It's Curtains for Cardinals

By Tim Smith
The Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com
Tuesday, January 20th 2009, 11:53 PM


Shamus/Getty
Troy Polamalu clinches spot in Super Bowl with interception return for TD against Ravens.

Never would have mistaken Steelers coach Mike Tomlin for a poetry enthusiast, let alone a Robert Frost fan. But Tomlin quoted Frost in his comments to his players following their punishing victory over Baltimore in the AFC Championship Game at Heinz Field on Sunday night.

"I told them we have miles to go before we sleep," Tomlin said.

Well there is the travel to Tampa to face Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1. And there is the effort to devise a game plan against a team whose staff might as well be Steelers West. Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt spent six seasons with the Steelers before taking the Arizona job in 2007. Whisenhunt was Bill Cowher's offensive coordinator when the Steelers won the Super Bowl in Detroit three seasons ago. Eight of Whisenhunt's assistant coaches have Steeler connections. Arizona defeated the Steelers, 21-14, in the most recent meeting in 2007.

"It's going to be emotional for us," said Steelers tackle Max Starks. "Those are the coaches I won my last Super Bowl with. But it's going to be old school vs. new school. I think it's going to be a challenge."

Forget the past. Forget the familiarity of the Cardinals' coaching staff with the Steelers personnel. Arizona's magical ride will come to a crashing halt when the Cardinals run into the Steelers' No.1 ranked defense.

This will be Pittsburgh's seventh trip to the Super Bowl, second-most in NFL history. The Steelers trail only Dallas, which has been to eight. And with five championships, the Steelers are tied with Dallas and San Francisco for the most in the league.

Arizona's Super Bowl history isn't spotty. It's non-existent. This will be the Cardinals' first Super Bowl trip. The Cardinals won the NFL championship in 1947. That's a long time between drinks from the championship cup.

Tomlin isn't hoisting the trophy yet.

"They are a well-coached outfit. It is obvious that they have a great deal of belief in what they are doing," Tomlin said. "They are playing great football. You don't get to this game unless you are. We respect them, we also respect the process that we believe will get us ready for combat."

The two best teams in the NFL this year were the Giants and the Steelers. I thought they would meet in the Super Bowl. The Giants got away from what made them great all season - a punishing rushing attack, an attacking pressure-packed defense and a mistake-free performance from quarterback Eli Manning - when they lost in the divisional playoff round to the Eagles.

The Steelers have remained true to their credo: You hit us, we're going to hit you back harder, and keep hitting you until you don't get up anymore. And they keep getting a cool, efficient but not spectacular performance from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who will be playing in his second Super Bowl in five years.

In case you missed the AFC title game - and I don't blame you if you couldn't sit through a four-hour football game - it was a black-and-blue affair. The Ravens are as tough a bunch as the NFL cranks out, and the Steelers were planting them in the Heinz Field turf like tulips. I think they'll be coming up in the spring. The Ravens hung around until they made one too many mistakes. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco threw an interception that safety Troy Polamalu returned 40 yards for a touchdown and the final margin of victory.

Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau devised a battle plan that was heavy on trickery and the players executed it with brutal efficiency.

"We're the No.1 defense, there's a reason," said Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend. "If we can make you one-dimensional and make you rely on passing the ball we can be successful. Coach LeBeau has a lot up his sleeve. He can draw up things to make veteran quarterbacks confused."

LeBeau will have a week to come up with something equally difficult for Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner, who is deadly when given time to find his big target, Larry Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald single-handedly destroyed the Eagles for a half.

Polamalu was asked whether this defense was better than the one that the Steelers took into the Super Bowl after the 2005 season.

"Without a doubt this is the best defense that I've ever played on, but we'll see what happens in next game," Polamalu said. "I think that's going to solidify how good we are. This team had to rely more on the defense. We had to make a lot more big plays. We caused and forced a lot more turnovers than in the past."

Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley will spend this week trying to figure out ways to get Fitzgerald free to do his thing. LeBeau, a defensive wizard, will have a week to figure out how to stop it. In that kind of physical chess match, you have to like the Steelers.

Big Ben's scrambles produce one key play after another

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

Coach Mike Tomlin on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's performance Sunday: "Ben was Ben."

Ben Roethlisberger was the first quarterback to win his first 13 starts, the youngest to win a Super Bowl, the fastest to 50 victories, and now another historical marker looms.

Roethlisberger can become only the second quarterback to win his second Super Bowl by age 26. Tom Brady is the only one to accomplish that.

He helped put the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII with the kind of performance that his teammates have come to expect; not with big passing numbers, but by making the plays when they counted against one of the NFL's toughest defenses.

"I tell people all the time, he's a good quarterback but he's one heck of a football player," receiver Nate Washington said yesterday after a team meeting. "There's a difference in those two. That's what Ben does, he prides himself on making plays."

The highlight of the AFC championship game Sunday night -- before Troy Polamalu's knockout touchdown return -- occurred early in the second quarter. Roethlisberger, on third-and-9, stepped forward in the pocket against a blitz and then to his left. He was about to throw the ball away when he spotted Santonio Holmes on the right. Holmes had inside position on cornerback Fabian Washington.

Roethlisberger lofted a pass inside, where only Holmes could catch it.

"I don't even remember what play was called," Roethlisberger said. "I remember scrambling left and looking back to see if anyone was coming, and no one was. I stepped up and was really getting ready to throw it away. I knew Santonio was over there, I was going to throw it over his head and, at the last minute, the guy's back was turned and I just threw it where he could make a play. When you get him the ball, he'll do the rest."

Holmes caught the pass at Baltimore's 47 and ran through and away from Ravens defenders to complete a 65-yard touchdown for a 13-0 lead.

It was Roethlisberger's second touchdown pass in two postseason games with no interceptions. He has a 90.8 passer rating in those games and should have had two more touchdown passes if Limas Sweed, Willie Parker or Holmes had not dropped the ball.

"Ben was Ben," was how coach Mike Tomlin described his touchdown toss. "He created an opportunity and found Santonio."

Roethlisberger hurt the Ravens with his ability to scramble away from their pressure and complete passes, even though they sacked him four times.

"We didn't want him escaping too much because that's where he tends to make most of his plays," said Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs. "He's a good quarterback. It's his ability to make plays is why he is who he is, so you take your hat off to him. They're the AFC champions, and he's a good quarterback."

Said Roethlisberger, "I've always enjoyed getting out of the pocket, rolling out, making plays. It's hard for guys to cover for a long time as you saw tonight. We play backyard football sometimes."

With Hines Ward out, Roethlisberger completed two big passes on a field goal-scoring drive that put the Steelers ahead by nine in the third quarter. On third down at his 24, he completed a 20-yard pass over the middle to Carey Davis. On second-and-24 from his 30, he completed a 30-yard pass to Heath Miller on the left.

"Ben is a special guy," Tomlin said. "He is at his best in the midst of the most difficult adversity, in other years and in this year. … He recognized the magnitude of the game, and he did what his team needed him to do. He was very efficient and made great decisions. He was a special guy for us."

