I live in western PA (my wife is from a town about 90 minutes east of Pitt) and she and all her family are Steelers fans, along with most of my co-workers. My wife is happy when the Patriots win though because she likes to see my happy...so I try to do the same (even though I really really dislike the Steelers haha). My father in law is pretty obnoxious though, constantly calling the Patriots this and that, but I've learned to deal...hey we beat them often enough right?
Anyway, this Pittsburgh team, for how much hype they get, I don't see much to be afraid of...even if we don't get top seed. So many of their wins are by the skin of their teeth and they've only played a couple decent teams. They have some dangerous playmakers for sure, but so do we and we have Brady and Belichick. We beat them in '01 and '04 in their house so going into Pittsburgh and winning a playoff game is not that intimidating to me. The Pats need to just keep improving and stay healthy and they're unquestionably the team to beat again.