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SUPERBOWL: Steelers relish taking the hard road

/noticias.info/ By Vic Carucci
National Editor, NFL.com

DENVER -- For a No. 6 seed, the NFL playoff road is supposed to be, well, exactly that. A road.

A long, treacherous, unforgiving pathway that is difficult, if not impossible, to negotiate.

Three games of trading the cozy confines of the home stadium for noisy, nasty environments. Three weeks in a row of packing, flying, busing, and sleeping in strange beds. Throw a different time zone and altitude into the mix and you were supposed to have enough reasons to believe the Pittsburgh Steelers would never be able to complete this hellish journey to Super Bowl XL.

Hines Ward and the Steelers ride the momentum of seven straight wins into Detroit.
Well, guess what? They did, becoming the first No. 6 seed to get a crack at the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Even when you factor in the nail-biting finish of their divisional-round victory over the Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers traveled this road in style. They dominated the Bengals in Cincinnati. They mostly dominated the Colts, whose late rally was greatly helped by an erroneous replay reversal of an interception.

And if there still were any doubters out there (yes, my hand is raised), the Steelers made them believers (yes, my hand is still raised) with their 34-17 victory over the second-seeded Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship Game.

They didn't simply beat the Broncos. They owned them. They ignored the sea of orange that filled Invesco Field at Mile High. They ignored the Broncos' 9-0 record there, including their win over the team that won three of the last four Super Bowls. They ignored being 5,280 feet above sea level.

In short, they did everything they didn't have to worry about doing a year ago, when they cruised into the postseason as the No. 1 seed after finishing the regular season 15-1 and played two playoff games at Heinz Field.

"It was just us against the world," running back Jerome Bettis said. "Only the people in the locker room believed in us, and that was enough."

Perhaps being at home for the AFC title game, as has been the case five times with Bill Cowher as head coach, caused the Steelers to become a little too fat and happy. That's as good an explanation as any for their 1-4 record in those games.

Perhaps being on the road made them more focused, made them take less for granted. That is certainly how they have played through this postseason. The ease with which they moved through a good Denver defense was only the latest example.

Ben Roethlisberger, who has grown from the wide-eyed rookie who looked like he had no business in a playoff game last year to the second coming of Terry Bradshaw, made completion after completion. Long throws, short throws, intermediate throws. Many were so impressive, you couldn't help but delight in seeing them twice on replay.

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Roethlisberger connected on 21 of 29 attempts for 275 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for a score. He felt the pass rush and moved away from it. In the face of frequent blitzing, he made excellent decisions on when and where to throw, and when to tuck the ball and run. Maybe the more accurate hyperbole would be to call this remarkable youngster the second coming of John Elway, the most famous quarterback ever to play in these parts and the reason Big Ben wears No. 7 on his jersey.

Roethlisberger was determined to single-handedly make sure that Super Bowl XL has a sentimental favorite in Bettis, who ran for a touchdown against the Broncos. He was only trying to make good on a promise he made as the two tearfully watched the final seconds tick away in last year's AFC Championship Game loss to the New England Patriots. Come back for one more year, the kid quarterback assured the veteran running back, and he would get him to his first Super Bowl in 13 NFL seasons.

On the eve of the AFC title game, Bettis made an impassioned plea to Roethlisberger and the rest of his Steeler teammates to help him finish his career in style, by allowing play what would likely be his last game with the chance to win his first Super Bowl ring … and in his hometown of Detroit, no less.

"Get me home," he told them. "The Super Bowl's in Detroit … get me home."

Does it get any more perfect than "The Bus" riding off into the sunset in his hometown?

Actually, it does.


Ben Roethlisberger has raised his game in the postseason.

The Steelers -- and especially Roethlisberger -- have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are talented enough and hot enough to win it all. The 23-year-old Roethlisberger, who finished the game with a passer rating of 124.9 (he had a 124.7 rating after the previous games) and increased his total of postseason touchdown passes to seven, will become the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl. Dan Marino is the youngest, and after he and the Miami Dolphins lost to San Francisco, he never made it back to the big game.

"We have a young quarterback who doesn't play young," Bill Cowher, who is returning to the Super Bowl for the second time as the Steelers' coach after a 10-year absence, said of Roethlisberger. "We're going to keep riding his coattails. Hopefully, there's a lot more to come."

Pittsburgh's defense also had its way with the Broncos. The Steelers forced four turnovers by Jake Plummer, who threw two interceptions and lost a pair of fumbles. They also sacked him three times and generally had him flustered the whole day.

Bettis and the rest of the Steelers' running game didn't do much. They didn't have to. Pittsburgh, which is supposed to plow its way up and down the field on offense, has shown in the past three weeks that it can generate big plays at will. It was just a matter of Cowher and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt having enough trust in Roethlisberger to have him come out throwing aggressively, as he has the past two weeks. In fact, it was Roethlisberger who actually questioned Whisenhunt for including plays in the game plan for Denver that the Steelers hadn't run all season.

Amazing how much can change in a year. As a rookie and through much of his second season, Roethlisberger was limited to being a "game manager," which meant frequent handoffs and concentrating more on avoiding mistakes rather than making plays.

"A lot of people said that if we have to throw the ball, we can't win the game," Roethlisberger said. "Myself, the line, and the receivers, we kind of took offense to that. And the last three weeks, especially, we've proved that that is not the case. We can come out and throw the ball."

Someone asked receiver Hines Ward, who caught a bullet of a touchdown pass that Roethlisberger threw across his body to give the Steelers a 24-3 halftime lead, if the Steelers had a feeling that he almost can't lose.

"Yeah," Ward said. "We have a lot of confidence. Maybe the world doesn't believe we can go out and win, but to beat the number(s) 1, 2, and 3 seeds, you've got to have confidence."

For this Steelers team, it is the only way to travel. notas_de_prensa_archivo