In football you have to have a short memory. You can't dwell on the losses or celebrate the wins for long. Most coaches have a 24-hour rule, come in the day after the game and watch film, and then move forward and focus on the upcoming opponent.
The Steelers are definitely abiding by that rule this week, putting the 35-7 loss to the Ravens behind them and focusing on the Seattle Seahawks.
"I forgot about it already," said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. "I looked at it. It was a couple of days ago and I forget everything since then.
"I was taking to Coach (Dick) LeBeau and told him we used our mulligan on the first tee, we'll take our penalty stroke and we have 17 more holes to birdie."
Wide receiver Hines Ward knows that it wasn't a Steelers-like performance in Baltimore and is looking forward to getting back to the winning ways he expects from the team.
"That game is behind us," said Ward. "We are just worrying about Seattle. The guys in this locker room know how bad we played. The season is long, it's the first game. Are we excited about how we played, no. We are embarrassed about it.
"There is nothing we can do about it. We have to continue to work hard. Seattle is coming in and we want to start our streak being dominant at home."
Fans and some media hit the panic button following the Steelers loss, but in the locker room, there is no sense of panic whatsoever.
"There is no panic coming from this group," said Roethlisberger. "We know we had a bad day. I hate to take anything away from Baltimore, but we had a bad day, we didn't play well. I particularly didn't play well at all. It's frustrating. The week leading up to the game, I felt better than I ever felt and I felt good out there, felt real comfortable. It didn't come together.
"I think we are all entitled to a bad day now and then. We just move on."
Nose tackle Casey Hampton was asked on Wednesday about comments made by teammate Lawrence Timmons during his weekly radio show when he said Hampton was targeted with illegal chop blocks against the Ravens.
Hampton, who said nothing about it to officials during the game, did confirm that Ravens center Matt Birk and guards Ben Grubbs and Marshal Yanda were doing it throughout the game even though they weren't penalized.
"It is what it is, I don't cry about stuff like that," said Hampton. "They were doing it a lot or trying to do it a lot. At times, I got out of it. It's kind of tough when you're engaged with a guy, and you're not even worried about the guard and they come and just chop your legs out. That's kind of tough. There's nothing you can do about that."
One of the challenges the Steelers defense will face this week is going against Seattle quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, who can hurt you in multiple ways.
"The difficult part about preparing for him is he can run just as well as he can pass," said linebacker James Harrison. "You have to be able to keep him contained and not lose containment because he can kill you with his legs, too."
While Jackson presents a challenge for the defense, Seattle knows they will have their hands full with the Steelers defense, including safety Troy Polamalu.
"Nobody knows what he is going to do but him," said Jackson. "I don't think the guys on their defense know. He is a guy that plays off instincts. If he sees something coming he is going to go for it. That's what makes him the player he is. He has a hunch; he will probably follow the hunch.
"Sometimes he makes plays and sometimes he doesn't. You can't just really depend on him to be where you think he will be. For certain defenses he might be here. And he might be there."
Wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery (hamstring) and guard Chris Kemoeatu (knee) did not practice on Wednesday. Cornerbacks Curtis Brown (ankle) and Bryant McFadden (hamstring) were limited in practice.
