FOXBORO, Mass. – Bill Belichick doesn’t mince words about how the Pittsburgh Steelers dominated the New England Patriots when last they met.

“They handled us in the secondary. They handled us in the front. They handled us on the offensive line. They pretty much handled us everywhere,” the New England coach said. “They played and coached way better than we did on that day.”

Despite the Steelers’ decisive 34-20 victory on Halloween, their 15-game winning streak and their home field advantage for Sunday’s rematch in the AFC Championship Game, the Patriots have been declared 3-point favorites by Las Vegas.

The oddsmakers seem to be putting more weight on the absence of running back Corey Dillon in that Oct. 31 game than the final outcome. The outcome of last week’s divisional games, in which Pittsburgh squeaked by the New York Jets in overtime and New England dominated the Indianapolis Colts, might have influenced the line as well.

But the Pittsburgh Steelers are not the Indianapolis Colts, as Belichick was quick to point out. “They are a very physical team,” he said. “They work a lot of play action passes. They have an outstanding core of physical receivers. (Hines) Ward and (Plaxico) Burress are two of the biggest guys in the league that will really come in there and blow you up in the running game and after the catch. It is just a totally different style of play, offensively.”

While Indianapolis’ offense depended greatly on quarterback Peyton Manning’s pre-snap reads and audibles, Pittsburgh’s approach is simple and straight-forward – pound the ball on the ground, pass off play action and control the clock behind one of the league’s best offensive lines.

Pittsburgh’s rushing offense finished second in the NFL (154 yards per game) by featuring Jerome Bettis and Deuce Staley. Coming off a bye week, the Steelers gained 221 yards rushing, led by Stayley’s 125 yards on 25 carries. Steelers’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger also threw two first quarter touchdowns.

“You’re really put in a bind with Pittsburgh in terms of trying to defend the running game (with) two good backs and probably as good an offensive line as there is in the league with all of the elements of the passing game, the play action, the multiple receiver sets that they use in passing downs,” Belichick said.

“They don’t have a lot of flaws in their system,” said New England linebacker Willie McGinest. “They have a lot of good players and they are well coached.”

Roethlisberger made some poor throws against the Jets last week, tossing two interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. Add in the fact that since 2001, Belichick is 13-0 when facing a quarterback for the second time in a season, and Roethlisberger may be considered a weakness for the New England defense to exploit.

Don’t count Belichick among those who think the rookie’s struggles will continue, however.

“(Roethlisberger) hasn’t lost a game,” Belichick said. “I wouldn’t expect anything but another good performance from him.”

New England’s chances of pressuring Roethlisberger and stopping the Steelers’ running game will improve if Pro Bowl defensive lineman Richard Seymour returns from a knee injury that kept him out of the Colts’ game. Belichick said Monday that Seymour was “getting better” but didn’t comment on his prospects for playing in Pittsburgh.

As difficult as it is to stop Pittsburgh’s running game, it’s even harder to get anything going on the ground against its top-ranked rushing defense (81.2 yards per game) and no one knows this better than the Patriots. Minus Dillon, New England gained just five yards rushing against the Steelers in October.

“We just couldn’t get anything done against them. That’s the bottom line,” Belichick said. “That day, they played a lot better run defense than we did (running) the ball.”

“We’re going to play a team that really handed it to us the first time we played them” said Patriots QB Tom Brady, who had an interception returned for a touchdown by Deshea Townsend in the first game. “They have a defense that’s very good against the run. They have some playmakers in the secondary. They’re 16-1 this year. It’s going to be our toughest challenge.”

New England’s heralded coaching staff had two weeks to prepare for the Colts. Belichick admitted they didn’t spend much time game-planning for Pittsburgh in the two weeks between the end of the regular season and the division playoffs. But he doesn’t think the Patriots will have much catching up to do to prepare for their third conference championship game in four years.

“When you win 15 in a row, you don’t scrap everything you are doing,” he said. You’ve been successful doing it, so a lot of that continues to carry over.”

“I don’t think we’ll see anything different this Sunday,” he added. “Certainly there are some specifics that could get tuned up here or there, but I think the Steelers are the Steelers.”