CINCINNATI (AP) -- In his first NFL start, Akili Smith brought back memories of John Elway by beating the Browns with a last-minute drive.

There's no telling who the Cincinnati Bengals rookie will emulate in start No. 2 against Pittsburgh.

Will it be Neil O'Donnell, who beat the Steelers with a last-minute touchdown drive a year ago? Or will he play more like Jeff Blake, who ran around and threw long to beat them again in the rematch?

Or -- cringe -- will he come off more like David Klingler?

"Who knows?" coach Bruce Coslet said. "I don't know him well enough to know how he's going to respond to the game after a win.

"Does he go from pumping his chest at the Cleveland fans to getting sacked 12 times against the Pittsburgh Steelers? That's what we're going to find out."

How Smith does Sunday against one of the league's toughest defenses will tell a lot about the rookie and most likely decide a pivotal game for Pittsburgh.

The Steelers (2-3) have lost three in a row. Another loss against a struggling team with a rookie quarterback would leave them looking at another lost season.

"We've got to stop the bleeding," coach Bill Cowher said. "This is going to be a very important game for us."

The same goes for the Bengals (1-4), even though they make no pretense about contending for the playoffs. After another depressing 0-4 start, they're trying to nurse a flicker of hope lit by Smith's last-minute drive in Cleveland.

After he lobbed a touchdown pass to Carl Pickens with 5 seconds left for an 18-17 win, Smith pounded his chest at the Cleveland bench and taunted the Dawg Pound.

Smith's coolness in the final drive and his in-your-face gestures got teammates thinking he just might have the right stuff to make this season interesting.

"At the quarterback position, you don't really see a guy coming to the side beating his chest," cornerback Artrell Hawkins said. "A guy like Brett Favre will do that. I've seen Jake Plummer do it once in a while -- the tough-guy quarterbacks. I think Akili's a tough-guy quarterback."

That toughness will get a much better test this week against one of the toughest defenses around. Cleveland's defense is second worst in the NFL; Pittsburgh's is second best.

"I've got to execute a little better, because some of the mistakes I made last week, I'll be penalized for this week, because it's a better football team," Smith said.

Klingler is the perfect example of what happens when a young quarterback freezes up against the Steelers' blitz. He made his first start against them in 1992 and was sacked a club-record 10 times.

Smith has a lot more weapons than Klingler ever did, but they won't matter if he can't figure out how to use them.

"The one thing you want to try to do is confuse him, to disguise some things, to not give him anything simple," linebacker Levon Kirkland said. "That's what we'll do."

The Browns tried to befuddle Smith with their UFO defense -- players waiting until the last moment to get into position. The Steelers use a different approach.

"They show you the same thing virtually every snap, then do all kinds of things out of it," Coslet said.

The Bengals' veteran quarterbacks had little trouble with it last season, when O'Donnell and Blake both had big passing days. The Bengals had only three wins all season, two of them against Pittsburgh.

Now it's Smith's turn to try. The Bengals will keep a lot of blockers in to protect him and give him a little extra time to figure out what's going on. At least, that's the theory.

"We beat Pittsburgh twice, so the coaches have put together some good game plans," Smith said.

In any other season, that 0-2 mark against Cincinnati last year would be a tremendous motivation for the Steelers. Revenge isn't the thing driving them this time around.

The Steelers do want to get even -- in the won-lost column. A fourth consecutive loss would leave them headed nowhere for a second year in a row.

"It's a playoff game as far as I'm concerned," safety Lee Flowers said. "Guys around here have a sense of urgency. We have to win this game."

PITTSBURGH Season schedule and results

CINCINNATI Season schedule and results

September 12 @Cleveland W 43-0 September 19 @Baltimore W 23-20 September 26 Seattle L 10-29 October 3 Jacksonville L 3-17 October 10 @Buffalo L 21-24 October 17 @Cincinnati 1:00pm ET October 25 Atlanta 9:00pm ET November 7 @San Francisco 4:15pm ET November 14 Cleveland 1:00pm ET November 21 @Tennessee 1:00pm ET November 28 Cincinnati 1:00pm ET December 2 @Jacksonville 8:20pm ET December 12 Baltimore 1:00pm ET December 18 @Kansas City 12:40pm ET December 26 Carolina 1:00pm ET January 2 Tennessee 4:15pm ET

September 12 @Tennessee L 35-36 September 19 San Diego L 7-34 September 26 @Carolina L 3-27 October 3 St. Louis L 10-38 October 10 @Cleveland W 18-17 October 17 Pittsburgh 1:00pm ET October 24 @Indianapolis 1:00pm ET October 31 Jacksonville 1:00pm ET November 7 @Seattle 4:15pm ET November 14 Tennessee 1:00pm ET November 21 Baltimore 4:05pm ET November 28 @Pittsburgh 1:00pm ET December 5 San Francisco 1:00pm ET December 12 Cleveland 1:00pm ET December 26 @Baltimore 1:00pm ET January 2 @Jacksonville 1:00pm ET

Records source: STATS, Inc.

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