No surprises behind curtain

Patriots expecting head-on approach

FOXBOROUGH - A lot has changed in the NFL since 1995, but the Pittsburgh Steelers haven't changed a lot.

Out of curiosity, Patriots coach Bill Belichick decided to go back and revisit his notes on the Steelers - who face the Patriots today at Gillette Stadium in a game rife with AFC playoff implications - from his days as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, a position he held from 1991-95.

He found that while the names have changed, from Barry Foster to Willie Parker and from Greg Lloyd to LaMarr Woodley, the scheme is still largely the same: same blitzes on defense, same blocking scheme on offense, same excellent execution.

Pittsburgh is the polar opposite of the Patriots, who tailor their game plan and personnel on a week-to-week basis based on the opponent's strengths and weaknesses. The Steelers play one-size-fits-all football. They have no interest in trying to outfox opponents. They're trying to flatten them with aggressive, physical, efficient play.

For the Patriots to come away with a victory today, they can't rely on outwitting Pittsburgh with X's and O's; they have to win with the play of the Matt Lights and Jerod Mayos.

"Basically, they have that, 'We're going to line up and do this, and if you can stop us, stop us,' " said Patriots cornerback Deltha O'Neal, who faced Pittsburgh twice a year as a member of the Cincinnati Bengals from 2004-07.

Stopping is where it starts for the Steelers, who are atop the AFC North at 8-3. Pittsburgh leads the NFL in scoring defense (14.5 points per game), total defense (235.4 yards per game), passing defense (168.8 yards per game), and rushing defense (66.5 yards per game).

There's not a big secret to what the Steelers are going to do on defense. Defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau will dial up a bunch of blitzes to turn loose outside linebackers Woodley and James Harrison, who have combined for 22 1/2 sacks, and Pittsburgh, which is second in the NFL in sacks with 37, will try to pound Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel into submission or mistakes.

No quarterback can pass for 400 yards from flat on his back.

"The one thing, whenever they blitz, they have good blitzers," said Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. "It is not like they change all their blitzes every week. They run a lot of the same blitzes over and over.

"They have people that even if you have a guy there assigned to block the guy that is actually coming, you still have to stand in there and block him. They are not going to stop. They run through you. They run around you."

The Patriots defense faces a similar challenge.

The Steelers are going to try to run right through them, whether they have the services of Parker (questionable, knee) at running back or not. Pittsburgh uses the run to set up the play-action pass for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to take shots down the field to wide receivers Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes and tight end Heath Miller.

"They're going to run the ball," said defensive end Ty Warren. "We've just got to play the game the way we've been doing it as far as stopping the run and doing that consistently and try to make it a one-dimensional game because we know the run sets up everything they do offensively. That's our priority."

Pittsburgh's priority is simple: do what it does better than the other team.

"I would compare them to a Denver because Denver does what they do," Warren said. "Schematically, it's a different deal, but it's equivalent, where they're going to do what they do."

Warren said that in some ways preparing for a team like Pittsburgh is preferable to getting ready to go up against teams like the Dolphins and Jets, who always seem to have an extra wrinkle or two to throw at New England.

That's why Pittsburgh presents a different type of challenge, one that defensive end Richard Seymour said the Patriots are looking forward to meeting.

"They play the game the way the game is supposed to be played," said Seymour. "It's a team that I personally have a lot of respect for, because any time a team can just line up and say, 'Hey, this is what we're doing, we're not trying to trick you,' and feel like they're tougher than you, I think as a player you have a lot of respect for that. At least I do.

"So it will be a big challenge for us, and we're looking forward to it."

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com