Roethlisberger did not have a great day passing in his first Super Bowl, but he did things to help the Steelers beat Seattle, 21-10. He ran around end and dived for a 1-yard touchdown on third down to put them in front, 7-3, in the second quarter after he completed a 37-yard pass to Ward on third-and-28 that carried to the 3.

He took another shot when he was sandwiched by two Ravens while throwing a pass Sunday. As a doctor and trainer checked on him, Byron Leftwich warmed up on the sideline. Roethlisberger did not miss a snap.

"It hurt. It still does," he said right after the game. "But winning always takes away a little bit of the pain. I always say it's going to take a cart to get me off the field."

Ed Bouchette can be reached at ebouchette@post-gazette.com.
First published on January 20, 2009 at 12:00 am

Cardinals' red has shades of Steelers' black and gold

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

GLENDALE, AZ - JANUARY 18: Head coach Ken Whisenhunt of the Arizona Cardinals celebrates with fans following the NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles on January 18, 2009 at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The Cardinals defeated the Eagles 32-25 to advance to the Super Bowl. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)


TEMPE, Ariz. -- What was considered a Super Bowl longshot -- the Arizona Cardinals started the season at 90-1 odds to become Super Bowl contenders and improved to 40-1 by playoffs' eve -- became a sure thing Sunday evening with an NFC championship.

So, of course, the Steelers would wind up meeting the Cardinals, or "Steelers West," in two weeks in Tampa.

The football gods apparently have a delicious sense of humor and irony.

"Did you expect anything different?" Cardinals coach and ex-Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt asked yesterday, with a grin and his palms skyward. "I mean, when we actually won the [NFC championship] game, how could it have not been the Steelers?

"It's just a shame there won't be many story lines this week because of this matchup."

What a wise guy, that Whisenhunt.

He, remember, accepted the Cardinals' position before the Steelers ultimately decided upon Mike Tomlin. He then brought with him Russ Grimm, who also was a finalist for the Steelers' job, as his assistant head coach. There are no fewer than six other assistants who previously or most recently worked in those same South Side headquarters and four players who formerly practiced there: injured linebacker Clark Haggans, special-teams ace Sean Morey, tight end Jerame Tuman and quarterback Brian St. Pierre.

No wonder the Cardinals, a 110-year-old franchise whose playoff history consisted of seven games and two victories before they captured three consecutive triumphs this month, patterned themselves after the former employers of Whisenhunt and Grimm. Their practice schedule is the same. Their mantras about physical and mental toughness, accountability, hard work and unity are the same. That's how the Cardinals became "Steelers West." That's how they came to reach Super Bowl XLIII against the Steelers (14-4) for whom Whisenhunt called the plays and Grimm served as assistant head coach in the Super Bowl XL triumph at Detroit.

"I don't think you could have scripted it better," said Morey, who spent 2004-06 under the Steelers' special-teams coach Kevin Spencer, who is guiding him now. "It's going to be a situation where I'm familiar with a lot of those guys. It's going to be fun.

"It's an honor and a privilege. The years I had in Pittsburgh were some of the greatest of my life. The players in Pittsburgh are some of my best friends. And they're tough."

Terrelle Smith, a former Browns fullback, figures that the Steelers approach lugged to the desert by Whisenhunt and Co. can only become a boon to the Cardinals (12-7) come Feb. 1.

"Now we are going against them," Smith said. "Last year, we played them, and it was a good game [a 21-14 Cardinals victory in Week 4 at University of Phoenix Stadium]. This will be a good game. If anyone knows how to beat them, I know he does."

"Well," Whisenhunt added on that subject, "it can't hurt us that we know a little bit about them. Hopefully, it will only help us. That team has changed [in] the two years since we were there. … I think knowing the personnel for the most part is a little bit easier because you don't have to spend as much time doing that."

For the record, these Cardinals discount that Sept. 30, 2007 victory.

"Obviously, now we're playing for a little bigger money bag," said middle linebacker Gerald Hayes, a Pitt man the same as Pro Bowl receiver Larry Fitzgerald on a team also using natives Steve Breaston of Woodland Hills High as the No. 3 receiver and South Park's Reggie Wells at starting guard.

"I think they're a better team than they were then," added Morey of the 2007-08 Steelers. "They have an approach where you play for each other, similar to this team."

He intends to impart on his Cardinals mates a Super Bowl lesson from three years ago.

"It's something Bill Cowher said to us … when we were entering Super Bowl XL: 'Nobody remembers who lost the Super Bowl,'" Morey said. "That resonated with a lot of us. The guys aren't going to just show up."

Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com.
First published on January 20, 2009 at 12:00 am

Tomlin's youth paying off, setting trends

By John Harris, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin shakes hands with Balltimore Ravens head coach John Harbough after their NFL AFC Championship football game against the Baltimore Ravens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 18, 2009.

At 34, Mike Tomlin was young and unproven, an anomaly among NFL coaches.

Two years later, Tomlin is a virtual Methuselah in the coaching ranks when compared to two recent hires of his own cloth.

Tomlin begat 32-year-olds Josh McDaniels and Raheem Morris, who were recently hired to coach the Denver Broncos and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, respectively. Morris, who coached with Tomlin in Tampa Bay, has been described as a Tomlin clone.

In a league where imitation is considered the sincerest form of flattery, young coaches are in — thanks to Tomlin.

Now 36, he's the youngest coach to lead his team to a Super Bowl, as the Steelers prepare to face the Arizona Cardinals on Feb. 1 in Tampa, Fla.

Fittingly, aspiring NFL teams want a Tomlin of their very own.

If only it were that easy.

Tomlin replaced Bill Cowher a year after the Steelers won Super Bowl XL. Several key veterans were Cowher loyalists who favored Cowher assistants Ken Whisenhunt or Russ Grimm — both now with the Cardinals preparing to face their old team in Super Bowl XLIII — landing the job.

Tomlin, who was the Minnesota Vikings' defensive coordinator for only one season and had no head coaching experience, had to win over those veterans, or else.

"He took control of this team," inside linebacker Larry Foote said. "Trust me, he ruffled a lot of feathers, but we couldn't do nothing but respect it. He came in and said my way or the highway — and it's his way. Everybody jumped on ship.

"He demanded respect, and he earned it."

Franchise receiving leader Hines Ward was struck by how easily a youthful Tomlin imposed his will on a team whose players had just won a Super Bowl.

"Last year, he had to come in and set the laws down. A lot of guys were set in coach Cowher's ways," said Ward, a Cowher favorite. "(Tomlin) was very strict on his rules. If he started an 8 o'clock meeting, he wants you there at 7:58. If you were (late), you were going to get put on his so-called 'news board' and you would get fined. He had a year under his belt to let guys know this is his team and this is how he wants things run around here."

Instead of a negative, Tomlin's youth worked to his advantage, according to defensive captain James Farrior.

"I feel like it's a good thing that he's so young and that he's so close to our generation. He can relate to our generation a lot better than older coaches. He's a couple of years older than me," said Farrior, who turned 34 on Jan. 6. "I feel like he can talk to the players on the level that we're on. He's able to get his point across, and that's probably the main thing."

