Kings Of the Road

PITTSBURGH 34 DENVER 17

With seven straight wins, including five away from home, the Steelers are focusing on the moment-and riding the inspiration of Jerome Bettis

In a ballroom at a suburban Denver hotel last Saturday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers got their marching orders for the next day's AFC Championship Game. Urged by coach Bill Cowher to light a fire under the troops, running back Jerome (the Bus) Bettis, finishing his 10th Steelers season and likely closing out a 13-year NFL career, stood and asked the other 52 players plus the coaches in the room to do two things. The first: Give everything you've got tomorrow against the favored Denver Broncos. "If you do," the Bus said, "I'll shake your hand and love you forever." The second was personal: A Detroit native yearning to play in Super Bowl XL, to be staged six miles from his parents' house, Bettis said, "The last thing I'll ever ask you is, Take me home."

Sitting in the audience, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger struggled to control his emotions. As he said the next day, "All I was thinking was, Hey, Bussie, go sit down. You're going to make me cry."

A year earlier Roethlisberger had cried for Bettis, late in their 41-27 loss to the New England Patriots in the conference championship game. The rookie's poor performance had been a big factor in Pittsburgh's defeat, and on the sideline he tearfully asked the Bus to play one more year so he could get the big back into his first Super Bowl. Bettis returned, of course, and on Sunday, Roethlisberger delivered on his promise. Playing like a 10-year vet rather than a second-year pro, Roethlisberger (21 of 29, 275 yards) threw two beautiful touch-pass touchdowns and rushed for a third to key Pittsburgh's 34-17 victory. Bettis didn't have a memorable day statistically, but he did lead all rushers with 39 yards on 15 carries and scored on a pile-driving three-yard run over right guard just before halftime to give the Steelers a 14-point cushion. "Getting Jerome to Detroit has been my driving force all year," Roethlisberger said after the game. "This team is so happy for him."

The first No. 6 seed to advance to the Super Bowl, Pittsburgh (14-5) will meet the Seattle Seahawks (15-3) at Ford Field on Feb. 5. The Steelers also became the first team since the 1985 Patriots to win three playoff games on the road to qualify for the title game. But this hard-fought trip to glory began long before the postseason.

On dec. 4, after a 38-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals gave them three straight defeats, the Steelers were 7-5, two games behind the Bengals in the AFC North and a game behind the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers in the wild-card race for the sixth and final AFC playoff spot. While Steeler Nation has wrapped its arms around Bettis, Roethlisberger and two defensive heroes, strong safety Troy Polamalu and linebacker Joey Porter, the well-traveled fans-there must have been 15,000 Terrible Towel wavers among the 76,775 at Invesco Field on Sunday-would do well to embrace Pittsburgh's 14th-year coach, too. For a tactical decision Cowher made the day after that Cincinnati loss set the team on course for Detroit.

In a meeting room at the team's practice facility, there's a board that charts the Steelers' performance week by week, a statistical tracking kept by most NFL clubs. On Dec. 5, the 48-year-old Cowher went to the board and removed all references to the first 12 games of the season and the last three, leaving only that week's opponent, the Chicago Bears, for the players to ponder when they arrived later that day. "Clear your mind," Cowher told them in the meeting. "The slate's wiped clean. Forget the past. Forget the future. Only one thing matters: Chicago. Every week's an elimination game now."

The Bears, on an eight-game winning streak, went down in a snow squall 21-9. When the Steelers reported to work to prepare for their next opponent, the Minnesota Vikings (on a six-game win streak of their own), there was no evidence on the board that Pittsburgh had even played Chicago. The Steelers rolled over the Vikings 18-3. Same story before the 41-0 rout of the Cleveland Browns and the 35-21 whipping of the Detroit Lions. That 4-0 run down the stretch earned Pittsburgh the final wild-card spot, as the Chiefs limped home 2-2 and the Chargers staggered in 1-3. "Coach put us in playoff mode with four games left," said Porter. "With some teams that works, with some maybe it doesn't. But we've got guys who really respond to that."

The live-in-the-moment vibe carried the Steelers through their 31-17 wild-card win at Cincinnati and their 21-18 upset of the top-seeded Indianapolis Colts in the divisional round. Alone outside his locker room, after the Denver game, Cowher sounded like a preacher, extolling the virtues of this elementary approach. "You'll be amazed-amazed-how fresh you feel when you forget everything in your life except what you're doing right now," he said.

Of course, it helps to have a quarterback who has matured with lightning speed. Last year Roethlisberger threw five interceptions and three touchdowns passes while completing 57% of his throws in two playoff games. This postseason he has connected on 68% of his throws, with seven touchdowns and only one interception. "I've surprised myself," he said on Sunday. "It's amazing how far I've come."

It also helps to have the best blitzing defense Cowher has had in years. While defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau didn't throw as many of his varied packages at the Broncos as he did against the Colts the previous week, Pittsburgh's blitzes certainly rattled quarterback Jake Plummer. On the game's first series he unwisely tried to hit receiver Rod Smith between three defenders; the pass fell incomplete, ending the drive. On the second series Porter, who played a terrific pressure game, sacked Plummer and forced a fumble. The Steelers converted the turnover into a touchdown when wideout Cedrick Wilson beat All-Pro cornerback Champ Bailey and caught a Roethlisberger pass in the corner of the end zone for a 12-yard score. "I don't know what Champ was doing out there today," said the confident Wilson, a fifth-year wideout who was a free-agent pickup this season, "but he wasn't covering me."

After Plummer moved Denver close enough to get a field goal on his third possession, the Steelers struck right back. From the Denver three-yard line Bettis steamrollered behind guard Alan Faneca to give Pittsburgh a 17-3 lead. Seconds later Plummer handed Pittsburgh a gift, floating an incomprehensible pass into the arms of cornerback Ike Taylor at the Denver 39 with 1:48 left in the half. Roethlisberger's perfectly lofted ball into the back of the end zone for Hines Ward made it 24-3 at intermission, and this one was over.

Which brings us to how the Steelers have been winning: by jumping to a quick lead, controlling the clock with their running game and forcing teams to play catch-up against their aggressive, playmaking defense. They streaked to a 21-3 lead against the Bears in December and ran up a 14-0 advantage in the first 12 minutes against the Colts in the playoff game. During its seven-game streak Pittsburgh has won by an average of 17 points. Five of those victories have come on the road. "We took the scenic route," said a defiant Porter, who took time to smooch the Lamar Hunt Trophy twice. "And now we're in the biggest game in sports."

Right in Bettis's backyard. His parents, John and Gladys, have attended every one of his regular-season and playoff games as a pro, and there they were, standing in Invesco's south tunnel late Sunday afternoon, waiting to embrace their son. When he finally appeared, carrying two personal pan pizzas, he threw his arms around his mother. The Steelers fans lining the barrier above the tunnel cheered the Bettis family reunion, serenading Gladys with a chant of "Miss-us Bett-is, Miss-us Bett-is."

Get ready, Detroit. Mrs. Bettis will be cooking for the entire team next week. On Sunday that idea suited her son. "Momma," Bettis whispered in his mother's ear, "we're coming home."

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BY PETER KING Photograph by Al Tielemans

TIME MACHINE As they had in past games, the Steelers jumped out to a lead, then ran down the clock with Parker (39) and Bettis.

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BILL FRAKES

POL-AXED Polamalu and the Steelers' D got to Plummer and forced him into mistakes.