PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers refuse to change faces, alter systems or break up teams based on the latest offensive gimmick or defensive scheme. They hire a new coach only once every 15 years or so, and he’s expected to do it their way.
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers refuse to change faces, alter systems or break up teams based on the latest offensive gimmick or defensive scheme. They hire a new coach only once every 15 years or so, and he’s expected to do it their way.
The Baltimore Ravens learned the good old way can still be the best way, trying and failing for the third time this season to beat the Steelers at their own game.
The Steelers used a big play each on offense and defense, plus their traditional toughness and meanness, to defeat Baltimore 23-14 in the AFC championship game Sunday night and reach the Super Bowl for the second time in four seasons.
“The Steelers play the way they always play,” Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco said.
Call them traditional. Call them old-fashioned. The Steelers don’t care — they’re winning the same way now that they won four Super Bowls in six years during the 1970s, and they don’t see any reason to change.
“You can call it whatever you want,” the Ravens’ Trevor Pryce said. “They come at you from all angles — the defensive linemen are doing this, the linebackers are doing that. They are a good bunch.”
If they can beat the Arizona Cardinals and their staff filled with ex-Steelers coaches, led by Ken Whisenhunt, the Steelers will be among the best — the first to win six Super Bowls. Mike Tomlin is the third coach to take the Steelers to the NFL’s title game, and he could win it much sooner than Chuck Noll (6th season) and Bill Cowher (14th season) did.
“This is the Steelers’ story and not my story,” Tomlin said.
The Ravens-Steelers game followed a familiar story line, with the league’s two best defenses going at it in a slugfest-type game. Predictably, Ravens rookie quarterback Joe Flacco struggled against a defense that thrives on causing confusion, forcing mistakes and creating turnovers.
In a performance reminiscent of then-rookie Ben Roethlisberger’s first AFC title game four years ago, when he was picked off four times during a 41-27 loss to New England, Flacco’s three interceptions were the difference. Flacco offered the perfect illustration of why no rookie quarterback has taken a team to the Super Bowl.
“You can’t make mistakes in a game like this,” Roethlisberger said.
The last one, Troy Polamalu’s 40-yard interception return with slightly more than four minutes remaining sealed it after the Ravens, down 13-0 early in the second quarter, closed to within 16-14 on two Willis McGahee touchdown runs.
The numbers were telling: Flacco, 13-of-30 for 141 yards and three interceptions. Roethlisberger: 16-of-33 for 255 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. This was as one-sided as Roethlisberger vs. Tom Brady four years ago.
“A rookie can never replace experience,” Polamalu said. “He (Roethlisberger) has a lot of big-game experience. As far as our defense and the rest of our team, I think when we get into those tough situations and close games … most of our victories were in those type of close games.”
Early on, it didn’t look like it would be close as Jeff Reed kicked the first two of his three field goals and an improvised Roethlisberger-to-Santonio Holmes touchdown play covered 65 yards, giving the Steelers that 13-0 lead.
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