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Steelers in focus

Bill Belichick opened his Wednesday press conference (10:45 a.m. EDT) by summing up the Patriots’ opponent this Sunday –- the 2-0 Pittsburgh Steelers.

“Been watching the Steelers here the last couple days, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen a more dominating team than what Pittsburgh’s been these first two regular-season games,” Belichick said.

“They haven’t even been in a competitive game. They had a lot of the same kind of success in preseason. Had the best record in football last year in the regular season. I think Bill (Cowher) really has this team playing at top efficiency, especially this early in the season. They haven’t been stopped on offense. They’ve created all kinds of problems on defense. They’re playing very well in the kicking game. They’ve had big returns from all sorts of different guys -- (Ike) Taylor … (Antwaan) Randle-El. The kicker (Jeff Reed) hasn’t missed a field goal in I don’t know how long. It’s a very solid team. They have a couple new guys (from when we played them) – (right guard Kendall) Simmons is back, (nose tackle Casey) Hampton is back. They added a couple of young players and picked up (free agent receiver Cedrick) Wilson. Guys like that.

“But it’s the same basic core of people we’ve seen before. They all seem to be functioning very well together, playing extremely well. They’re pretty tough. I think Bill has done a great job with this team, the way they’ve played the first two games is pretty much flawless. Again, it hasn’t even been competitive.

“The first thing we’re going to have to do is just find a way to stay competitive in the game, because it’s been over by halftime (in the Steelers' first two games). We saw that last year, too, it was 21-3 at the end of the first quarter.”

Belichick was asked several questions about the Steelers and said the team runs the same offense it always has, and the key is stopping its efficiency. He said he hasn’t noticed any changes with running back Willie Parker (5-10, 209) getting the bulk of the carries instead of larger backs like Jerome Bettis (5-11, 255) or Duce Staley (5-11, 242).

Asked about teams responding well to losses over his coaching career, Belichick drew laughter from the media crowd. He started by repeating his often-stated claim that each week in the NFL is its own entity. He then recited stats often looked at –- such as the overall matchup between teams since they started playing or how a team plays in certain conditions or certain environment, and then said:

“You can do what you want with those numbers. I’ll tell you what I’d do with them.”

Off to check out the locker room. Will post another update later in the day.

--Mike