Steelers coach Bill Cowher reacts to his team's 31-20 loss to Denver last Sunday at Heinz Field.

PITTSBURGH — The genesis for a season that has gone terribly wrong may be traced to a pair of seemingly unconnected events that occurred long before any member of the Pittsburgh Steelers stepped on a field.

A motorcycle wrecked. A mansion purchased.

A season ruined?

Ben Roethlisberger's decision to not strap on a helmet before he rode his racing-style motorcycle through downtown Pittsburgh on a sunny June day. A pen scrawl on a North Carolina luxury home sales agreement.

Unwittingly, they may have caused self-doubts, worry and distraction to creep into a team renowned for its confidence and set the stage for one of the worst performances ever by a returning Super Bowl champion.

How's this for downsizing your goals?

Only weeks after the Steelers were talking so confidently of making another Super Bowl run, coach Bill Cowher said Tuesday he has only one immediate goal for a sagging team that has lost six of seven games: "Win a game."

Right now, these Steelers (2-6) can't aspire to much more than that.

"This is new territory for this group of players," Cowher said.

What the Steelers may ask themselves someday is whether this whole mess would have been different if Roethlisberger hadn't wrecked his motorcycle. Or if Cowher hadn't stunned the franchise by buying a $2.5 million luxury home in Raleigh, N.C., and moving his family there before the season started.

Players don't always confine their poor judgment to a football field, and Roethlisberger may have set his team back by a season simply for the selfish pleasure of feeling the wind blowing through his hair on a sunny day.

Equally surprising was the decision by Cowher, a man who despises distractions, to move his family out of Pittsburgh with only one season beyond this one remaining on his contract.

Cowher has not said if he will coach the Steelers again in 2007.

Cowher hasn't discussed his status, his new home or if he wants a new job. Yet he had to know what a stir the home buying would cause, and the possibility it would be a season-long distraction — despite his players' repeated insistence it's not a factor in their poor season.

"I think to look at the big picture would be foolish," Cowher said. "The little picture right now is what we have to do."

Realistically, this team doesn't seem capable of making what arguably would be the NFL's greatest in-season turnaround. Not with Hines Ward already talking about next year and Willie Parker saying some players were satisfied with winning the Super Bowl and no longer are selling out.

The Steelers had 23 turnovers while going 11-5 last season, but already have a league-high 24 this season.