Second Curse ... Same as the First

By MIKE PENNER

Nov. 1, 2004 12 AM PT

Four new things we now know about the Bambino:

He has a bookie.

From time to time, he curses him too.

Like many of us, when he starts to go stale on the baseball, he moves his action to football.

Recently overheard on his celestial cellphone: “Put me down for the Steelers. As you know, I’ve kind of taken a liking to this Roethlisberger kid.”

In New England, old sporting curses never die, they just relocate.

Fact: On the day after the Red Sox hold their once-in-a-couple-lifetimes championship parade, celebrating the end of an 85-year losing streak, the Patriots are defeated in Pittsburgh, 34-20, marking the end of a 21-game New England winning streak.

Fact: Combined, the Red Sox and the Patriots had gone 29-0 in their last 29 games, but that lasted only until the Patriots ran into rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and his personal 18-game winning streak -- 13-0 to close his collegiate career at Miami of Ohio and now 5-0 to open his professional career with the Steelers of Pittsburgh.

Fact: The Patriots, owners of the longest winning streak in NFL history, have not won a game since the Red Sox won the World Series.

Of course, we should have seen this coming.

Corey Dillon was hurt and did not play.

Ty Law limped off the field in the first quarter and did not return.

The Steelers are off to their best start since the ‘70s.

The Red Sox won the World Series on the night of a lunar eclipse.

Clearly, these were omens.

Chances are, the Patriots will regroup and mount another Super Bowl run. Dillon and Law will heal. Tom Brady will have better days; he doesn’t throw two interceptions -- one being returned 39 yards for a touchdown by Steeler cornerback Deshea Townsend -- in a game very often.

But as the season hits its halfway point, it’s clear the Patriots have a new challenger on the horizon -- especially now that we’ve taken a closer look at Indianapolis’ defense, shredded again Sunday in a 45-35 loss at Kansas City.

Pittsburgh is 6-1, same as New England, and hasn’t lost since Roethlisberger was pressed into the lineup by way of Tommy Maddox’s injury. The way Roethlisberger is playing, the rookie-of-the-year contest looks closed and Maddox looks like a valuable veteran backup to have on the bench during the playoffs.

Roethlisberger was 18 for 24 for 196 yards and two touchdowns against the Patriots. In his last two games -- against two 2003 playoff teams, Dallas and New England -- he is 39 for 49 (79%) for 389 yards with four touchdowns.

He is also only the second rookie quarterback since the 1970 merger to win his first five starts. Only Mike Kruczek, another Steeler rookie, in 1976, went 6-0 -- but he did that mostly by handing the ball to Franco Harris. Roethlisberger has passed for nine touchdowns during the Steelers’ best start since 1978.

Not bad for the third quarterback taken in last April’s draft. And here’s an update on the two quarterbacks chosen before Roethlisberger:

* Eli Manning, New York Giants. Watched Kurt Warner oversee an impressive 34-13 road victory over the Minnesota Vikings, keeping the Giants in strong playoff contention at 5-2.

* Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers. Watched Drew Brees complete 22 of 25 passes and throw for five touchdowns -- almost half of Brees’ 2003 touchdown pass total, 11 -- during a 42-14 rout of the Oakland Raiders.

Roethlisberger can equal Kruczek’s 6-0 standard this coming Sunday, but to do so, he will have to knock off another undefeated team, the last one left in the league this season, Philadelphia. The Eagles are 7-0 for the first time in club history after a 15-10 triumph over Baltimore -- the kind of score that suggested the Eagles, pre-Terrell Owens, and the Ravens, mid-Kyle Boller.

Owens played for the Eagles against the Ravens, scoring his obligatory touchdown and marking it with his obligatory Hey-Look-At-Me, The-Red-Sox-Haven’t-Cornered-The-Market-On-Idiots-Yet moment.

Every week, it’s something. This time, it was Owens taking a little slant pass from Donovan McNabb, maneuvering his way all of 11 yards into the end zone, and then mocking the ritualistic dance Raven linebacker Ray Lewis performs before home games.

Owens had every move down. Arms flapped. Legs churned. Blades of grass flew. Obviously, Owens had studied game film.

Lewis did not look pleased, continuing a disposition he has maintained since Owens balked at his off-season trade from San Francisco to Baltimore, forcing the Ravens to scramble and redirect Owens, as per his express wishes, to Philadelphia 12 days later.

See, in Owens’ own little world, where ink markers and pom-poms are essential football-playing accessories, Baltimore isn’t big enough for T.O. -- and T.O. surely wasn’t going to play for any team quarterbacked by Kyle Boller. T.O. needs his touches, he needs his touchdowns. With the Eagles, McNabb has hooked him up for nine scores, so nine times Owens has been able to play show-someone-up-and-tell in the end zone.

The only way to shut him up is to shut him out of the end zone. Therein lies the dilemma for the rest of the NFL in 2004. If you can’t shut him up, you will have to put up with him.

Sunday, two quarterbacks passed for five touchdowns, but only one won his game. The winner with five touchdown passes was Brees, whose Chargers are an equally surprising 5-3. Meanwhile, Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning also threw for five touchdowns -- and 472 yards -- and wound up losing by 10 points.

That’s because Trent Green passed for three touchdowns and Priest Holmes ran for three more as Kansas City racked up 590 yards against a Colt defense that has yielded 72 points in its last two games, both defeats. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are averaging 50.5 points a game in their last two games -- 45 against the Colts a week after scoring 56 against Atlanta.

And in a game that could have major national implications, the Washington Redskins lost at home to the Green Bay Packers, 28-14. Since 1936, without fail, the result of the Redskins’ last home game before a presidential election has accurately foreshadowed the election result. Every time the Redskins win that game, the party in power wins the election; whenever the Redskins lose, so do the incumbents.

The Democrats, Packer backers for just this Sunday, hope they can protect the streak better than the Patriots did in Pittsburgh.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Top Streaks

The streak is over, but the New England Patriots own two of the top winning streaks in the NFL (*then in AFL):

REGULAR SEASON

* 18 -- New England (2003-04)

* 17 -- Chicago Bears (1933-34)

* 16 -- Miami (1983-84)

* 16 -- Miami (1971-73)

* 16 -- Chicago Bears (1941-42)

* 15 -- San Francisco (1989-90)

* 15 -- L.A./S.D. Chargers* (1960-61)