To think that Tomlin is now the third-youngest coach in the NFL. What's next? A 25-year-old coach taking his team to the Super Bowl?

Don't laugh. Given what Tomlin has accomplished, anything seems possible.


Youth movement

Four coaches in the NFL this season got their first NFL head coaching jobs at age 35 or earlier. Three of those coaches have been fired since the start of this season:

Name, team: Career W-L — 2008-09 W-L

Lane Kiffin, Oakland: 5-15 — 1-3

Mike Tomlin, Steelers: 22-10 — 12-4

Eric Mangini, N.Y. Jets: 23-25 — 9-7

*Jon Gruden, Tampa Bay: 95-81 — 9-7

*-Gruden spent 1998-2001 with Oakland

Lure of a ring spurs linebacker Woodley

By Scott Brown, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Steelers linebacker LaMarr Woodley (56) leads a pack of defenders in making a swarming tackle on the Ravens' Willis McGahee during the second quarter of the AFC Championship Game this past weekend at Heinz Field.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

Steelers outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley made history Sunday when he twice sacked Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco in the AFC Championship Game.

Woodley is the first player in NFL history to record three consecutive multi-sack games in the postseason. He had one last season and two this season.

The havoc he has wreaked opposite James Harrison, the NFL's defensive player of the year, during the playoffs may have something to do with a dinner Woodley attended at the end of the regular season — one at which he ate yet somehow managed to leave hungry.

The different position groups get together annually — they usually gather for a pricey meal — and spend the money the players have raised by fining one another for various offenses committed during the season.

What Woodley remembers most about the dinner is the shiny Super Bowl rings the veterans wore.

"All of the guys had their rings on with nice suits, pretty much rubbing it in our face," said Woodley, who was playing for the University of Michigan when the Steelers won the Super Bowl three years ago. "Coach (Keith) Butler asked 'Who all has a ring?' I kind of looked at my finger like, 'I don't have one.'"

If Butler and the veterans were trying to motivate the younger linebackers by breaking out their Super Bowl rings, they certainly succeeded in doing that with Woodley.

Woodley didn't have a sack in the Steelers' final four regular-season games, but he has four since the playoffs started.

Woodley has been playing with a sense of urgency that belies his relative youth, but he said there are no guarantees he'll ever get back to a Super Bowl. Plus, he added, seeing his older teammates wear their rings stirred something in him.

"When you see guys with that, you want to go get that," Woodley said. "You want to be able to put on one of those rings one day."

Brotherhood continues to serve defense well

By Scott Brown, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Steelers safety Troy Polamalu is congratulated by teammate Larry Foote after running an interception back for a touchdown during the AFC Championship Game this past weekend at Heinz Field.
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review

The Ravens had scored a touchdown to pull within two points of the Steelers in the fourth quarter Sunday and then had forced a quick punt. They appeared to have the Steelers right where they wanted them, especially given the home team's recent history of finding ways to lose AFC Championship Games in Pittsburgh.

In retrospect, it was the Steelers who had the advantage.

The NFL's No.1 defense was sent out to protect a precarious lead. And when defensive end Brett Keisel looked around the huddle at teammates he regards more as kin than colleagues and asked, "Are we going to be great?" it's possible Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco never had a chance.

The Steelers put themselves in position to answer that question in the affirmative by beating Baltimore, 23-14, to advance to Super Bowl XLIII. The play that finally put away the Ravens on Sunday typified the kind of collaborative effort the Steelers have received on defense this season.

Troy Polamalu returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown, but outside linebacker James Harrison helped set up the score by drilling Flacco just as he released the pass. And what stood out to veteran defensive end Aaron Smith is what happened after Polamalu picked off Flacco with just under five minutes left in the AFC title game.

"If you look at the film, you see how many guys are blocking." Smith said. "That just defines our defense. I've never been on a team where guys were so selfless. We don't care who does it or how it gets done."

There is no question the Steelers defense has gotten it done this season — and in every imaginable way.

The Steelers finished first in the league in points allowed, total defense and passing defense. And the dominance of their defense is a testament to many things, including the stability that has long been a hallmark of the Steelers.

Of the 11 starters on defense, eight were drafted and developed by the organization. All but two of the defensive starters have been with the Steelers at least five seasons.

"So many guys have been around each other for such a long period of time that you can't help but be like brothers," nose tackle Casey Hampton said, "and I think that's why we're so close to each other."

"That's always been like that," veteran cornerback Deshea Townsend said of the continuity in the Steelers' locker room. "That's how you become a great team, the selflessness with which you play. Each guy genuinely loves the guy next to him."

Such brotherhood is one reason why the Steelers have not allowed a 100-yard rusher this season, why they finished second in the NFL with 51 sacks prior to the playoffs and why they almost became the first defense since 1991 to lead the league in total defense, rushing defense and passing defense.

"Without a doubt, this is the best defense that I've ever played on," Polamalu said, "but we'll see what happens in the next game. I think that's going to solidify how good we are."

Indeed, for these Steelers to be mentioned in the breath of the Steel Curtain of the 1970s, they'll have to win the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 against the Arizona Cardinals.

"It's definitely a great defense," Hampton said, "but we won't be remembered if we don't win it all."


Dogged defense

The Steelers' top-rated defense has continued to stymie opposing offenses in the playoffs:

Category: Rush — Pass — Total

Regular-season: 80.3 — 156.9 — 237.2

San Diego: 15 — 275 — 290

Baltimore: 73 — 125 — 198

Playoffs: 44.0 — 200.0 — 244.0

AFC Championship: Steelers 23, Ravens 14

Raven QB Flacco suffers same fate as Roethlisberger did in 2004 AFC final

Monday, January 19, 2009
By Colin Dunlap, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/


Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Troy Polamalu stops Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco on fourth-and-1 in the first half last night at Heinz Field.

The Steelers put the heat on Joe Cool last night and, when it mattered most, at the very end, he melted.

Baltimore Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, to a sizable degree the talk of the league's signal callers into the 19th week of the season, and the undeniable toast of Charm City the past month, had it right in front of him. He had the kind of opportunity all quarterbacks think about when they are out in the backyard as kids tossing a football at a swinging tire tied to a weathered oak tree.

The script went like this:

Eighty-six yards to go, down by two points, 6:50 remaining with a trip to the Super Bowl in the balance. And, oh yeah, he was on live television being beamed to the vast expanse of the world, on enemy turf, hostility pervading throughout Heinz Field in the form of those more than 60,000 fans vigorously waving yellow towels.

Flacco had proven himself again and again this season after entering the league out of Delaware after heading there when things didn't work out at Pitt.

But on this day, the chances of the Ravens going to the Super Bowl disappeared when, on third-and-13 from the Baltimore 29, Flacco tried to string out a play as long as he could.

The 6-foot-6, 230-pounder with the right arm that can seemingly toss a football through a steel girder, never saw the Steelers' Troy Polamalu bleeding over from his safety position to jump an out-route by Ravens receiver Derrick Mason.

