No ignoring past when looking ahead

FOXBOROUGH -- Pittsburgh 34, New England 20.

The date was Halloween 2004, the place Pittsburgh's Heinz Field.

The Patriots were without Corey Dillon (thigh), the only time in 17 games this season that New England was forced to play without its offensive catalyst.

Ty Law went down, never to return, in the first quarter. The Patriots coughed up the ball four times, and their 21-game winning streak became a historical footnote.

The Steelers, meanwhile, converted nine third downs. Duce Staley ran for 125 yards. Ben Roethlisberger couldn't miss -- OK, he had six incompletions.

"You name it," Troy Brown said.

They did it. The Steelers were dominant, the Patriots dormant.

Sunday the Patriots will enjoy the return encounter in the AFC Championship game, a rematch of the 2002 conference title game won by New England, thanks to Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe.

"It's a long time ago, it seems," Patriots special teamer Larry Izzo said, laughing. "But we've gone on the road in the AFC Championship game before. It's going to be a tough game, like it was back then. We're going to have to play our best game."

Which should be an easier task given that the Patriots did exactly that against Indianapolis yesterday, holding football's top offense (32.6 points per game) to 3. The performance was vintage Patriots, given that most football analysts, both the real ones and self-anointed (read: Mike Vanderjagt) believed New England was susceptible.

"Everyone in this locker room took that personal," linebacker Willie McGinest said.

Asked if the experts will shift back into the Patriots' corner, McGinest said, "I hope not."

His hopes, at least initially, have been dashed. The Patriots, 1 1/2-point favorites at home against the AFC's third seed (Indianapolis), opened as 3-point favorites on the road against the AFC's No. 1 seed (Pittsburgh).

Few Patriots had much to say about the Steelers, saying the team's focus up until about 8 p.m. last night was on Indianapolis. Linebacker Ted Johnson said he watched Saturday's Jets-Steelers game on TV but didn't sit down with pen and paper.

"That's probably part of my problem," Johnson said, when probed for analysis. "When I'm home, I'm watching as a fan."

He will not be a fan come Sunday. He'll be looking to avenge what was the most anti-Patriot performance of the season. They fumbled three times, losing two. Brady was picked off twice. Numbers like that made Dillon's absence a nonfactor.

"When you turn the ball over like we did it doesn't matter who's out there, who's not, it's going to be hard to win," Izzo said.

The Patriots allowed 21 points in the first quarter that day. They'd allowed only 10 total in first quarters of their first six games, all of which they'd won.

"We have to play a hell of a lot better," Johnson added.

Asked if the Patriots learned anything that day, whether the Steelers exploited anything that New England later fixed, Johnson said no.

"They just kicked our [butts]," he said. "I don't think it's anything crazy from a schematic standpoint. They got the ball rolling early. We weren't able to get off the field on third down. I remember that. They hammered it on us."

But that was October, and it was 64 degrees in western Pennsylvania, and the Patriots were facing adversity for the first time. Sunday, it will be colder. Dillon (144 yards rushing yesterday) will be healthy. Brown will be patrolling the secondary and feeling comfortable doing it. And the Steelers will be playing a rookie quarterback in the AFC Championship game.

But the Patriots hadn't had time to think about much of that last week or yesterday, especially when many people were considering Indianapolis-New England the postseason's marquee game.

"Getting through last week was a big challenge," Izzo said. "If we'd been looking ahead I don't think we would have had much success. The Steelers have gone on, had a heck of a regular season, secured the home field. We have to go down there. It's going to be a tough game."

The Patriots allowed only 16.2 points per game this season. Factor in the field conditions in Pittsburgh -- where no one has ever hit a field goal of longer than 50 yards in Heinz Field history -- and this one could be 6-6 going into overtime.

"It could be," Izzo said. "Two teams battling it out for the right to go to the Super Bowl."