"Men, the Cowboys are basically scoring every time they get the Football, or at least until the end there, when they just got tired of scoring and punted a couple times, and that's why it's 24-6. Let's try keeping the Football."

So the Seahawks went out and kept the Football for more than 10 minutes in the third quarter, which is why they only got beat 34-9 instead of, say, 52-6.

Moral of the story -- even a team as motley as the Seahawks can benefit from some professional halftime analysis, preferably by coaches wearing the same color scheme. In the case of the Steelers, who confront these same Cowboys this afternoon, halftime has been a clinical example of deft strategic adjustment.

Seriously.

Or is the fact that Pittsburgh has outscored opponents 77-9 in the third period one long imponderable string of coincidences?

"Really?" said offensive tackle Willie Colon. "That's the stat?"

Not only is that the stat, it's the most lopsided slice of second-half data to emerge in the Steelers' math package in some years. Not since the Super Bowl winners of 2005 outscored people 103-54 in the third period or a 2001 club headed to the AFC title game dominated the third quarter 102-13 has a Steelers team emerged from the locker room with so many right answers.

"A lot of keys are learned in the first half," nose tackle Chris Hoke was saying as the Steelers completed their Cowboy preparations. "Guys will come in, coaches will meet, players will do what they need to do, get hydrated, whatever, then Coach LeBeau (the defensive coordinator) will go over those keys. From this formation, they want to run the ball here. From that formation, they want to run the ball there.

"In [last week's] New England game, they got two long runs right before half, so he talked about what happened in each situation and what the proper adjustments were. The coaches do a great job of making adjustments at halftime."

Though the coordinators and most of the coaches are the same, the apparent effectiveness of the halftime drill has spiked in Mike Tomlin's second year on the bridge. Apparently he's not a two-time Motorola NFL Coach of the Week for nothin'. Last season, the Steelers scored only 68 points in the third quarter and allowed 70.

Truth is, Tomlin doesn't say much between halves, at least not to the players.

"He'll talks right before we go back out," said tight end Heath Miller. "He'll just hit the high points of what's been said. He won't talk for more than a minute."

But the totality of what gets said has had an impact. The Steelers have scored on the opening drive of the second half six times in 12 games, gaining 21 first downs and 339 yards in just the past seven. On defense, the adjustments and the execution have been even more dramatic. The Steelers have allowed a total of only three points on the opening drives of all 12 second halves. The New England Patriots, who did not have two turnovers in any game this season as of last Sunday morning, had five in the second half against the Steelers.

All of this starts with a human stampede approximately four stories above the locker room.

There are, happily enough, few ways in which you can be injured in an NFL press box, and those are still generally limited to cutting into the food line, choking on a cookie, and slipping on some mustard and hitting your face off a laptop. Look, that was just a bad day.

But if your concentration lapses and you wander into the path between the coaches booths and the elevator during the first 10 seconds of halftime, you can be splattered like a fawn trying to beat two 18-wheelers across 279 at midnight.

This isn't college Football, where halftime is long enough for two bands, three goofy contests, four calling birds, a bubble bath, and the awarding of 11 Congressional Medals of Honor to the women's equestrian team. And boy do they have the horses.

In the NFL, halftime is 12 minutes. Coaches upstairs have to bolt to the elevators, plan and condense their input during descent, sprint for a locker room that can be at the opposite end of a sprawling stadium, and huddle with the head coach and the coordinators before adjustments can first be even presented.

"That's the way it works," Colon said. "Coordinators will talk, then position coaches will say something, then it filters to us talking among ourselves. These coaches always have a good grasp of what's happening and what has to be done."

At least to this point.