And, just like that, with the opportunity of his life in front of him, with a chance to provide the NFL with another chapter in a rookie story that seemingly was all feel-good, Flacco's pass was pulled in by Polamalu at the 40.

With hair flowing and head swiveling, Polamalu was bent on nothing short of scoring -- which he did when he zig-zagged through the Ravens offensive unit which quickly turned into pursuers.

So, what happened?

"We were trying to get to the [first down] sticks and I think Troy was probably able to read my eyes," Flacco said of the throw he'll undoubtedly spend a chunk of the offseason thinking about. "He does a great job of doing that and you have to influence him as much as you can away from where you are going to throw the ball. But, he was able to jump over there and read it a little bit and made a good play ... I never saw him until I was lying down."

It was the moment that defined Flacco's 13 for 30 day more than any other as the Steelers earned a 23-14 victory and a trip to Tampa, Fla.


Joe Flacco is pressured by LaMarr Woodley (56) during the second quarter in the NFL's AFC Championship football game in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 18, 2009.(Reuters)

Sure, there was another interception thrown just a few minutes later by Flacco to Tyrone Carter that put an exclamation point on the night, and there was an early pick pulled down by Deshea Townsend that led to a Steelers field goal, but the errant toss to Polamalu was the deepest knife.

Many had compared Flacco's rookie season to that of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

The form held.

In 2004, Roethlisberger's initial foray into the league, he won his first 14 starts after taking over for an injured Tommy Maddox, only to falter in the AFC championship game.

Flacco -- the starter out of the Ravens camp this year -- was 13-5 overall heading into Heinz Field last night.

Just like Roethlisberger in 2004, Flacco experienced the biting reality of precisely what it feels like to walk off of Heinz Field one game shy of the Super Bowl.

In the post-game press conference, Flacco was asked if he had hit a mental wall playing in his 19th game of the season.

He quickly dismissed the question.

"I don't blame it on any rookie wall or anything like that. I have been saying that all year," Flacco said. "The Steelers are a good defense. ... Obviously things didn't happen the way we wanted them to happen, but you have to credit the Steelers for the way they played."

"I had the opportunity to play 19 games this year. And I feel very fortunate for that."

But, to a large degree, because Flacco made a mistake that Polamalu took 40 yards the other way, the Ravens won't have a chance to play 20.

Colin Dunlap can be reached at cdunlap@post-gazette or 412-263-1459.
First published on January 19, 2009 at 1:09 am

Steelers claim defensive title by knockout

Monday, January 19, 2009
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/


Baltimore Ravens runningback Willis McGahee (23) is stopped by Pittsburgh Steelers defenders Lawrence Timmons (L) and LaMarr Woodley in the second quarter in the NFL's AFC Championship football game in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 18, 2009.(Reuters)

No doubt anymore about which defense is the best in the NFL, is there?

It's the Steelers' defense by knockout.

Literally.

The Steelers "D" turned out the lights on the Baltimore Ravens' season last night in the AFC championship game, clearly outplaying the Ravens' heavily hyped defense in a 23-14 win that sent the home team on to Tampa, Fla., for Super Bowl XLIII and a Feb. 1 meeting with old pal Ken Whisenhunt and his Arizona Cardinals.

That proud defense, which has carried the Steelers all season, had to be terrific in this game. Not so much because the Ravens' offense and overmatched rookie quarterback, Joe Flacco, were such a big threat. They most certainly were not. No, the defense had to play a brilliant game to overcome a dropped touchdown pass by Steelers wide receiver Limas Sweed and a miscalculation with the game clock by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger that cost the Steelers serious points.

Thank goodness for that defense.

It seems appropriate that Steelers safety Troy Polamalu all but officially ended things and had the juiced crowd dancing in the Heinz Field stands, signing, "Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl ... " All week, Polamalu had listened to a lot of people in Baltimore and even here -- OK, I confess -- talk about how Ravens All-World safety Ed Reed is a better player. His response, understated verbally as usual, was a sensational on-field performance that was highlighted by his interception and 40-yard touchdown return with 4:24 left.

Even the great Reed had to be in awe of that one.

It's just unfortunate the game couldn't have ended right then. On the Ravens' next possession, running back Willis McGahee caught a pass over the middle and took a brutal hit from Steelers safety Ryan Clark. McGahee stayed motionless on the turf for several minutes before being carted to the locker room with what Ravens officials described as "severe neck" pain.

It was a sad ending to a fabulous football game.


Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend (26) celebrates an interception with defensive end Brett Keisel during the first quarter of the NFL AFC championship football game against the Baltimore Ravens in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009.(AP)

Flacco was no match for that Steelers defense. After not throwing an interception or being sacked in the Ravens' playoff wins against the Tennessee Titans and Miami Dolphins, the Steelers picked him three times and sacked him thrice. An interception by cornerback Deshea Townsend in the first half set up a Steelers field goal. Linebacker LaMarr Woodley had two of the three sacks.

Flacco's final numbers: 13 of 30 for 141 yards with three interceptions and an 18.2 passer rating.

The Steelers needed all of that strong performance because of a couple of self-inflicted wounds.

They started with Sweed's dropped touchdown pass late in the first half. He was wide open behind the Ravens' defense, but the ball clanged off his hands at the Baltimore 10. A touchdown there would have made it 20-7 Steelers.

The Steelers still had a chance to add to their 13-7 lead at halftime, but Roethlisberger lost track of the time and/or timeouts. With no timeouts left, he completed a 9-yard pass to running back Mewelde Moore over the middle to the Ravens' 12, but couldn't get his team to the line in time to spike the ball before the clock ran out.

It didn't matter.

The Steelers' defense made sure of it.

Fittingly, Polamalu made sure yet another Super Bowl is in the Steelers' immediate future.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.
First published on January 19, 2009 at 12:17 am

Victory exorcises Heinz Field demons

Monday, January 19, 2009
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/

More was vanquished here yesterday than the ever-worthy Baltimore Ravens.

So very much more.

The Steelers beat back every big-game ghost Heinz Field could spring at them in an historic 23-14 victory that launched them not so much to Super Bowl 43, but from the standpoint of their own royal tradition, to Super Bowl 7.

The seventh Super Bowl in Pittsburgh history came hard, or just about exactly as prescribed. Would you have it any other way?

Having demonstrably dominated a first half in which Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco looked very much like the rookie he is for the first time since, well yeah, the last time he had to deal with Dick LeBeau's defense, the Steelers entered last night's third quarter of the AFC championship game with all manner of historical trepidation.

All the dark forces habitually at work during Heinz Field championship Sundays had burst from their closets still again, making a six-point Steelers lead feel like the precipice of a black and gold hole.

Hines Ward, as much a part of this team's soul as any of its decorated stars, had played his last play an hour previous, and the resultant wound in the Steelers' game plan was hemorrhaging every bit as you'd expect.

