Nov 24, 2003 By Commentary Mike Ciarochi 5 min read

CLEVELAND – The Steelers aren’t going to apologize to anybody if they are fortunate enough to make it to the NFL playoffs. Nor should they.

It isn’t their fault that the league placed them in the AFC North Division. It isn’t their fault the league scheduled them to play division games back-to-back at this stage of the season, when so much is at stake. And it isn’t their fault that nobody in this putrid division can seem to beat them.

The Browns did it earlier this season. They did it convincingly and they did it on the road, so why not expect the Browns to beat the Steelers here at Cleveland Browns Stadium?

Instead, the Steelers left town with a nice, neat 13-6 win over the Browns tucked under one arm with plenty of arm space left for a home win over Cincinnati next Sunday.

Even though this win improved Pittsburgh’s record only to 4-7, they are close enough to the Bengals and Baltimore Ravens to make a run at the playoffs down the stretch.

In fact, their game with the Bengals might have been for first place had not the Ravens come from behind to beat Seattle in overtime Sunday. Still, the Steelers have a win over both the Ravens and Bengals, so all they really need to do is move into a tie with either team.

“Not only that,” running back Jerome Bettis interrupted, “but it’s the next game.”

Bettis added that he doesn’t much care what the Steelers record is when 16 games have been played, just so they have won enough games to qualify for the playoffs.

“I don’t care about embarrassment or any of that stuff,” Bettis said. “I care about getting into the playoffs and that’s it. I don’t care how we get there or who we play or anything else. At this point, that’s our only goal. Nobody relaxes right now. We’re not even close to clicking offensively. Our defense came through for us today and we did just enough to win, so there is plenty of room for improvement.”

And the Bengals coming to town gives them a perfect opponent upon whom to show improvement. Any AFC North Division team would do, it just happens to be Cincinnati’s turn. As coach Bill Cowher pointed out after Sunday’s win, his team has won eight of nine games they have played in the short history of the division.

“The fact is, this is a division game,” Cowher said. “The way it is right now in our division, we can still make the playoffs. We recognize that. We’re still in it. That is still there. We needed to get this win on the road, come home for two weeks and try to make Heinz Field the place it has been, a tough place to play. Right now, we are taking things one week at a time.”

Cowher was asked several more questions, some pertaining to whether his team had been embarrassed by losing at home to the Browns on national television, some about specific players on his team. From his answers came a common theme that he hopes best describes his 53 players.

“I don’t care what we do on national television,” Cowher said. “We take every game seriously.”

“This is not about individuals,” he said later. “This is about a group of guys sticking together.”

Yes, as clich? and corny as it may sound, it’s about team. Cowher went so far as to say he’s thinking of introducing one of his special teams coverage units before Sunday’s game against the Bengals. Now that is about team.

“This was a good win to get under our belts,” quarterback Tommy Maddox said. “We are still climbing up a hill. We know that we have to go out and find ways to win games like we did today. It is a long battle, but this one feels good right now.”

Maddox and Bettis both know it was the defense that bailed out the Steelers in this game. Even though Bettis had his greatest output in what he will look back on as a disappointing season for him, he knows this win was all about defense.

“It did not matter if it was pretty, ugly or three to nothing,” Maddox said. “It was a win. The defense just stepped up and made a couple of huge plays. Because of the goal line stand and the turnovers that our defense got for us, we were able to capitalize, get some first downs when we had to and put enough points on the board to win.”

This season, as miserable as it has been to this point, has forced the Steelers to put on the blinders and worry only about themselves.

“Today it wasn’t even a case of looking at the scoreboard,” Cowher said. “We know better than to worry about what other teams may or may not be doing. Today, it was just about making plays.”

“To tell you the truth, we don’t think about that,” Maddox said when asked whether next week’s game might be for first place in the division. “We can’t worry about what everybody else is doing. We have to worry about ourselves and about the goal at hand.”

Which is winning a game. Then winning another game. Then another.

If they can string a couple together, play together and stay together, the Steelers could make it to the playoffs. Just don’t tell them it’s only because of the weakness of the AFC North Division.

Chances are they already know that. Know it or not, they don’t care what the reasons are that they still can play for a division title. All they know is they have a tomorrow and it looks considerably better than it did yesterday.

Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com.