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Carson Palmer stood his ground and held the ball an extra second, waiting for rookie Chris Henry to run past a defender and get open.That one second changed everything. Steelers nose tackle Kimo von Oelhoffen dived at Palmer on his first pass Sunday, hitting Palmer at the knee and knocking the Pro Bowl quarterback out of the game with a torn ligament. Pittsburgh took advantage of his absence, harassing backup Jon Kitna and rolling to a 31-17 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals that set up a rematch with the AFC's top team. The Steelers (12-5) will play in Indianapolis next Sunday, a chance to show how far they've come in the past month. Pittsburgh lost at the RCA Dome 26-7 on Nov. 28, when coach Bill Cowher started the second half with a failed onside kick that seemed to be a sign of desperation. ``We're the underdogs going into their place,'' said Ben Roethlisberger, who threw three touchdown passes. ``Now we get to see what we can do.'' Defending Super Bowl champion New England will play in Denver on Saturday night. The Bengals (11-6) will spend an offseason reliving the play that effectively scuttled their first playoff appearance in 15 years - and could have a longer-lasting impact. Palmer tore the anterior cruciate ligament, an injury that requires surgery and months of tough rehabilitation. The Bengals are hoping he's recovered by training camp in July. ``I was really upset,'' receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said. ``Not because of the fact we lost him. He's young and he's got to go through so much now tearing his knee. It's just sad for that to happen. He was playing great.'' The Bengals were initially angered and inspired by the injury, but the emotion lasted only so long. They faded during the third quarter, when they started bungling and the Steelers acted like they'd been to the playoffs before. ``We had that letdown, we didn't get that (second-half) field goal and it kind of deflated us,'' said Kitna, who took over for Palmer and spent most of his time scrambling. ``We never recovered from that.'' Pittsburgh was in jeopardy of not making the playoffs after a 38-31 loss to the Bengals at Heinz Field effectively gave Cincinnati the AFC North title. The Steelers won their last four to get in as a wild card. In his second playoff go-round, Roethlisberger was coolly efficient - 14-of-19 for 208 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, a vast improvement over his shaky rookie postseason. ``Last year, everything was new to Ben,'' said receiver Hines Ward, who had a 5-yard touchdown catch. ``Tonight, he was pretty crisp. The intangibles that he brings, I like a lot.'' The crowd of 65,870 erupted, then went sickeningly silent on the Bengals' first pass play - one that went down as the longest in Cincinnati playoff history, and the costliest. Palmer held onto the ball long enough to let Henry beat a defender down the right sideline for a 66-yard catch. As the ball left Palmer's hand, a falling von Oelhoffen's shoulder drove into the quarterback's left knee. ``I knew right away that it was bad,'' said Palmer, who was on crutches after the game. ``I felt my whole knee pop. I didn't feel a lot of pain. It was just a sickening feeling because I knew what it was and that my season was over.'' Even though Palmer wears a protective brace, his knee bowed inward as it was hit. He had to be taken off on a cart. ``You watch it happen, my thoughts and prayers go out to Carson,'' Roethlisberger said. ``You could see Kimo was stumbling going down. He's not that kind of player. Carson's a great player. Any time you lose a great player like him, it's devastating.'' Several Bengals yelled at von Oelhoffen, who spent his first six seasons in Cincinnati and still counts some of the Bengals as friends. ``Guys were infuriated,'' right tackle Willie Anderson said. ``But I know him. He's not a dirty player. His momentum just kept him going into Carson. It wasn't a dirty play.'' The nose tackle explained himself on the field. ``They had every right to be upset. They lost their best player,'' he said. ``I hope Carson gets better. My apologies to him and his family. ``I was worried about Carson. That kid deserved to play this game.'' Now, it was up to Palmer's mentor to get it done. He couldn't. Kitna led the Bengals to an 8-8 finish in coach Marvin Lewis' first season, then took a back seat to Palmer the last two seasons. He played sparingly this season and was understandably rusty in a 37-3 loss to Kansas City last week. Kitna, one of only 13 Bengals with playoff experience, finished 24-of-40 for 197 yards with two interceptions and four sacks. He kept the Bengals in it until their inexperience and lack of a Pro Bowl quarterback started to show in the third quarter. First, the Bengals botched a field goal attempt because of a high snap. Then, Kitna knocked the ball out of his own hand while scrambling, scuttling a drive. Finally, a shanked 30-yard punt - something out of the old Bungles days - put the Steelers in position to take control. Three plays later, they used a little sleight-of-snap to do just that. Antwaan Randle El took a direct snap in front of Roethlisberger, ran to his right, turned and threw the ball back to the quarterback. Cedrick Wilson was 10 yards beyond the confused coverage for his 43-yard touchdown catch that put the Steelers up 28-17. That was it. |