"It wasn't a worry so much as a kind of panic," wide receiver Nate Washington said. "You don't like to say something like that, but Hines' position is Hines' position, the rest of us don't even get to practice it that much because only he plays it that way. So it wasn't so much that he was out, it was more like, 'How are we going to learn everything fast enough to play the game?' "

Ward was the difference in the game until he rolled awkwardly on his knee in the first quarter. His 45-yard catch and run down the middle to the Ravens' 23 set up the first of three Jeff Reed field goals, his 11-yard catch on the Steelers' second possession set up the second, and the Steelers led 6-0 by the time Ward couldn't continue.

It was on that 11-yard catch, a simple out toward the left sideline that converted a third-and-10, on which Ward fell awkwardly to the snowy lawn and hobbled to the bench. He took treatment for just a few minutes, limped to the locker room, and was no longer a factor. He appeared in the huddle just once more, on a third-and-5 near the end of the first quarter, and left the fate of his teammates in the alleged hands of Limas Sweed.

Even as Santonio Holmes took a desperate Roethlisberger pass 65 yards to a touchdown behind a police escort by Heath Miller, even as the Steelers thus posted a 13-0 lead, the stadium's January ghouls were howling.

None of those are quite so familiar as the blown kick coverage, and it was exactly that the Ravens used to spring off the canvas. Jim Leonhard returned Mitch Berger's punt 45 yards and a cheap pass interference call against Bryant McFadden set Baltimore up at the Steelers' 3, and it was 13-7 a moment later.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary.

But Roethlisberger, still availed of enough weaponry to try and stretch the lead, went deep.

To Sweed.

To Sweed!

Flying alone down the left sideline, inside the 10, Sweed reached for it just slightly, even comfortably, because Big Ben had thrown it just perfectly.

And he dropped it.

"That would have been me," Washington said, "but I'd rotated into Hines' position."

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Thus the Steelers' 13-7 halftime lead felt like a deficit, and even when Miller fueled a third field-goal drive for the only scoring of the third quarter, 16-7 felt squishy at best, particularly in the face of some foreboding Baltimore arithmetic.

Coming into this AFC title game, Baltimore had outscored opponents in the fourth quarter 115-60, 108-27 in its past nine wins.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.

Yeah Poe's words shrieked across the backdrop. They don't call 'em Ravens for nothin'.


Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Steelers Dick LeBeau celebrates with Lawrence Timmons after beating the Ravens yesterday at Heinz Field.

It didn't appear, given Baltimore's legendary resourcefulness, that the Steelers would be able to buy a ticket to Tampa on the offense's line of credit alone. The Steelers would need a monster play from their defensive soul, the Ward counterpart if you will, and they got one with 4:40 left on the game clock, with Flacco having just gotten off the deck from a LaMarr Woodley sack.

Flacco faced third-and-13 from his 29, sent Derrick Mason on a medium route to his right, and whipped his pass with a lot more hope than aplomb, which is what happens when James Harrison hits you as you throw. It would take a great catch, and Troy Polamalu made one at the 40, from where he tacked on a great run across the field, turned left at the 10 and didn't stop until the Steelers were halfway to Florida.

Presently my soul grew stronger, hesitating there no longer.

This team's soul apparently has no limits.

"These guys can really bring it," said offensive tackle Willie Colon of the Ravens. "For us it was like, 'OK, Hines is out, but we've gotta keep going. And I think we earned their respect. In fact, they said it at the end. They said we hate you guys, but we respect you. To hear that felt good."


Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com.
First published on January 19, 2009 at 12:04 am

Defense is Steelers' savior, again

By John Harris, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/
Monday, January 19, 2009


Troy Polamalu returns a fourth-quarter interception 40 yards for a touchdown to clinch the Steelers' 23-14 win over the Ravens in Sunday's AFC championship game.(Getty Images)

I'd be remiss in not making the Steelers' defense the lead of this column following the team's biggest win since the last game of the 2005 season.

By virtue of Sunday night's brutal, hard-hitting, 23-14, Rembrandt-quality win over the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game at Heinz Field, the Steelers will make their second trip to the Super Bowl in three years. They have the unique opportunity to become the first team to win six Super Bowls when they face the Arizona Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII on Feb. 1 at Tampa, Fla.

If they've done it once, the Steelers defense has done it at least a dozen times this season.

Once again, the defense held down the fort until the offense finally got its act together.

Actually, the offense never really got its act together against the Ravens, unless you include postseason star Santonio Holmes' 65-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown on the second play of the second quarter.

Make no mistake, this is the No. 1 defense in the NFL we're talking about. That's the real reason why the Steelers are playing in Super Bowl XLIII.

You may fool the Steelers once, as Baltimore did on a short touchdown drive following Jim Leonhard's long punt return in the first half.

Twice, even.

Do it three times, and the Steelers probably lose.

That's the beauty of the Steelers' defense. They bend, but they don't break.

Baltimore made it hairy at 16-14 on Willis McGahee's touchdown run at the 9:29 mark of the fourth quarter.

It was the first time that Baltimore put together an extended drive against the Steelers. The Ravens pulled out all the stops, including a tricky double-reverse that the Steelers saw for the first time.

Baltimore's chicanery worked once. But for the Ravens to knock off the Steelers and make it to the Super Bowl, they had to do it again.

Following another Steelers drive that went nowhere, Baltimore regained possession at its 14 with 6:50 to play.

If the Steelers stopped the Ravens deep in their end of the field, they would likely go to the Super Bowl.

On first down, McGahee was tripped up by safety Ryan Clark for a 2-yard loss. So much for running the ball against the Steelers.

On second down, quarterback Joe Flacco hit tight end Todd Heap for a 20-yard gain.

Another run yielded a 2-yard gain, and LaMarr Woodley's sack set up third-and-13.

Time for the defense to win another game.

All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu intercepted a Flacco pass intended for Derrick Mason. Doing his best Ed Reed impression, Polamalu cut all the way across the field and followed a convoy of blockers to complete a highlight-reel, 40-yard touchdown for a 23-14 lead.

The next time Baltimore had the ball, Clark leveled McGahee following a reception. McGahee fumbled, and the Steelers recovered.

The game lost, Baltimore's players turned their concern to McGahee, who was taken off the field on a stretcher and was reported to have movement in his hands and arms but significant neck pain.

How good is this Steelers defense?

Baltimore didn't commit a turnover in its first two playoff games. The Ravens turned the ball over four times against the Steelers, including three Flacco interceptions.

Things like this happen all the time against the Steelers' top-ranked defense.

Excuse me, make that the Steelers' Super Bowl defense.

Tomlin Among N.F.L.’s New Wave of Coaches

Sports of The Times

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
January 19, 2009


Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney (L), president Art Rooney II (2nd L), Santonio Holmes and head coach Mike Tomlin (R) celebrate after their team's victory against the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL's AFC Championship football game in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 18, 2009.(Reuters)

PITTSBURGH: Mike Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers are going to the Super Bowl.

In just his second year as the Steelers’ boss — and his first time as a head coach — Tomlin has taken a group of veterans, won them over and put his stamp on this team. He has made it all Pittsburgh but distinctly Tomlin.

Tomlin’s first Super Bowl trip was guaranteed with four and a half minutes left in the game, when safety Troy Polamalu — one of those Steelers’ core veterans — intercepted a pass from the Ravens’ young Joe Flacco and ran 40 yards for a touchdown.

