Nov 3, 2002 By Mike Ciarochi 4 min read

CLEVELAND – The Steelers find themselves in a very envious position. They are coming off an emotional, hard-fought road win over a team they don’t like, yet they are heading smack into the same thing.

Fresh off their 31-18 win at Baltimore that gave them sole possession of first place in the AFC North Division, the Steelers (4-3) meet the Cleveland Browns (4-4) in a division game again with first place at stake.

A lot of blood, sweat, tears and money – just ask Plaxico Burress – was left on the field at Ravens Stadium last week. There was a major altercation between the teams that resulted in two ejections (Burress and Baltimore’s James Trapp) and more bad blood between the teams.

It may seem as though it will be hard for the Steelers to get up for this game after such an emotional win, but these are the Cleveland Browns, a team the entire Pittsburgh region, not just the players, loves to hate.

Today’s 1 p.m. kickoff marks the 100th regular-season meeting between these teams. CBS-TV will televise the game live. Cleveland holds a 54-46 lead in the series, including Pittsburgh’s playoff win over the Browns in 1995.

But believe it or not, the opponent seems to be irrelevent to the Steelers. it may as well be the Houston Texans or the Denver Broncos.

“We’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” wide receiver Hines Ward said. “It’s not a matter of what the Browns do. It’s what we can do. We’re on a pretty good roll right now, where we aren’t taking stupid penalties or doing things we were doing earlier. If you look at the first two games, we had 10 turnovers in those games. You can’t beat anybody doing that.

“It’s not how you start a season, it’s how you finish. We’re headed in the right direction. We’re just starting to come into our own.”

Indeed, they are. More than simply rebounding from an 0-2 start, the Steelers are bursting out of the gates, taking control of games early and not letting go. The catalyst is quarterback Tommy Maddox. The Steelers scored touchdowns on their first four possessions in Baltimore last week after scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions in Cincinnati a week earlier.

They did it last week without Jerome Bettis. This week, they’ll be without Bettis and Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, leaving the ground game in the hands of Amos Zereoue and rookie Verron Haynes.

But the Steelers’ ground game should be just fine, thanks to a passing game that continues to climb the charts. Maddox has teamed with Ward and Burress to give Pittsburgh the fourth-best receiving tandem in the league.

The Browns don’t have a lot of film on Maddox, but they have memories. Maddox replaced an ineffective Kordell Stewart when the Browns came to Heinz Field on September 29. He led the Steelers to their first win of the season and sent the Browns on a three-game losing streak.

“It is a totally different football team,” Browns coach Butch Davis said. “With Kendrell Bell back, they have all the people defensively that they envisioned having at the beginning of the season. They are playing very well on special teams. Offensively, because of Tommy Maddox’s ability to throw the football, they are throwing the ball more than they were earlier in the season. I think that has made them more diversified and a much more difficult team to defend.”

Not pass-happy, just diversified. Even without Bettis, the Steelers were able to establish a running game last week with Zereoue and that has been a big key for the passing game.

“We are getting off to good starts and we are not turning the ball over offensively,” Cowher said. “We are playing very efficiently right now.

“We are throwing the ball efficiently, we are running the ball efficiently and we are not turning it over. We are not giving up big plays on defense and we are making some big plays in the kicking game. At some point you are going to have an afternoon where one of those phases is going to struggle. I think our football team feels comfortable that when that day happens, the other two phases will pick it up.”

A win today not only would keep the Steelers in control of the division for the present, it would give them a 4-0 division record, which should pay dividends come December and January.

An envious position, indeed.