PITTSBURGH — Don’t even start with the Super Bowl hangover stuff. The Pittsburgh Steelers don’t want to hear it.

The defending AFC champions say there are plenty of reasons for their lackluster 2-2 record heading into Sunday’s game against surprising Tennessee. The defense can’t stop the run. The offensive line can’t keep quarterback Ben Roethlisberger upright. The injury list is long and distinguished.

No need to throw the Super Bowl in the mix.

Yes, the Steelers failed to make the playoffs the next year after winning it all in the 2005 and 2008 seasons. Yet there’s a difference between then and now.

“We didn’t win, so it doesn’t even matter,” linebacker James Farrior said. “I was a loser last year. We were just like all the other (30) teams that (didn’t win) and was looking for a new year and a better start.”

The Titans (3-1) couldn’t have asked for a faster one under first-year coach Mike Munchak. The defense is playing lights out and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is enjoying a rebirth after bolting Seattle. In a Peyton Manning-less AFC South, Tennessee doesn’t think the rebuilding process needs to take that long.

A road victory over a perennial playoff contender would certainly look good on the resume.

The Titans are certainly coming in at the right time. The Steelers will be without All-Pro linebacker James Harrison for several weeks after he needed surgery to repair a fractured orbital bone near his right eye sustained in a 17-10 loss to Houston. Roethlisberger will wear a special shoe to protect his sprained left foot and the offensive line is so decimated the team re-signed veteran Max Starks practically off the street.

Everything from health to momentum appears to be tilting toward Tennessee. Munchak isn’t quite ready to play that game.

“The media or the public perception is, ‘Man, so-and-so is not playing, that means we win.’ It doesn’t work that way,” he said.

Munchak need only point to last year’s meeting between the two teams for proof.

The Steelers were without Roethlisberger, serving a four-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, and then lost backup Dennis Dixon to an injury in the first half.

No matter. Veteran Charlie Batch came on in relief and led the Steelers to a 19-11 win in a game that may have served as the starting point for longtime coach Jeff Fisher’s departure. Fisher pulled quarterback Vince Young in favor of Kerry Collins, who nearly led Tennessee to a stunning comeback.

By the end of the season both Fisher and Young were gone and the team decided to reboot under Munchak, who has been in the organization for 30 years.

Never, though, has he been in this position. Munchak just laughed when asked if being a head coach is easier than he thought considering how quickly the Titans have gotten out of the gate.

In typical understated fashion he pushed most of the praise toward Hasselbeck, who has kept the offense afloat while running back Chris Johnson gets his legs back following a lengthy holdout. Hasselbeck has thrown for 1,152 yards through four games, the second-highest total over that period in team history. A decided culture change has occurred for a team that has relied heavily on the run since the franchise ditched Houston for Tennessee in 1997.

“Getting Matt Hasselbeck is what made the transition (easier),” Munchak said. “Coming in here, being a leader, is exactly what we needed at a time with a lot of change. ... When you are getting that out of the quarterback position, I think the other things really get in line.”

The Titans have played efficiently if not always spectacularly, turning it over only four times and keeping Hasselbeck’s jersey clean. He’s been sacked just four times.

Roethlisberger hasn’t been nearly as fortunate behind a jumbled offensive line. He’s been sacked 14 times and hit countless others. He’ll play through the pain — he almost always does — but the guys in front of him need to know they have to do a better job of giving their quarterback time to do his.

“We need to protect Ben a little better,” guard Chris Kemoeatu said. “He’s been getting banged-up the last couple weeks.”

Roethlisberger is more diplomatic.

He’s become a star and won two Super Bowls by making something out of nothing. Considering the beating he’s endured over the first month of the season, a little more discretion may be required.

“I will point some at myself and take a lot of the blame for the sacks and me just trying to make plays,” he said. “The guys know that, I have talked to the linemen about it and to not take the criticism too harshly and be too hard on themselves because it’s not on them, it’s on me.”

Whoever it’s on, the Steelers know they have to turn it around quickly. Coach Mike Tomlin insists there are no “mystical” answers. The Steelers need to get back to doing what they do, namely stop the run and play with intensity.

They’ve lacked both against good teams. Tomlin put his players through two padded practices this week in an effort to help the Steelers snap out of their funk.

“We’re not interested in saving bullets, you know?” Tomlin said. “We’re into the here and now and we need a good week’s preparation. We’re not going to worry about what’s going to transpire three, four, five, eight weeks down the road.”

Particularly when the present is so precarious.

“It’s a long journey and there’s no time to panic right now, but we do need a sense of urgency,” Farrior said, “and I think we’re starting to see it.”

————

AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker in Nashville contributed to this report. Follow AP Sports Writer Will Graves on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WillGravesAP