Fittingly, Tomlin’s Super Bowl opponent will be the Arizona Cardinals, who are coached by Ken Whisenhunt. In a season of coaching upheaval, Tomlin and Whisenhunt represent shift before our eyes, a wave of new first-time head coaches.

Tomlin and Whisenhunt were hired by their respective teams within days of each other in January 2007. In two weeks, they’ll share the greatest stage of their professional lives: the Super Bowl.

After the game, Tomlin spoke about what reaching the Super Bowl means to the Rooney family and to his team. “For me, I am just happy for all parties involved,” he said. “I see the personal sacrifice that people from our team make on a daily basis for that to happen.”

The practice of automatically recycling established head coaches has given way — for now — to experimenting with the untried and new. The short-term results have been stunning.

John Harbaugh carried the Baltimore Ravens to within a game of the Super Bowl in his first season as head coach. Atlanta, demoralized and tattered, was brought back to life — and the playoffs — by the first-year coach Mike Smith. The Miami Dolphins, winners of one game last season, reached the playoffs under the first-year coach Tony Sparano.

The N.F.L., notoriously, is a copy-cat league. We’ve seen this already in a rash of hiring of young head coaches. Veteran coaches like Dan Reeves, Marty Schottenheimer and Jim Fassel make it known that they want back in the coaching ranks, but no teams come calling.

The young Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, 32, was hired in Denver to replace Mike Shanahan. After Tampa Bay suddenly fired Jon Gruden last week, the 32-year-old defensive coordinator Raheem Morris was named head coach. The St. Louis Rams hired Steve Spagnuolo, the Giants’ defensive coordinator, as head coach.

Significantly, when Shanahan was fired in Denver, teams didn’t come banging on his door. The Cleveland Browns hired Eric Mangini, the recently fired Jets head coach, and Dallas, which most of us thought would throw itself at Shanahan, hasn’t showed any indication of making a move.

The pendulum never stops in the middle; look for the trend toward first-time coaches to continue for the next few seasons, or as long as the current wave of wunderkind coaches wins a bushel of championships.

“This isn’t just a temporary phase,” Dennis Green, the former Vikings and Cardinals coach, said Sunday. “This is permanent. You’re seeing a shift to a new guard.”

Tomlin is 36, and his meteoric rise from defensive backs coach under Tony Dungy at Tampa Bay to defensive coordinator in Minnesota to Super Bowl coach in Pittsburgh will certainly have a positive impact on young assistants who aspire to be head coaches.

But new doesn’t necessary mean young.

Steve Spagnuolo will be 50 next December, Harbaugh turns 46 next December. Whisenhunt will be 47 next month.

New refers to fresh ideas, a fresh voice a new way of dealing with the contemporary N.F.L. player: well compensated but desperately in need of discipline, toughness and an understanding of history.

Earlier this season, when Steelers running back Willie Parker complained publicly that Pittsburgh wasn’t running enough, Tomlin dealt with the issue firmly without being overly harsh.

He reminded Parker that the Steelers organization was larger than individual aspirations.

“The issue for us has been, is, and hopefully will continue to be winning — that’s my interpretation of Steelers football,” Tomlin told reporters at the time. “Every morning I come to work, I walk past five Lombardis, not five rushing titles. The issue is winning.”

About Parker, Tomlin said, “He needs to be a little more careful with things he says and how he says it because it can be misinterpreted as uninformed or selfish, of which he is neither.”

Parker has not been heard from since, content to run with his legs and not his mouth.

Tomlin is in the vanguard of vibrant N.F.L. coaches with fresh legs.

Next season has “new” stamped all over it.

E-mail: wcr@nytimes.com

Big Ben Strikes Again

By Michael Wilbon
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Monday, January 19, 2009; D01

PITTSBURGH: It's probably not a good thing that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens can play each other three times a year. Maybe the NFL, purely for health reasons, should set a two-game maximum. Their third game produced a concussion on the opening kickoff and a frightening knockout in the fourth quarter that led to on-field prayers.

After the latest go-round, Ben Roethlisberger removed his uniform and tape slowly, looking for the contusions he presumed were there. "It just can't get much more brutal than us playing each other," he said. "It's a slugfest, a fight, 12 rounds. It's always that way, violent from start to finish."

Of course, it's easier to talk about when you've won all three violent battles in a year, the third of which sends you and your team to the Super Bowl.
It's easier to dissect the game and review the plays when the rookie, Baltimore's Joe Flacco, has thrown three interceptions and you've avoided throwing one to Ed Reed or Ray Lewis. Ben Roethlisberger has done it again, which is to say he's led the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Super Bowl for the second time in four seasons.

It didn't seem possible, after watching the Kurt Warner show in the first conference championship game of the day, that the nightcap could produce as much drama. Yet, it nearly did in its own brutal way.

It was almost predictable, the way Steelers and Ravens despise each other, that tough talk and violent collisions would lead to violence of an extreme nature. The most significant news out of Heinz Field at day's end was that Ravens' running back Willis McGahee had "significant movement in his arms and legs." Only the Ravens and Steelers, in today's offensive-minded football, could slug their way through what will be remembered as defense-only football.

Appropriately, the signature play was authored by a safety. Troy Polamalu's 40-yard interception return for a touchdown delivered victory and a trip to the Super Bowl and what happened thereafter probably just frightened the masses.

The last full day of pro football this season delivered the full range of championship football. The Cardinals' victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, long on passing and catching, was downright civil. The Steelers' victory over Baltimore was anything but.


Santonio Holmes scores on a 65-yard touchdown pass in Sunday's AFC title game.
(Getty Images)

Flacco, who had received much credit, and deservedly so, for being the first rookie quarterback to win back-to-back playoff games, made the critical mistakes that sabotaged his team and stood in stark contrast to the matinee performance of Arizona's Warner.

Of course, Warner will receive mountains of praise for getting the Cardinals to the Super Bowl, as should be the case, seeing as the Cardinals have been about as awful as you can get in American sports.

But in terms of results, Warner's got nothing on Roethlisberger, who just might be taking Tom Brady's place on the big stage in January and February. Okay, 16 for 33 for 255 yards and one touchdown might not sound like much in the current climate of 70 percent completion rates and 400-yard totals. But Roethlisberger, remember, was going up against the Ravens' defense. The first thing he did was avoid being picked off. Second, he found Santonio Holmes for a 65-yard touchdown on a broken play, the kind that would have people writing love songs about Brady.

"As long as I've watched football, I've never seen anybody extend plays the way Ben does," his backup, Byron Leftwich said. Baltimore's Terrell Suggs said he believes such plays are drawn up that way because Roethlisberger is so big (6 feet 5, 241 pounds) and agile the coaches and linemen presume Big Ben can shake or level the first defender. Told of Suggs's comments, Leftwich laughed and said: "No, no, no. That touchdown pass to [Holmes] wasn't drawn up. It was total ad-lib. Ben was that way in college."

