AFC

The hurtin’ curtain

The Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-6, but they’re headed for a victory today against New Orleans.

Joey Porter, Pittsburgh’s outspoken linebacker, guarantees it.

“You know me,” Porter told reporters, “I want to put some of the pressure on my shoulder for us to go out and get this victory: We will come back with a victory on Sunday.”

The Steelers are tied with the 1999 Denver Broncos and 1987 New York Giants for worst midseason record by a defending Super Bowl champion.

“I’m embarrassed,” receiver Hines Ward, the reigning Super Bowl most valuable player, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I can’t speak for other players. Me, personally, myself? Yes, I’m embarrassed. I mean, to be 2-6? There’s nothing fun about being 2-6. Especially when you go out there and you put it all on the line to try to win ballgames, yet for whatever reason you can’t find a way to win games.”

He can come

home again

When Baltimore plays at Tennessee today, it will mark the return of Ravens quarterback Steve McNair, who spent 11 seasons with the Titans/Oilers and in many ways was the face of the franchise.

Players on both teams said they’re expecting McNair will get a warm welcome, at least before the game starts.

Said his replacement in Tennessee, rookie quarterback Vince Young: “It’s going to be a little bit different than Terrell Owens going back to Philadelphia.”

Only his mouth

was running

Oakland Raiders running back LaMont Jordan questioned his team’s play-calling after a 16-0 loss to Seattle on Monday in which the Raiders threw the ball 40 times and ran it 13 -- twice on quarterback scrambles.

Later in the week, though, he was far more careful about expressing his displeasure.

“I think the best thing for me to do is just keep my mouth shut and show up for work every day and go out and do my job on Sunday,” Jordan told reporters. “And what is called is called. I just hope we are put in the best position to be successful.”

Back to the Bungles?

At 4-4, Cincinnati is two games behind Baltimore in the AFC North and looking to bounce back after consecutive losses. They have lost four of their last five after starting 3-0. But don’t point the finger at quarterback Carson Palmer, receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh says.

“I don’t think it has to do with Carson as much as it has to do with everyone,” Houshmandzadeh told reporters. “Again, ya’ll give the quarterback way too much credit when things go good. When things go bad, everybody wants to look at the QB. It’s everybody. Carson’s nothing without the o-line. We’re nothing without him. He’s nothing without us. Everybody has to be on the same page.”

Palmer has no interceptions in his last three home games, and 27 touchdown passes in his last 14 home games.

But he faces San Diego today, and the Chargers are no pushovers, even with linebacker Shawne Merriman serving a four-game suspension for using a banned substance.

“It’s still good,” Palmer said of the Chargers defense. “With Merriman -- he’s a beast back there, watching film. His suspension couldn’t have come at a better time for us, personally. I was excited to see that. But it’s still a very good defense.”

Rip-roaring

replacement

Most fans know that Kansas City quarterback Damon Huard is having a very good season. What they probably don’t know is that he is on a near-record pace.

Huard’s 105.2 passer rating is the second best since 1970 for a quarterback who didn’t begin the season as a starter (with a minimum of 200 pass attempts), according to STATS LLC.

The best was 106.0 by Minnesota’s Randall Cunningham in 1998, then Huard, followed by Dallas’ Roger Staubach in 1971, 104.8; the New York Jets’ Chad Pennington in 2002, 104.2; and Trent Green, the player Huard replaced, who had a 101.8 rating for St. Louis in 2000.

-- Sam Farmer