Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, left, getting stiff-armed by the Bengals’ T. J. Houshmandzadeh, is expected to give the Patriots a tough time Sunday.

AP / Keith Srakocic

FOXBORO — Most NFL teams are banged up this time of year. After Sunday’s bruising contest against the Miami Dolphins — and the fistfights, shoving matches and cheap hits that were seen at the end — the Patriots could more accurately describe themselves as “beat up.”

“We have a lot of guys banged up [and] fighting through some bumps and bruises like every team has this time of year,” coach Bill Belichick said yesterday. “But I thought those guys really sucked it up, had a good week of practice and played hard down there. Give the players credit for that one yesterday. They did a great job. They earned it.”

Sunday’s game devolved into a penalty-filled embarrassment for the Dolphins toward the end, when linebacker Channing Crowder got into a fight with Patriots tackle Matt Light, and linebacker Joey Porter was whistled for personal fouls, leading several Dolphins veterans to publicly apologize for the team’s conduct after the game.

The Patriots can expect more of the same physical play — though not necessarily the bad blood — as they face Pittsburgh this weekend at home.

The Steelers defense leads the league in nearly every important defensive statistic, but both their defense and their offense are notorious for playing hard, and hitting hard.

In particular, veteran possession receiver Hines Ward is known around the league for his crushing “crackback” blocks, and no defensive player wants to end up on a highlight reel being laid out by Ward in slow motion.

“Oh definitely, definitely. You don’t want to be on ESPN, you definitely don’t,” said defensive back Lewis Sanders. “Miami’s physical, and Pittsburgh’s even more physical, so we’ve got another obstacle ahead of us”

Belichick said that the Dolphins have recently developed into a physical team, but the Steelers have cornered that market for a long time.

“I think if you watch Jacksonville, Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, they are physical teams and they play physical every time of year,” Belichick said. “I think they play rock-’em, sock- ’em style ball, all the time and Miami has become that kind of a team. They came in running the ball. They ran eight, nine plays — direct snaps to Ronnie Brown. Those were basically all runs. They might be outside plays but there is still a lot of physical blocking and all of that. I think they are going to keep doing it; they did it all year long.”

The Steelers have the personnel to make the battered Patriots take notice.

“Guys like [James] Harrison, [James] Farrior, [Larry] Foote — [Troy] Polamalu comes down and he hits like a linebacker, maybe harder even though he is a safety. Big corners like [Ike] Taylor and those guys,” Belichick said.

The Patriots offense has come alive in recent weeks, and may even have some fans secretly saying, “Tom who?” after Sunday’s 48-28 victory.

Quarterback Matt Cassel has thrown for 400 yards in the past two weeks, the first time the league has seen that feat since Billy Volek did it in 2004. But it will take a miracle to accomplish a third straight 400-yard game against the Steelers. Linebacker Harrison is second in the league with 12 sacks, while safety Polamalu is tied for the league lead in interceptions with five.

The Steelers and the Patriots are quite familiar with one another, having faced off four times since 2004, including the 2004 AFC Championship game, which the Patriots won on their way to the Super Bowl. Over the years the Steelers have thrown various schemes and looks at the Patriots, and many are still swirling in Belichick’s head.

“Teams like that, you have so much information on. Three years ago they hurt you with this and four years ago they hurt you with that. They hurt us with this in the AFC Championship game. You are still thinking about some of those plays,” Belichick acknowledged.

dbarbari@projo.com