OK, so that’s not entirely fair. Seattle did, after all, lay an all-time whuppin’ on the Giants earlier this season. And they were smart enough to have the rancid Raiders on their dance card this Monday night, the perfect antidote for every three-game losing streak. And these were the same Raiders who beat the Steelers, not that that’s been all that difficult a task this year.

But if the Steelers have to take the heat for losing their composure, the Seahawks have to get their props for hanging in there with their big guns down. Now, with Alexander coming back perhaps as early as Week 10 and Hasselbeck not far behind, they’re looking pretty good, especially with five games left against San Francisco, Green Bay, Tampa and Arizona. Win those games and it’s 10 wins. Add a win against either the Rams, Broncos or Chargers, and they’re looking at a definite playoff berth.

Right now, that would be pretty remarkable for a team that a month ago didn’t look as if it had any more chance than the Steelers did of getting back to the NFL’s big game. I’m not saying that the Super Bowl is a lock. There are too many other good teams in the NFC to make the Seahawks even as good as even money.

But they have a chance, which is more than the Steelers have. Normally, we’d attribute it to the Super Bowl hangover that afflicts so many teams after winning the big one. But it could also be something in the Pennsylvania water: the previous year, the Eagles collapsed completely one year after playing in the big game.

But the Eagles had T.O. to deal with. The Steelers have no such distractions. Their only problem has been the series of injuries and illness that have robbed Roethlisberger of his effectiveness. It hasn’t helped that the team’s running game, with Jerome Bettis retired, isn’t as awesome as it once was, either.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more. more photos

Mostly, though, it’s a story of the way two teams have reacted to the hands they’ve been dealt. The Steelers haven’t coped well at all. The Seahawks have survived.

The season is only at the halfway mark, but Seattle is on its way toward a return to the playoffs while the team that beat them in Detroit is on it’s way toward a high first-round draft pick.