longest losing streak of coach Bill Cowher's 12-season tenure. They've been blown out in each of their last three home games, allowing a combined 96 points in losses to the Titans, Browns and Rams.
No wonder they just want to beat somebody.
"When I look at the Steelers on tape, what I saw was a team that wants to drill a hole in us when we come there," McGinnis said.
Desperation
After repeating the worn-out "this is a must win" line for weeks, the Steelers truly have reached the desperation stage. As few as two losses in their final eight games might doom their playoff chances, even though they play in arguably the NFL's weakest division.
Quarterback Tommy Maddox, who finally resembled the Tommy Gun of last season late in last week's 23-16 loss to Seattle, said the Steelers must guard against trying to make up for five weeks of failure in one afternoon.
"If you start trying to make up for lost games, then you're playing for the wrong reasons," Maddox said. "We've just got to get that first one and get this thing turned around and get on a roll."