The Ravens play at Cincinnati Sunday and then have three of their final four at home. The Steelers follow their game at New England with two of four on the road, including one at Baltimore.

If the Steelers lost at New England, they will have lost to both the Patriots and Colts, two teams vying for wild-card berths, and the possibility that if they don't win their division, they'll lose the tiebreaker for a wild card.

"This is that stretch of the year that you can't afford to split," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. "You've got to play great football. This is when the veterans need to step up and the rookies need to see what it's about. Because the AFC is so tight, so many teams are separated by a game or half a game, or two games, you really can't afford to have that lull right now. That's why this game is so important to us as I'm sure it is to the Patriots as well."

The Steelers head to New England -- where they have lost four straight -- with the NFL's No. 1 defense and an offense that has been all over the map. Their fate will rise and fall on the competence of their offense, not only against the Patriots but the rest of the season.

The Steelers rank just 26th in the NFL on offense and their once-proud running game is 24th. Willie Parker has a swollen knee and even if he plays he won't be the same. They do not even try to run the way they used to. That would be OK if they had a good passing game, but it ranks 18th in the league and Roethlisberger has not been the same this season.

"We don't have all 11 guys on the same page," Hines Ward said. "We've gotten better, but we're just leaving plays out there. It's not fundamentals, it's assignment-wise, not on the same page, that's something we have to start doing, especially in the latter part of the year. We can't be messing up on run plays or pass plays that we've been running since training camp and that seems to be the case lately."

Roethlisberger has thrown 11 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. His 80.5 passer rating is 21st among NFL quarterbacks and way off from his team-record 104.1 last season.

"I think my stats aren't as up to par as I'd want them," Roethlisberger said. "And the running game, and I think our offense, we have kind of struggled throughout the year at times.

"It's about when you get hot and when do you start to put things together. The last couple of weeks, we've done a pretty good job offensively of scoring points and not turning the ball over and we just need to continue to do that."

SERIES HISTORY: 20th regular-season meeting, Steelers lead the series that began in 1972, 12-7, including a 3-2 record in New England. However, the Patriots are 3-1 against the Steelers in the postseason and have won six of their past seven overall meetings, including 34-13 in New England last season.