Let’s get one thing out of the way first. The New England Patriots have more heart, more guts, more guile, more toughness and more brains, than the current Pittsburgh Steelers will ever dream of having.

That’s why there will always be hope with this team, though it would really help if they’d just stop shooting themselves in the foot so much.

The Patriots outplayed the Steelers and proved why they’re champions. Yet yesterday’s 23-20 war of attrition against the Steelers proved that it’s possible for a victory to be both stirring and sobering.

There were still 10 minutes left in the first half, the Patriots were trailing the Pittsburgh Steelers by just a field goal, and it was already shaping up as the worst day to be a Patriot fan in at least three years.

In fact, you may have to go all the way back to the final preseason game of 1989, when the Patriots lost Andre Tippett, Garin Veris and Ronnie Lippett to injuriesfor the season, to find a date nearly as depressing as yesterday was until the Patriots’ trademark resiliency checked in.

New England sports fans love finding scapegoats. So who do we blame for the triage the Patriots had to set up at Heinz Field? The training staff? The strength and conditioning coach? Can the Red Sox fire Dr. Bill Morgan again, just to quench our bloodlust?

Really, is it just bad luck that all of these injuries keep happening to one segment of the team?

If it it, and if you should come within 100 yards of a member of the secondary this fall, be sure to give them a wide berth. Your health may depend on it.

There’s jinxed, there’s snakebitten, and then there’s the plight of the Patriots defensive backs over the last year.

It only took one play for Duane Starks to go down, clutching his right wrist as he walked off the field. Two possessions later, a Steeler rolled into Rodney Harrison’s left leg, causing it to jut out at a sickeningly unnatural angle.

If the replays weren’t enough to send Patriot Nation into a collective state of shock, the look on Harrison’s face as he lay on the Heinz Field turf told us all we needed to know. Moments later, Bonnie Bernstein gave us the most comical sideline report since Eric Dickerson left broadcasting, that the Patriots were saying Harrison was questionable to return.

Per order of Bill Belichick, the Patriots are always as vague as they can be under the league rules when it comes to reporting injuries. It will be somewhat entertaining over the next few days and weeks to find out if he can insult our intelligence and make us disbelieve our, admittedly medically untrained, eyes, and convince us that Harrison stands any chance of returning to the field soon, if at all, this season.

Having had plenty of practice last year, at least the Pats and fans have learned to deal with a depleted secondary. It’s when the injuries start spilling over to the other side of the ball, as they did when Matt Light went down in the second quarter, that we really have to start asking ourselves, “Is it just not meant to be this year?”

Perhaps the more relevant question right now is, how much more can this team take? The offense lost one of its sparks when Charlie Weis left. Make no mistake, Weis’ value went beyond X’s and O’s. He was a supreme motivator who knew how to poke and prod the offense psychologically and emotionally, too.

Then, as we know too well, the defense lost its heart, Tedy Bruschi. Now it has to carry on without its soul. The defense can fill the leadership void with people like Willie McGinest, Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour, but Harrison embodies the chip on this team’s collective shoulder, which is a big part of what has kept the Patriots from becoming complacent.

The defense looked anything but complacent yesterday. It rallied and played its best game of the year. It will continue to rally as the injuries pile up. We know this because last year they followed Belichick’s orders and maintained their tunnel vision despite the mounting casualties in the secondary. Patriot fans can take heart in this.

But believe it or not, there is a limit to how many injuries an NFL team can take, and how many mistakes and penalties they can overcome.

Yes, even with the Patriots.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]