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FOXBORO - People who know Mike Tomlin say that he's a much different individual than the fellow who preceded him as head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. More measured, less in-your-face, Pittsburgh-style, than the inimitable Bill Cowher.

Regardless, Tomlin has his Steelers pretty much in the same the same position as his predecessor would at this time of year - atop their division, battling for a first-round bye in the playoffs, and running into a New England Patriots team with similar aspirations.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

"We all get 16 opportunities to state our case for the playoffs," Tomlin said via conference call. Referring to today's game at Gillette Stadium between the 8-3 Steelers and 7-4 Patriots (4:15 p.m.; Ch. 4, 12) "It has added significance because the playoff picture becomes clearer this time of year, but we take these things one at a time. This is a big game because it's the one that we play this week. We acknowledge that we're playing a great football team, so that's what makes it exciting."

It wouldn't be an AFC playoff race if the Steelers and Patriots didn't cross paths during it. "I think it's consistency, good teams doing it in different ways," Tomlin said. "But ultimately, that's what this thing comes down to is being where you're supposed to be and seeing what you're supposed to see and making plays to close out football games. (The Patriots) have done it better than anyone over that time span."

"We feel like we're back in the division again with the annual game or two against Pittsburgh," Patriots' coach Bill Belichick said at the start of the week. "As usual, they look pretty good. There aren't enough superlatives to use on their defense. They lead the league in everything and deserve to. They are very good at every position and have a great scheme.

"They are well coached. They are tough. They blitz well. They tackle well. They cover well. You can't run the ball against them. They are very good in all of those things," he said.

With that as the backdrop, today's game is far more crucial to the Patriots than it is for the Steelers.

Right now, the Patriots are seventh in a field for six playoff berths in the AFC. They lose out to their nearest competitors, the Baltimore Ravens and the Indianapolis Colts, by virtue of conference records. Of their four remaining games after today, only two of them involve AFC opponents, both on the road (Oakland and Buffalo). Unless the Patriots can overtake the division-leading Jets in that time, tiebreakers are of the utmost importance to them from now through Dec. 28.

The Steelers have won three of their last four games and seem to be in good shape for the back stretch, Tomlin said.

"The big thing for us, and for (quarterback Ben Roethlisberger), is that we've taken care of the ball the last couple of weeks and that's why we've been successful," he said. "If we are going to be successful up there, it needs to be the same this week."

"You see every quarterback go through it at some point in a season or in their career," Roethlisberger said last week. "It's just something that you've got to push through. Like they say in basketball, when you're missing and you're not hitting anything, the best way to get out of the funk is to shoot your way out of it. You've just got to keep pressing forward and that's the biggest key."

Belichick said that his personal file of old game plans against the Steelers is one of the thickest in his collection - even though that what he saw from them 20 years ago might not be all that different than what he sees now.

"There are very few things that they do that we haven't seen before," he said. "They might come in different percentages and we might see that this may be 30 percent and now we look at it this year and it's 50 percent. But, something that was 50 percent last year is 15 percent this year. So, there is some fluctuation like that. "When you watch them, you don't have a lot of, 'wow, we have never seen them do that before,'" he said. "It's more plugging their people in to the schemes that you know they run."

The Steelers, on the other hand, are seeing something new from the Patriots in terms of their personnel, most notably Matt Cassel at quarterback.

"It's been impressive," Tomlin said. "He's thrown the ball for over 400 yards, he seems to be administering the offense well. He's including a lot of people, throwing the ball to a bunch of folks and doing a nice job of it. We're making decisions, in terms of game planning, off of what we've seen from those guys this year on tape and it's impressive."

The Steelers' Achilles' heel earlier in the season was its offensive line, but those wrongs appear to have been righted over the past month.

Tomlin said there's still work to be done, however.

"We're a work in progress," he said, "We acknowledge that we're not perfect. We're growing and developing. We've got some new guys in that position that are having to step up for us. They've done a good job thus far but they've got a big test this week, particularly with those three men across the front in New England."

MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.