PITTSBURGH -- The eyebrows on Tim Lewis' expressive face arch and he cannot suppress the laugh that has already started somewhere deep inside.

The Steelers' defensive coordinator shakes his head as he searches for an answer to the ridiculously obvious question a reporter has dropped hesitantly in his lap.

"Sense of urgency," he said Thursday with deliberation, letting the cliché hang in the air. "At 0-2, in this town, with two weeks off to hear about it, with the Super Bowl expectations that were placed on us in the preseason, with our head coach? Playing Cleveland? Sense of urgency ? what do you think?

"Yes, I'd say there's a sense of urgency for Sunday's game."

	Stewart has thrown three TDs and four INTs this season.

Ordinarily, only a hyperbolic media frenzy would cast the third game of the season as urgent, as a must-win. But this 100th meeting of the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday at Heinz Field is a massive one for the Steelers. It could -- and this is no exaggeration -- make or break their season.

This is because the Steelers, the chic preseason choice for the AFC Super Bowl entry, are 0-2. Coming off a bye week in which head coach Bill Cowher has, well, let's just say he's pointed out their many flaws in meetings and practice sessions, the Steelers really need to win. They are painfully aware -- as the Rams discovered last Monday night -- of the history that is against them if they fall to 0-3.

No team has reached the Super Bowl after falling into that kind of hole.

"We know where we're at," said linebacker Joey Porter. "We can't fall to 0-3."

In fact, the playoffs are problematic at 0-3. Since the merger in 1970, 59 teams started out a season at 0-3. Only five ultimately made the playoffs: The 1981 Jets, the 1982 Buccaneers, the 1992 Chargers, the 1995 Lions and, most recently, the 1998 Bills. Buffalo rallied to win 10 of its final 13 games and secured a playoff berth with a 10-6 record.

It wasn't just that the Steelers lost their first two games, it was the way they lost them -- both in prime time. The top-ranked defense a year ago was passed over by the Patriots and Raiders, with an average of 54 attempts, 36 completions and 348.5 yards. That leaves Pittsburgh with the 30th-ranked defense in terms of yards allowed.

After the Cincinnati Bengals successfully spread out the Steelers' lethal run defense last season, the Patriots and Raiders amped up that strategy to an extreme degree. By employing the no-huddle offense and deploying three, four and five targets, they turned the Steelers' two best pass rushers -- outside linebackers Jason Gildon and Porter -- into pass defenders. The Steelers were surprised.

"It's really something that we hadn't anticipated," Gildon said. "We didn't spend much time on it, so it kind of caught us off guard. You're out there all day in the slot against Jerry Rice and Troy Brown, it's tough."

That passive response will not be the Steelers' approach on Sunday. For two weeks now, they have been devising an antidote to the spread offense. Rest assured, Gildon and Porter will go after Cleveland quarterback Tim Couch.

"We took it back to the drawing board," Porter explained. "They won't see the three-man rush against five (offensive) people. It will look like that, but seven people will be coming, or six people will be coming. We have ways of getting back to what we do best, coming after the quarterback.

"I'm tired of going against these guys all day in practice. I'm looking forward to seeing another face, and what face is better than Tim Couch."

The Browns, however, like the Patriots and Raiders before them, have the necessary weapons to succeed. Couch was terrific in last week's overtime victory at Tennessee, completing 36 of 50 passes for 326 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Wide receivers Kevin Johnson (21 catches for 236 yards and one touchdown in three games), Quincy Morgan (16, 233 and two TDs) and rookie André Davis (12, 150, four TDs) are extremely dangerous.

Overlooked in the postmortems of the defense has been the Steelers' extremely shaky offense. There have been a league-high 10 turnovers in two games; by comparison, Cowher pointed out Thursday that Pittsburgh had only 12 turnovers in the first 14 games a year ago.

Cowher sat down quarterback Kordell Stewart last week and told him if he didn't start playing better, Tommy Maddox would get the call. The turnovers have robbed the Steelers' offense of its rough-and-tumble identity. They need to get Jerome Bettis (18 carries, 76 yards) going against the Browns.

Oddly enough, while the Steelers acknowledge a sense of urgency, there is nothing -- outside of the ubiquitous talk-radio chatter -- bordering on hysteria here in the Steel City. Maybe it's because the Steelers have been here before. Figuratively, if not literally.

The Steelers, in recent years, have weathered some slow starts. In 1993, Cowher's second team opened at 0-2, then won nine of 14 games to make the playoffs as a 9-7 wild card. In 1995, they started 3-4 and, after winning eight of nine, eventually reached Super Bowl XXX before losing to Dallas. But that team opened 2-0.

In 1989, Chuck Noll's squad opened 0-2, won nine of 14 and made the playoffs at 9-7. In 1976, Noll's team started 1-4 and, despite a 14-game schedule, reached the AFC championship by winning nine straight, five by shutout. There are some who believe that, despite the lack of a Super Bowl trophy, 1976 was the Steelers' best team ever.

And what of this Steelers team? There is a sense of calm among the veterans, who have endured those previous awkward starts. The numbers are against them but they seem confident.

Since 1999, 26 teams have started 0-2 and only one made the playoffs. That team was the 2001 Patriots and, even after a 1-3 start, we know how their season turned out. The fact is, after Cleveland and next week's difficult game at New Orleans, the Steelers' schedule is cake. There are two games each with Cincinnati and the suddenly mortal Ravens, plus contests with Houston, Carolina, Tennessee, Jacksonville and Indianapolis.

A win over Cleveland would put the Steelers just one game out of first place in the benign AFC North, where the collective record is 2-8.

"Here we are, in only the third week of the season, talking like we're not going to the playoffs," said safety Lee Flowers. "It's hard because there are so many expectations in this city. We're facing adversity right now, we're testing our manhood, basically."

Greg Garber is a senior writer at ESPN.com.