pittsburgh gazette

Links from Pittsburgh on the Steelers perspective entering Sunday's game against the Patriots:


The Steelers lead the NFL in total defense, having allowed just three 200-yard passers and only one pass longer than 40 yards this season. Including past seasons, the unit has surrendered just two 100-yard rushers in the last 62 games. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette examines the success of the Steelers' D.


The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette shines a spotlight on the injury status of safety Troy Polamalu and notes that if Polamalu (knee) can't play, Tyrone Carter will step in. "Ty has played consistently for us," defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau told the newspaper. "He steps in there and we do everything we do with Troy."


After two games at soggy Heinz Field, running back Willie Parker is looking forward to running on a better playing surface at Gillette Stadium, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes.


Two writers from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review have their point/counterpoint and open by discussing the guarantee of a victory by safety Anthony Smith.


The Steelers plan to play physical with receiver Randy Moss, as safety Tyrone Carter tells the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that "I know he doesn't like to get hit, man. I played with him in Minnesota (2000-02). The main thing he had problems with was when guys got in his face, jamming him at the line, hitting him when they got a chance and getting him off his normal pace. I think that rattles him a little bit."Marc USA hired Jon Galatis, manager, direct response marketing; Michael Lux, interactive production artist; and Britton Karon, assistant interactive producer. Justin Schuler was promoted to interactive producer.

Associations & Organizations

Pittsburgh Regional Minority Purchasing Council elected as chairman Gary L. Evans, senior vice president and director, Supply Chain Management, and named to its board Richard F. Carr, the global director for the Procurement Center of Excellence at Alcoa.

Banking & Finance

TriState Capital appointed Paul Oris and Debra Flinner senior vice presidents.

Education

Cynthia A. Reynolds was appointed to the board of Northwestern Business College.

Manufacturing

Koppers Inc. appointed Travis Gross sales representative for railroad products and services.

Chris Bezaire was named vice president, advanced Sclairtech technology and licensing, Nova Chemicals Corp.

Tube City IMS Corp. promoted Robert Subasic, vice president, financial operations; Michael McGraw, vice president, information technology; and Kirk Peters, vice president, financial reporting, all based in the Glassport office.

Nonprofit

The Children's Home of Pittsburgh & Lemieux Family Center appointed Meghan O'Donnell, medical social worker for The Children's Home, and Katelyn Knox, educational coordinator at Child's Way.

The Sarah Heinz House, a Boys & Girls Club, named board officers: chairperson, Pamela Meadowcroft; vice chairman, Gary Matson; secretary, Sheila Collins; and treasurer, Geoff Stillson. Sharon Cowden was named to the board.

Sarah Goldstein, training specialist, Community Care, was named to the Governor's Advisory Committee on People with Disabilities.

Guaranteed, the New England Patriots are headed for perfection.

You heard it here first.

Or perhaps you didn't.

This hardly is the first assertion of this sort about this team in this season for the ages. And it won't be the last. Climbing out on this limb is easy.

Now 13-0 after yesterday's highly impressive and brutally efficient 34-13 defeat of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Patriots' remaining schedule is hardly daunting � home to the 3-10 New York Jets and 0-13 Miami Dolphins before finishing in New Jersey against the 9-4 New York Giants.

The thing about guarantees is anybody can make them.

Talk is cheap.

As Pats quarterback Tom Brady puts it, using what he says has become his team's unofficial motto, "Well done is better than well said."

Walk the walk (oh come on, strut a little!) all the way into the record books. You paying attention, 1972 Dolphins?

Coming off three games in their last four in which they won by four points or less, the Patriots appeared to at least one member of the Steelers � safety Anthony Smith � to be ripe for the picking.

Smith is no Joe Namath, the legendary playboy quarterback made famous for guaranteeing that his underdog New York Jets would win the 1969 Super Bowl over the heavily favoured Baltimore Colts. For one thing, Namath was a bona fide star and played the one position most suited to the issuing of ultimatums and proclamations and money-back, no-questions-asked guar-an-told-you-so-tees.

For another, he delivered.

Until Smith guaranteed his team would deal the Patriots their first taste of defeat yesterday, most football fans had no idea who he was.

Brady, who will certainly join Namath in the Hall of Fame when his career is done, said: "I didn't know who he was until we started preparing for them (the Steelers)."

But after Brady threw his first of four touchdown passes, he made a point of getting in Smith's face, mouthing sweet somethings. Smith later bit deep and hard on a flea-flicker-style circus play involving Randy Moss that saw Brady loft a long touchdown pass over Smith's coverage to Jabbar Gaffney. Gaffney, too, barked at Smith. The hounds were out.

You don't tug on SuperBrady's cape and get away with it. (And I guarantee Brady will be MVP or I'll eat this page and all of New England will secede from the U.S. of A.)

Smith, a second-year pro with few NFL credentials, tugged on the cape when he said last week: "Yeah, I can guarantee a win. As long as we come out and do what we got to do. Both sides of the ball are rolling and if our special teams come through for us, we've got a good chance to win."

He and his teammates did not "do what we got to do." They did to start the game, with their No.1-ranked defence pressuring Brady, actually enjoying an edge in possession in the early going and trailing only 17-13 at the half.

But as has happened so often this season, the Patriots shredded another opponent while their defence held fast. The dominance was back, rekindling that talk of perfection, of becoming the first team to run the table since the Dolphins went 17-0 in 1972.

Notably, it was the Pittsburgh press that tracked down some of the old Fish prior to this game.

One, Bob Kuechenberg, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he was cheering for a Pittsburgh upset.

"However, if they do go 19-0 I will be the first to congratulate them, buy them a pitcher of beer and let them know they can park their vehicle right behind ours. We have the first parking spot and they'd have the second."

One thing is for sure, guaranteed even: the Patriots are in the driver's