‘Must-win’ is Steelers’ tune for Cleveland

Photo by: Gene J. Puskar

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, top, dives into the end zone over Oakland Raiders' Trevor Scott for a second-quarter touchdown during an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

A game the Pittsburgh Steelers were hoping would mean nothing now means everything, and they know it.

The Steelers (11-4) wanted to have the AFC North and a playoff bye wrapped up by now. They don’t, and that means Sunday’s game at Cleveland has the potential to significantly damage their chances of winning the Super Bowl even before the playoffs begin.

The neighboring cites have been rivals for 60 years but, since the NFL merger in 1970, the Steelers haven’t traveled to Cleveland during the final week of the regular season for a game that meant so much to them.

Win, and the Steelers will take the division, earn a playoff bye and own home-field advantage for at least the second round of the playoffs. Lose to the Browns (5-10) and the Steelers likely will be relegated to being seeded sixth in the AFC, with no chance for a home game and no time off before they open the wild-card playoffs next week.

“You definitely don’t want to play next week, because anything can happen in the NFL, anybody can beat anybody,” nose tackle Casey Hampton said.

While the Steelers (2005 season) and Giants (2007) both won the Super Bowl as sixth-seeded teams that went on the road for three consecutive weeks of conference playoffs, no one else did it in the Super Bowl’s first 44 seasons.

With key players such as Troy Polamalu and Aaron Smith slowed or sidelined by injuries, and lacking the late-season momentum they seized by winning their final four games in 2005, the Steelers understand that taking such a circuitous path might prove too difficult this season.

The Steelers and Ravens (11-4) are tied for the AFC North lead, but Pittsburgh owns the tiebreaker based on a better division record. All that vanishes if the Steelers lose in Cleveland and the Ravens beat the Bengals (4-11), giving Baltimore the division title.

“That’s more motivation than anything else,” Hampton said. “You want to have a week off, you don’t want to play in anybody else’s home stadium for the first round. You get a lot more rest [with a bye], especially us being an older team.”

Normally, the Steelers have little trouble beating the Browns; they’ve won 13 of the past 14 meetings.

But everybody in the Steelers locker room knows about the lone defeat, 13-6 last season to a one-win Cleveland team. That loss finished off a five-game Steelers losing streak and eventually kept them out of the playoffs.