E-Mail This Article to a Friend Even without Law, the DA brings some order to the AFC title game BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG

A week ago, you may have harbored some trepidation about whether your beloved New England Patriots could corral the bucking broncos from Indianapolis. You had confidence in your team, but everybody from national TV and print grabbed you by the lapels and warned you to prepare your epitaph for the 2004 Pats. The end was near, they told you, and since they covered pro football for a living and you were just a dyed-in-the-wool-cap local fan, they had to know what they were talking about, right?

Well, they didn’t, and the Colts were harnessed and branded with a 20-3 whipping.

Now it is this week, and any doubts you had about the Pats are but a distant memory. You are absolutely certain — perhaps even more so than when the Patriots went to the Arizona desert to meet the Cardinals in week two — that the AFC crown will return to New England upon the completion of Sunday’s titanic conference battle in Pittsburgh. You would bet everything that you have that the Patriots will reign supreme. Your confidence level is off the charts. You’re already harboring Super Bowl dreams and perhaps even planning a weekend in Jacksonville.

I’m not saying that your self-assurance is misplaced, but perhaps you do need someone from "The Other Side" to prepare you for the needles that could very well burst your bubble on Sunday. All of New England is somehow crowded on the bandwagon again, and no one around here — in the media or otherwise — seems to be issuing even the least bit of caution.

So, before you pack up the Jag for Jax, allow the devil’s advocate (DA) to play the role of, well, you know. Maybe you won’t be quite as comfy with your team’s prospects.

First of all, you say that Corey Dillon didn’t play in the Halloween game — a 34-20 Pittsburgh win — and neither did wideout Deion Branch. In addition, Ty Law left with his broken foot, and tackle Matt Light also was hurt early on. The DA admits that you were shorthanded, but that the Steelers were missing a whole bunch of players as well, including Pro Bowl nose tackle Casey Hampton, linebacker Kendrell Bell, cornerback Chad Scott, and special-teamer Mike Logan.

You insist that the Steelers haven’t played that well since that streak-snapper in week seven, and that they almost lost to the mediocre Jets last Sunday. The DA then reminds you that Pittsburgh still hasn’t lost since week two, and included in that 15-game win streak is a 27-3 mauling of the NFC front-runner, Philadelphia. In addition, beating the Jets by "only" three at home last week — well, the Patriots struggled to beat those same Jets, 13-7, at Gillette in week six.

You say, well, Tom Brady’s got the experience, and Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t, and Big Ben’ll be exposed on Sunday. Funny, the last time I looked, it’s Roethlisberger who’s been at the helm throughout the streak, while Brady lost not only to the Steelers that day, but to the putrid Dolphins in week 14.

But, you insist, the Pats are the champs. They engineered that 21-game win streak earlier, and seem once more marked with that "Team of Destiny" tag. Really? You want destiny? Look at the gremlins at work last week in Pittsburgh, when Jets kicker Doug Brien missed two game-winning field goals. And don’t forget that if the Steelers win this Sunday and in the Super Bowl two weeks hence, then their streak will have reached 17, and the Patriots’ remarkable skein may already be in jeopardy next October.

But we have Bill Belichick and his scheming coaches, you say, while Pitt has the ring-less Bill Cowher prowling the sidelines. That’s a mismatch, you claim. Perhaps, the DA says, and it certainly was a mismatch back on Halloween, wasn’t it? Well, you stammer, Belichick teams are 13-0 when facing a team for the second time in a season after having lost the first encounter. Yes, I retort, but that didn’t work too well for the Pats this year after hammering the Dolphins, 24-10, back in week four; 10 weeks later, the Fins turned the tables and won in Miami, 29-28. How did that happen?

Roethlisberger was lucky the first time around, you plead. Maybe, but what if he wasn’t? Maybe he’s actually good. And what if, instead of getting the Brady of most weeks, you get the fraud who threw four INTs and blew the game in Miami, or the imposter who was sacked four times, fumbled, and threw two picks at Heinz Field? And what if he can’t make his customary audibles heard at the line of scrimmage this week because of the deafening crowd noise?

I continue ... what if Pittsburgh really is the toughest team in the league (as the stats suggest), and the Patriots get beat up? What if Brady gets hurt as he did three years ago in this same stadium, and instead of Drew Bledsoe, it’s Rohan Davey to the rescue? What if the formidable Steeler receivers make the plays that their Colt counterparts didn’t last week in Foxborough? The Pats again are going to be playing without Law, Tyrone Poole, and perhaps even Richard Seymour — who’s going to cover 6’5" Plaxico Burress over the middle, 5’9" Troy Brown? [Insert hearty guffaw here.] What if the Pittsburgh running game — which gained 221 yards in the first encounter — again chews up the clock and the Patriots’ interior defense?

What if the Halloween meeting was an accurate rendering of the disparity between these two teams this year? "You can’t handle the truth!" the DA exclaims.

So, you reluctantly sigh, I guess the Steelers really do have a good chance of beating the Patriots on Sunday.

Not a chance, I say.

"Sporting Eye" runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com. Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com