Playing for pride (and end of slide)

December 28, 2008 at 12:09a.m.

Not much else is on the line for today’s game between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers have nothing to lose, yet they say losing is exactly what they don’t want to do in a game that could set the course for their playoff run.

The rival Cleveland Browns can’t save their season. Or, likely, save coach Romeo Crennel’s job. They’re down to the last game of a rotten season, down to their fourth quarterback, down to their last chance to win until September — an eternity in a sport where the biggest games are only about to begin.

No, this Browns-Steelers game wasn’t supposed to come down to this.

Neither team seems to possess many reasons to go all out in a late-December game that, if the NFL schedule makers’ intentions can be deciphered, was planned to decide the AFC North championship. The Steelers’ No. 2 AFC playoff seeding can’t change, win or lose, and the Browns (4-11) will get little out of finishing 5-11 rather than 4-12 even if they do win.

“We’re really not playing for nothing,” Steelers nose tackle Casey Hampton said.

Then again, maybe they are. Playing for something, that is.

Flash back to a year ago and the Steelers, the AFC North champions as they are now, played Baltimore under similar circumstances. Those Ravens also were expected to push Pittsburgh for the division title, also were 4-11 and also were stuck in a long losing streak, a nine-game slide as opposed to these Browns’ five-game streak.

Even with nothing tangible to play for, the Ravens surprised the Steelers 27-21 for a victory they badly needed to carry into the offseason. Baltimore rebounded this season to go 10-5 and will make the playoffs by beating Jacksonville at home on Sunday.

There’s your incentive, Browns.

The Steelers followed that Baltimore loss last season by losing at home to Jacksonville a week later in the playoffs. They carried no momentum and not much offensive consistency in the postseason, and it showed.

There’s your incentive, Steelers.

“It’s really about us going out there and sharpening our swords, getting ourselves ready,” defensive lineman Chris Hoke said. “Momentum is huge. Look at our team last year, I think we lost three of four games in December. We were on the downside heading into the playoffs. You want to be winning three of four heading into the playoffs.”

Despite losing at Tennessee 31-14 last week, the Steelers (11-4) will have won six of seven heading into their first playoff game Jan. 10 or 11 if they beat Cleveland for the 11th time in a row. To coach Mike Tomlin, that’s much preferable than losing two in a row, of course.

Tomlin also wants the Steelers to finish 6-2 at home, sweep the AFC North and become only the fourth Steelers team in 29 years to win 12 regular-season games, so his starters could play much of the game.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, for example, took most of the snaps in practice, a sign he will play.

“We’ve got to get the whole offense clicking: running, passing, a little bit of everything,” Roethlisberger said. “It’s going to be a big game for us to really get the offense clicking.”

The incentive for Pittsburgh’s defense is partly statistical. The Steelers are No. 1 overall and against the pass and No. 2 against the run, and no team has led the NFL in all three categories since the 1991 Eagles.

The Browns’ offense is making every defense look like Pittsburgh’s. Cleveland hasn’t gained 200 yards in any game during its five-game losing streak and hasn’t scored a touchdown on offense in more than a month; the offense’s last 30 points came on field goals. No wonder the Browns have dropped seven of eight.

If they didn’t have problems enough, the Browns are down to No. 4 quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, a former Pittsburgh high school player who lost his only previous start against the Steelers 20-3 while with Tampa Bay two years ago.

“This is a quarterback-driven league,” Crennel said. “If you don’t have your top guy, there is a drop off. When your No. 1 [Derek Anderson] and No. 2 [Brady Quinn] guys go down, and then your No. 3 [Ken Dorsey] goes down, that makes it tough.”