Roethlisberger is big, he's strong, and has taken more punishment than any quarterback in the league the last couple of years, perhaps save Leftwich. He's been carted from the field after hits. He's been carted from the street after a motorcycle accident. He's proven to be nearly indestructible. Oh, and he wins more than anybody out there, even though the talent around him is, well, pretty good. Eli Manning might miss Plaxico Burress, but Big Ben doesn't.

He's 15-4 as a starting quarterback vs. teams in the NFC, which ought to be of great interest to the Cardinals. He's got 24 touchdown passes to only 14 interceptions in those games, with a passer rating of 90.7. He was the difference between the two teams in the AFC championship game, as he is in most games the Steelers have played in his five seasons.


Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger throws a pass over Baltimore Ravens' Bart Scott (57) during the first quarter of the NFL AFC championship football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009.(AP)

You want to know what quarterbacks in modern history (since 1950) have been better than Roethlisberger through five seasons? None. Nobody. Not Joe Willie Namath, not Joe Montana, nobody. Big Ben is the only quarterback to win 51 games his first five seasons. That's three victories better than Otto Graham, Dan Marino, Tom Brady and John Elway. If I had to win a game to save my own life I'd take Roethlisberger over everybody who played in the NFL this season, and that includes everybody named Manning. It's difficult to understand why the praise is so grudging.

"It's unfair," Leftwich said of the reluctant praise. "Not that it matters to Ben. But the Steelers are seen as a running team. When he first got here it was Bus [Jerome Bettis], then Willie Parker. They didn't throw it a lot. But he wins. They don't throw it 35, 40 times. Ben's capable of doing that if they ask, but they don't. It's run-run-run-run-pass. So what? He wins. I'll take him any day. He can win 10-7 or 37-34."

Roethlisberger and Donovan McNabb do more with less than any other quarterbacks in the NFL. We were reminded of that in the final minute of the first half here on Sunday when Roethlisberger heaved a perfect pass to Limas Sweed, who dropped it as he was going uncovered into the end zone. The ballgame should have been over right then and there at 20-7. Sweed should have been fined for staying on the ground for a minute because he was embarrassed after dropping so beautiful a pass.

Even so, Roethlisberger kept throwing it to him, kept at it patiently, kept taking whatever punishment the Ravens doled out (which was plenty), kept making small plays that added up to a field goal here, another field goal there, until it was 16-7 and the Ravens were two scores down with no way to strike quickly themselves.

In the championship game Sunday, in the cold and wind and swirling snow, all Roethlisberger needed to do was manage the game, not screw it up, which wasn't within Flacco's power. Asked after the game what he learned as a rookie quarterback who lost the AFC championship game to the Patriots, Big Ben said: "Don't turn it over. Flacco will be fine. He faced the best defense in the world tonight; they're ranked that way for a reason."

So now the Steelers have a shot at a second Super Bowl championship in four seasons because of the defense and because of Roethlisberger, who in terms of pregame attention very likely will be overshadowed by Warner.
Yet, the Steelers have to know that at just 26, Roethlisberger's best years should be ahead of him.

Violence At a Price

By Mike Wise
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Monday, January 19, 2009; D01

PITTSBURGH - JANUARY 18: Teammates look on as Ryan Clark #25 of the Pittsburgh Steelers lie on the field Willis McGahee #23 the Baltimore Ravens after Clark laid a hard hit on McGahee during the AFC Championship game on January 18, 2009 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. McGahee was taken off the field on a backboard by medical personnel (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

PITTSBURGH: As Willis McGahee lay motionless, as Ray Lewis and other players knelt to pray, as the cart with the stretcher motored out and a concerned hush fell over Heinz Field, nothing mattered anymore.

All the mano-a-mano buildup, the hyperbole centering on two violent teams competing for a Super Bowl berth, ceased. For a few frightening minutes, it was preempted by the thought that an NFL player might be paralyzed on the field of the AFC championship game.

Looking on as medical personnel surrounded the fallen player, the Baltimore Ravens weren't worried about losing the seminal game of their season as much as possibly losing a teammate -- McGahee, a victim of the same kind of pad-popping hit glorified by a league, its network partners and, yes, us -- the game-day-obsessed nation.

Steelers-Ravens represented the rugged best and unsightly worst of the NFL on Sunday night, and the play in the final minutes of a vicious game -- three players suffered concussions and no one left the field unscathed -- will further serve to polarize the masses.

PITTSBURGH - JANUARY 18: James Harrison #92 of the Pittsburgh Steelers lines up on defense against the Baltimore Ravens during the AFC Championship game on January 18, 2009 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.(Getty Images)
If ever a parent worried for a child's safety in this sport, this was the game to confirm every fear. You see the replay of Ryan Clark lowering his shoulder and helmet at warp speed as he collides with McGahee, his body jarring violently, his neck sickeningly snapping back like a crash-test dummy, and you can almost hear thousands of parents across America: "That's it, you're not going to play. Soccer, baseball, basketball -- anything but football."

They're right behind the same people, of course, who exclaimed: "Great hit! That's how you put a hurt on somebody."

Pittsburgh and Baltimore played one of the most painful and menacing physical ordeals in NFL history, a vertebrae-crunching, brain-rattling, helmet-to-helmet affair that was billed as a conference championship game and nearly ended as an indictment on the these bruising, maim-the-other-team styles. Instead, the immediate news was positive: A team spokesman said McGahee is neurologically intact and that he would stay overnight in a Pittsburgh hospital.

"I started getting a little emotional when I saw him down there and the cart was coming out," began Ben Roethlisberger, before adding, "That's the nature of this rivalry."

Beautiful. Great.

Ray Lewis, Terrell Suggs and the ruffians came all this way, to the crest of playing for it all, to discover a hideous truth:

PITTSBURGH - JANUARY 18: Running back Willis McGahee #23 of the Baltimore Ravens is tackeled by Larry Foote #50 and James Farrior #51 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during the AFC championship game on January 18, 2009 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Contrary to their own belief, they're not the most menacing, unmerciful, I-will-knock-you-out football team in the National Football League. That belongs to the guys who made the medics come on the field for their teammate who couldn't move.

Oh, Baltimore is brutally tough. No team weathers the physical and psychological punishment the Ravens did here Sunday night and manages to make the AFC championship a taut thriller in the final minutes.

But they don't bring pain like the Steelers; they don't hit, pulverize and, disturbingly, concuss an opponent with the same malice as these hard-core players from Allegheny County.

Two Ravens suffered concussions in the first half, including cornerback Corey Ivy, who absorbed the nastiest crack-back hit from wideout Limas Sweed. In fact, crack-back is too kind. He was a human missile zeroing in, hitting maximum speed upon impact, his helmet jarring every bone in Ivy's body.

Another Ravens defensive back went down and out -- Daren Stone was dropped on the first play of the game and was so shaken up he didn't return until the second half.

There has to be some real regret in Baltimore, coming this close with a rookie coach, a rookie quarterback and all the momentum imaginable after knocking out the top-seeded Titans in Tennessee last week.

