Bill Cowher's eyes have seen the glory of six straight playoff campaigns and an appearance in Super Bowl XXX. The Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach has also witnessed the horror of two consecutive losing seasons and endured widespread grumbling that he has lost his iron grip.
|  | | Head coach Bill Cowher has the Steelers back in playoff contention. |
Perhaps that's why the stoic, lantern-jawed coach didn't panic when the Steelers stumbled out of the box with three losses. Perhaps that is why he isn't turning handsprings on the sidelines after Pittsburgh won its fifth consecutive game last Sunday.
"There's a lot of football to be played," Cowher said with a laugh on Monday afternoon. "At the start of the season, we just couldn't finish games. Four or five weeks ago, nobody thought we'd be here. Because of where we were, we've been able to develop a perspective.
"The last thing we want to do is find ourselves five weeks from now where we were at the beginning of the season."
This is the voice of reason. Composure is probably too strong a word for the fiery coach. Cowher is in his ninth season with the Steelers -- only Minnesota's Dennis Green has been with the same team for as long -- and has compiled a tidy 87-60 record. Believe it or not, his winning percentage (.592) is superior to the .572 that Chuck Noll fashioned in his 23-year stay in Pittsburgh that featured four Super Bowl victories between 1974-79.
As the NFL reaches the season's midpoint, the Steelers, a lowly 6-10 a year ago, are one of the more remarkable stories. As the competitive field in the NFL becomes more level each season, there are more and more surprises -- both good and bad. Despite Pittsburgh's dramatic breakthrough, there are five teams with comparable turnarounds.
By extrapolating a team's midseason record across a full, 16-game regular season and comparing that to the 1999 record, you have a reasonable (albeit imperfect) measuring stick. By this standard, the New Orleans Saints (see chart) are the season's biggest surprise. A lowly 3-13 a year ago, the Saints have won four straight games on the stout legs of Ricky Williams and the NFL's No. 1-ranked defense. New Orleans stands 5-3 at the halfway mark, a pace that adds up to a 10-6 record.
The Raiders (7-1), Giants (6-2), Jets (6-2) and Vikings (7-1) have all made similar improvements.
On the downside, you will find the Jacksonville Jaguars, who hit the midpoint at 2-6 after going 14-2 a year ago. San Diego, 8-8 a year ago, is the league's only winless team. Seattle, New England and Chicago have all fallen well short of projections.
The Jaguars, despite ending a five-game losing streak with a gutsy 23-17 game in overtime Sunday at Dallas, find themselves a troublesome 3-6.
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Five best turnarounds
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Team
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W-L
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Proj.
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'99
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Diff.
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Saints
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5-3
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10-6
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3-13
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+7
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Raiders
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7-1
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14-2
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8-8
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+6
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Giants
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6-2
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12-4
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7-9
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+5
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Steelers
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5-3
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10-6
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6-10
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+4
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Jets
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6-2
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12-4
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8-8
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+4
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Vikings
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7-1
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14-2
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10-6
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+4
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No one takes the losses harder than Michael Huyghue, the Jaguars' senior vice president of football operations. "Finally," Huyghue sighed earlier this week, "we got a win."
Jacksonville has been crushed by injuries to key players (Jimmy Smith, Leon Searcy, Fred Taylor, Carnell Lake and Hardy Nickerson). Huyghue acknowledged the toll has been difficult to overcome.
"I think what you're seeing league-wide is not so much a function of parity, but attrition," he said. "Teams are top-heavy, and when you lose even one of your top 10 marquee players, you will see some dropoff. The reality is, St. Louis is going to be a different team without Kurt Warner. The Titans are definitely a different team without Eddie George in there. Dallas, when Troy Aikman went out, is a different team. One guy, more than ever before, can make all the difference.
"The system today doesn't allow you to have much depth, so when we lose seven starters due to injury, there's a huge impact. We lost so many guys, but we've been reasonably competitive."
The Saints are a flawed team, but play hard under new head coach Jim Haslett. They allowed season-high totals for yards (394), first downs (24) and third-down conversions (10), but managed to beat Arizona 21-10 on Sunday. Their lean schedule suggests a playoff berth is quite possible.
Oakland head coach Jon Gruden was .500 (16-16) in his first two seasons, but he seems to be following the career trajectory of Tennessee's Jeff Fisher, who was 8-8 for three consecutive seasons before last year's blowout Super Bowl season.
While the Raiders were expected to compete for the AFC West title, no such expectations were placed on the Giants. Nevertheless, they find themselves in first place in the NFC East, a half-game ahead of the more celebrated Washington Redskins.
"When you go through the offseason and you have sexy signings and promotions and this guy and that guy, some people get more publicity," Giants head coach Jim Fassel said Monday. "It has never bothered me too much. We're 6-2. If you look around the league, that puts us up near the front of the class as far as wins, knowing we can get better.
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Five worst turnarounds
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Team
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W-L
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Proj.
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'99
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Diff.
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Jaguars
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2-6
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4-12
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14-2
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-10
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Chargers
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0-8
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0-16
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8-8
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-8
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Seahawks
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2-6
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4-12
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9-7
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-5
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Patriots
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2-6
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4-12
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8-8
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-4
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Bears
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1-7
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2-14
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6-10
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-4
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"If people want to leave us in the background, we'll just keep going about our business. I think we can play with most people who have that record."
The Giants' co-tenants at Giants Stadium, the New York Jets, are one of three AFC East teams with that identical 6-2 record. Their four fourth-quarter comebacks have put them in the race with the Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins.
And what more can you say about Green's Vikings? Picked by most to finish third or fourth in the NFC Central, they are en fuego at 7-1, three games ahead of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After all the preseason hype, who would have believed that?
There is similar disbelief in Seattle, where Mike Holmgren's plan to build Green Bay West hasn't been going so well. The Seahawks made the playoffs last year with a 9-7 record, but quarterback problems and the AFC's most generous defense have added up to a 2-6 record. Rebuilding is a word that comes up a lot these days in the Pacific Northwest.
The Bears, 6-10 last year, were the chic preseason choice of many prognosticators to break through and make the playoffs, but it won't happen this year. Only Cincinnati and Cleveland have scored fewer points than the Bears' 110.
Oddly enough, the Steelers aren't much better with 130 points scored by the unsteady hands of Kordell Stewart and Kent Graham. It's just that they have the league's best defense with respect to points allowed (84). This post-modern Steel Curtain gives teams a measly average of a touchdown and a field goal a game. The 9-6 victory over Baltimore on Sunday underlined Pittsburgh's physical and mental tenacity.
It is indicative of this squirrelly NFL season that the Ravens are 5-4 and alive in the playoff hunt despite going five games without a touchdown. The Steelers, for their part, aren't under any illusions, either.
"Anything can happen because it's all in front of us," Cowher said. "We worked hard to put ourselves in this position. But when you look at it, we haven't done anything yet."
Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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