PITTSBURGH - After four weeks in their Latrobe training camp and three preseason games, the Steelers were looking at Thursday's final tuneup with Carolina as an indication of where they stood going into the regular season.

After witnessing the results of their first string's matchup with that of the defending NFC champion Panthers, the Pittsburgh contingent couldn't have liked what it saw in its 16-13 loss at Heinz Field.

The Panthers' starting defense bottled up the Steelers' starting offense when both were on the field, holding down the ground game and surrendering only 56 yards on 5-of-7 passing to quarterback Tommy Maddox.

But the long drive mounted by quarterback Jake Delhomme and the Panthers' offense against the Steelers in the first quarter must have been even more unsettling.

"I was really not very pleased with the effort of our first units on both sides of the ball (in the first half)," said Steelers head coach Bill Cowher. "I thought we were sloppy. We missed some opportunities on defense.

"I thought, overall, it was not up to the standards we had set the previous two weeks," he added.

The Pittsburgh secondary dropped two potential interceptions that would have halted the drive, but the missed opportunities Cowher referred to were very familiar to him: the failure of the defense to stop opponents on third down.

Starting at his own 10-yard line, Delhomme guided the Panthers down the field and completed passes for first downs on three third-down situations in which Carolina needed five yards or more to convert them.

Carolina was poised at the Steelers' 7-yard line on third down until back-to-back false start penalties prompted Panthers coach John Fox to fall on his sword by running Stephen Davis up the middle for six yards. Fox then brought in kicker John Kasay, who made a 29-yard field goal.

All told, the Panthers used 18 plays and 9 minutes, 33 seconds to move 80 yards before the field goal.

"We dropped two interceptions on the drive, so we have nobody to blame but ourselves," said linebacker Joey Porter. "They got up the field, but at the same time we had a couple of busted coverages on third down when we could have gotten off the field."

Cowher still found a silver lining in the black cloud, however.

"The positive side of it is we were able to hold them to a field goal on the first drive even though they converted the third downs," he said.

One point of concern for Cowher and defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau is that second-year cornerback Ike Taylor led the team in preseason tackles with 15 after recording seven against the Panthers.

"Overall, there are some things we have to clean up and a short time to do it with Oakland coming to town next week," Cowher said.