Joe Flacco vs. Kurt Warner would have been the perfect historical comparison -- the rookie quarterback who no one gave much of a chance to start an NFL game this postseason, much less lead his team to a conference championship game. He had a slightly better pedigree than the former grocery boy who hoisted the Lombardi Trophy for the St. Louis Rams nine years ago, but Flacco's ascent to the Super Bowl would have been just as unlikely as Warner's first full season in the NFL, as unlikely as Warner's renaissance at 37 years old.

PITTSBURGH - JANUARY 18: Troy Polamalu #43 of the Pittsburgh Steelers runs down Joe Flacco #5 of the Baltimore Ravens during the AFC Championship game on January 18, 2009 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

But Pittsburgh again out-Baltimored the Ravens -- they beat up and knocked out a team featuring two future Hall of Famers, Lewis and Ed Reed, whose name was barely called next to the Steelers' Troy Polamalu.

It was one of the hardest-hitting games in league history, a contest Jack Lambert, Deacon Jones, Ronnie Lott and Dick Butkus would have loved to say they played in. Lawrence Taylor, Sam Huff and Ray Nitschke would have paid to see it in person.

Steelers-Ravens also took the sanctioned-violence quotient to a downright scary level, to the point of stretchers, concussions and a locker room full of players waiting for Willis McGahee to move his limbs and let them know he's okay.

Clark's devastating hit on McGahee captures spirit of brute-force rivals

By Tim Layden
Inside the NFL
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/nfl/
January 19, 2009

PITTSBURGH -- Sometimes a single play defines a game, a season, a team. Late in the fourth quarter of Sunday's brutal match to decide the AFC's Super Bowl representative, Steelers free safety Ryan Clark saw the Ravens line up in a formation that he had seen before. Just less than four minutes remained in the game and the Steelers had taken a 23-14 lead on Troy Polamalu's 40-yard interception return.


Ryan Clark's crushing (and clean) hit on Willis McGahee was essentially the Steelers' coup de grace moment in a highly physical game.
AP

Now the Ravens, desperate, faced 2nd-and-6 on their own 27. Tight end Todd Heap broke the huddle and lined up just outside the right offensive tackle, with tailback Willis McGahee in the backfield. As rookie quarterback Joe Flacco called signals, Heap and McGahee traded positions. The light bulb went on inside Clark's black helmet. "The Chargers did that last week with Darren Sproles and completed a pass right up the middle. I was thinking they might try to throw it to McGahee.''

The game had been a contest of inefficiencies, of fierce opponents who know and dislike each other all too well and struggle to perform effectively. A contest -- like all of their games -- that would be decided by isolated bursts of performance and execution, peppered with violence at a level even higher than the NFL norm. As the play unfolded, Steelers linebacker Larry Foote watched from the sideline, off the field in a situational defensive switch. He watched McGahee loop out of the backfield into open space, and he watched Flacco deliver a touch pass on McGahee's fingertips.

"A dangerous play,'' Foote recalled after the game. "A lot of open field and lot of defensive players watching the ball.''

Clark was closest. At 5-foot-11, 205 pounds, Clark is a prototypical modern Cover Two free safety, a human missile whose frequent assignment is to launch himself from the hashmarks at receivers right after the ball contacts their hands, discouraging them from catching it the next time. He ran at McGahee and exploded with his right shoulder into the front and left side of McGahee's helmet, drilling him backward into the worn earth of Heinz Field. The ball dropped out and was recovered by Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons.

Clark fell backward, stunned. He was later told he had been knocked cold. (On the bench, doctors gave him three words to remember: Ball, Car, Maroon; he took pride in reciting them 40 minutes later in the locker room). Ten minutes after the hit, McGahee was driven from the field in a medical flatbed cart, with movement in his upper and lower extremities, but neck pain.

It can be misleading to reduce a championship football game to a single play, whether that play is a touchdown, a turnover or a concussive hit. Yet the Steelers and the Ravens have a rivalry that tests the bounds of normal analysis. Pittsburgh finished off its 23-14 win (Recap Box) not long after McGahee was driven into the tunnels beneath the stands at Heinz, and they will play now in their seventh Super Bowl. But surely that game will be nothing like this one, or the previous two bloodbaths played this year against the Ravens.

"Two physical teams that don't like each other,'' said Foote. "You go into a game like this knowing that our offense isn't going to score 30 points because they've got a good defense. Not as good as ours, but good. So you know the game is going to come down to a few plays.''

Ravens linebacker Bart Scott, a man who craves contact like food at dinnertime, slowly pulled on clothes in the losing locker room and said, "It's always physical. Every game.''

Clark's hit on McGahee was the biggest of the night, but not by a wide margin. With one minute left in the first half and the Steelers trying to extend a 13-7 lead, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a perfect ball down the right sideline to Limas Sweed, who dropped the pass, wide open inside the Baltimore 10-yard-line. Two plays later, aided by a roughing the kicker call, Roethlisberger completed a sideline pass to tight end Heath Miller, who turned upfield, pursued by Ravens cornerback Corey Ivy. Sweed, back on the field and getting snaps because of a knee injury suffered by Hines Ward, reeled back up field on Ivy and leveled him with a shoulder to his facemask.

"You could tell there was a little emotion in that hit,'' said Steelers linebacker James Farrior.

"Well, I was pissed, I won't lie about that,'' said Sweed.

The margin between these rivals is almost immeasurably small. Their Dec. 14 game, a 13-9 Steelers' victory, was decided by a Ravens' non-touchdown pass that is still being debated after countless replays from every imaginable angle. That came almost two months after the Steelers won in overtime, 23-20.

When teams are so close and so emotional, games turn not on prolonged work, but on moments of brilliance or failure.

The contrasting play of quarterbacks Roethlisberger and Flacco is a microcosm of the rivalry.

Roethlisberger's work is not always easily judged. (Although on Sunday he passed for 255 yards, which is like 400 in a normal game). He is brilliant athlete, but almost never artistic. The Ravens attacked him often enough to sack him four times, knock him down on several other occasions and leave him with a sore back that had backup Byron Leftwich warming up in the second quarter. Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan also tried to change up by dropping as many as eight defenders on other plays.

On the second play of the second quarter, with the Steelers facing 3rd-and-9 from their own 35, Roethlisberger was pressured inside by the Ravens' pass rush. He drifted left away from the pressure, ran back to the right and toward the line of scrimmage and threw into the deep right flat off his back foot. It looked like a prayer, but Santonio Holmes came down with the ball and then worked across the width of the field to complete a 65-yard touchdown. "I felt like Ben was throwing it away,'' Holmes would say after the game.

Flacco, meanwhile, completed only 13 of 30 passes for 141 yards and threw three interceptions. In the fourth quarter, while trailing just 16-14 and trying to mount a game-winning drive, he was picked by Polamalu, who -- much like Clark would do later -- was lying in wait for Flacco's pass to Derrick Mason. When Polamalu reached the end zone, the game was effectively finished.

But Clark's hit was the valedictory, a blow that surely reverberated across the continent to Arizona. A farewell to the Ravens. A symbol of what awaits the Cardinals.