Sunday, January 23, 2005
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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The New England Patriots find themselves today on the doorstep to sports history, where they can take one giant step toward embedding themselves among the NFL's compact dynasties in an era regulated against such things.
The Steelers, who helped to foster the word dynasty in pro football 30 years ago, will try to avert another in a string of recent failures in AFC championship home games.
The Patriots and Steelers, two teams that look and talk alike, will play for the right to separate and advance to Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla., when they kick off at 6:30 p.m. at Heinz Field.
"Just cherish the opportunity," Steelers receiver Plaxico Burress said. "It really doesn't come around too often."
On the contrary, it's come around and around for both teams, with conflicting results.
This will be the fifth AFC championship game for the Steelers, all at home, in the past 11 seasons. It will be the third title game for the Patriots in the past four years.
The difference is that the Steelers lost all but one of their previous title games and last won a Super Bowl 25 years ago. The Patriots won two of the past three Super Bowls and can become only the second franchise in the game's history to win three out of four. That would be three months after the Boston Red Sox won their first championship in 86 years.
The Steelers have been here before, at home in a championship game. They lost after the seasons of 1994, 1997 and 2001, the last when they were 10-point favorites to beat the Patriots in Heinz Field.
"I think every game has been a pretty good football game," coach Bill Cowher said. "We have just been coming out on the short end more times than not. I think each game has had its own identity."
Cowher answered questions about those losses all week. He cited one play from each game that made a difference in the outcome.
"What did I learn from that?" Cowher asked. "Game of football. It comes down sometimes to making plays. We were prepared in each one of those games. We had opportunities in each one of those games, and the other team won. They made more plays than we did.
"This game we're playing Sunday night is two good football teams, and it's going to come down to execution. It's going to come down to making plays. Whoever makes more will move on. The other one will sit back and reflect."
The Steelers are tired of reflecting, of wondering what if? The road to the Super Bowl has gone through Pittsburgh too many times without the Steelers climbing into the driver's seat. Most players from their last championship team are in their 50s now. Their starting quarterback today was born two years after the Steelers beat the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl XIV in Pasadena, Calif.
If they lose to New England today, the Steelers would be linked to the Patriots the way the Houston Oilers are linked to the Steelers of the late '70s -- stepping stones to the Super Bowl.
"Please don't ask me that," wide receiver Antwaan Randle El said. "It's not even a thought."
These Steelers, for the most part, know only about their loss to New England in the championship game at Heinz Field three years ago. Only four players on their roster were here either in 1994 or 1997, when they also lost AFC title games at home.
These Steelers won 15 games in the regular season, something no other Steelers team accomplished, nor any other AFC team, for that matter. They've won 15 in a row, including their Doug Brien-gifted playoff victory against the Jets last week.
No less than Hall of Fame linebacker Jack Ham, a key member of the Steel Curtain defense that forged four Super Bowl victories, proposed that these Steelers will go down as the best team in franchise history -- for one season, anyway -- if they stretch their streak to 17 and win the Super Bowl.
"For whatever reason, it's been a special year for us," receiver Hines Ward said. "Going through a season just losing one game, what better way than to ride all the way out and go all the way to the Super Bowl?"
To do that, the Steelers believe they must run effectively against the Patriots today, not surprising since they followed that script all season. They ran 61 percent of the time during their 15-1 regular season. That helped keep the pressure off rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and also helped keep their defense off the field. The Steelers led the league in time of possession with a 34-minute average.
"I'd be disappointed if we don't have 40 carries as a team," Jerome Bettis said. "If we don't have 40 carries, then it's tough for us to go out there and be dominant and try to win the football game."
The Patriots feel the same way. Like the Steelers, they play a tough, confusing 3-4 defense that finished in a tie for second in points allowed, right behind the Steelers. New England likes to run and control the clock, and the Patriots overcame key injuries to get here.
They are close to mirror images.
"Close, close," Steelers guard Alan Faneca said. "They may not be the same mirror, but they're mirrors."
As Cowher said, the loser will have time to reflect.
(Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3878.)
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