Get Ready

Can you imagine the meetings at the Steelers’ practice facility yesterday?

Bob Ligashesky, the Steelers’ beleaguered special teams coach, must have been sweating under the bright lights.

Because … on Sunday, it doesn’t get any easier.

It’s not that the Jets are a better team than the Browns. But their return specialist, Leon Washington, just might be even better than the mercurial Joshua Cribbs, who tallied 90- and 100-yard kickoff returns this past Sunday and almost single-handedly catapulted the Browns into a first-place tie with the Steelers in the AFC North.

Already this season, Washington has scored on returns of 86, 98 and 98 yards, and he’s averaging 33.5 yards per return.

Familiar Faces

• The Jets must like cornerbacks from Pitt: Hank Poteat (!) starts on one side, and rookie Darrelle Revis on the other. Revis, whom the Jets selected with the 14^th overall pick in the first round of April’s draft, was taken with the choice immediately preceding the Steelers pick, which was spent on Lawrence Timmons (which now seems kind of pointless). In addition to playing corner, Revis may return some punts, although Washington seems entrenched there.

• The Jets will honor Curtis Martin (all-around good guy, surefire Hall of Famer and Pittsburgh native who attended Taylor-Allderdice High and the University of Pittsburgh).
  

• With the Browns’ resurgence, head coach Romeo Crennel probably has saved his job, even with Bill Cowher lurking in the shadows. Of course, if Bill Cowher had been coaching the Browns on Sunday, he would have had Ricardo Colclough returning punts and kickoffs instead of Josh Cribbs.

More on Sunday’s game with the Jets later.