TODAY’S WILD-CARD PLAYOFF

INDIANAPOLIS (9-7) at PITTSBURGH (10-6)

Channel 4, 9:30 a.m.

* STORYLINE: This is a rematch of last season’s AFC championship game, when the upstart Colts came within a Jim Harbaugh Hail Mary pass of reaching the Super Bowl. The forecast calls for a contrast to a year ago, when snow fell in Pittsburgh for more than 90 consecutive hours during the week after Christmas. Today there is a chance of rain and temperatures in the 50s.

* INDIANAPOLIS UPDATE: History is against the Colts. They are 0-9 in Three Rivers Stadium, 0-3 against the Steelers in the playoffs and haven’t beaten them in 12 years. They are 1-10 against them since 1978. Harbaugh, whose rating is down 30 points from a year ago, is bothered by a troublesome knee, and Marshall Faulk, a two-time 1,000-yard rusher hampered by a toe injury, averages only 3.0 yards per carry. “This team responds well when a pistol is pointed at our heads,” nose tackle Tony McCoy said.

* PITTSBURGH UPDATE: Quarterback Neil O’Donnell and running back Bam Morris helped the Steelers reach the Super Bowl, but they were replaced by Mike Tomczak and Jerome Bettis. Tomczak passed for 2,767 yards and 15 touchdowns, but was intercepted 17 times. Bettis was the battering ram of the Steeler offense, rushing for 1,431 yards and 11 touchdowns. Look for the Steelers to try to control the game with Bettis since the Colts had problems defending the run the second half of the season. After limiting opponents to an average of 85.3 yards on the ground in its first seven games, Indianapolis yielded 129.2 yards rushing over the last nine games.

* THE LINE: Pittsburgh by 8 1/2