What Bettis hopes is the Pittsburgh Steelers delay his anticipated retirement for four more games. Bettis matched his career high with three touchdown runs in what likely was his final game in Pittsburgh and the Steelers overcame some sloppy defense to beat the Detroit Lions 35-21 Sunday, securing their 10th playoff appearance in 14 seasons under coach Bill Cowher. The Steelers (11-5) will play AFC North champion Cincinnati, a 37-3 loser to Kansas City, at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in a wild-card game. Pittsburgh won at Cincinnati 27-13 on Oct. 23, but effectively lost the division title with a 38-31 loss to the Bengals in Pittsburgh on Dec. 4. ``We play them twice a year and we know them,'' Hines Ward said. ``We'll take our chances going to Cincinnati. ... It's not going to be easy, but we're more comfortable with them.'' Pittsburgh avoided a playoff rematch with New England when the Patriots lost 28-26 to Miami. The Steelers lost AFC championship games at home to the Patriots last season and during the 2001 season. ``It didn't make any difference to me who we play,'' safety Troy Polamalu said. ``We have unfinished business with both of them.'' Bettis, the fifth-leading rusher in NFL history, said last week he wanted to ``do something special'' if this was his final home game. He had only 41 yards - Willie Parker ran for 135 - but scored on runs of 1, 5 and 4 yards to help the Steelers overcome an early 14-7 deficit. Bettis could think of only one better way to end his career - playing in the Super Bowl for the first time. ``I told the guys, `We've got to get there - I'm running out of time,''' said the 33-year-old Bettis, who came back this season mostly for the chance to play in the Super Bowl in his Detroit hometown. Still, the Steelers' challenge is a big one. No sixth-seeded team has made it to a conference championship game, much less the Super Bowl, since the NFL's present playoff format was adopted in 1990. To get there, the Steelers might have to beat the Bengals, Colts and Patriots, all on the road. ``But I think if any team could do it, it's this team,'' said Polamalu, who thinks the Steelers are playing better now than a year ago, when they were top-seeded after winning their final 14. ``Maybe that's why our season has gone the way it has.'' The Steelers allowed Joey Harrington to throw three touchdown passes after giving up only one touchdown and 12 points in their previous three games, but won their fourth in a row following a three-game skid. The Lions (5-11) finished their fifth consecutive losing season with six losses in seven games. This wasn't the kind of game the Steelers wanted to take into the playoffs - Ben Roethlisberger was only 7-of-16 for 135 yards and threw his first two interceptions in four games - but Bettis supplied an emotional lift. ``It was his day,'' Ward said. For a team that needed to win to make the playoffs, the Steelers seemed to lack desperation after Antwaan Randle El scored on an 81-yard punt return less than two minutes into the game. Harrington threw scoring passes of 12 yards to Marcus Pollard and 1 yard to Cory Schlesinger to put the Lions up 14-7. ``We gave them a game, gave them a little scare, but it wasn't enough,'' Lions coach Dick Jauron said. Bettis scored the Steelers' next three touchdowns, celebrating the final one early in the third quarter by waving his arms to encourage a long, loud standing ovation from the crowd of 63,794. When the Lions cut it to 28-21 on Harrington's 15-yard TD pass to Roy Williams, the Steelers starters stayed in and Bettis returned to the game, getting several more ovations and two video tributes on the Heinz Field scoreboard. His final carry was a 4-yard run to the Steelers 41 with 3:10 to play, giving him 13,662 yards in his career. Like Bettis, the Lions have decisions to make. Among them is whether to bring back Jauron, who replaced Steve Mariucci when the Lions were 4-7, and Harrington, a former first-round draft pick. ``A big part of me wants to stay and right what we started, but there's another part that wants to go somewhere else and get a fresh start,'' Harrington said. ``Two months ago, the consensus was I should have been on the first thing smoking coming out of town.''Lions-Steelers
Jerome Bettis acted like a man ready to retire. He received two standing ovations, signed dozens of jerseys and footballs for his teammates and posed for pictures on the field for a half-hour after the game ended.
|
The Pittsburgh Steelers were the worst possible kind of out-of-town guests: unruly, unkind and unrelenting. Dominating from the moment they took the field, the Steelers overwhelmed the Cleveland Browns 41-0 on Sunday, improving their AFC playoff chances while embarrassing a team that is a rival in name only. Ben Roethlisberger threw a touchdown pass, Willie Parker had an 80-yard TD run and the Steelers (10-5) thrashed rookie quarterback Charlie Frye - and a foolish Cleveland fan - in their lopsided win. ``We made a statement,'' said linebacker James Harrison, who blocked a punt and body slammed a Browns fan who ventured on to the field. ``We won, that was the statement we wanted. Margin of victory, stuff like that, is nice. But winning and going to the playoffs is our goal. That's what we want.'' And that's what they'll get if the Steelers play like they did for 60 minutes. With thousands of their fans waving ``Terrible Towels'' from every corner of Cleveland Browns Stadium, the Steelers dominated the Browns as thoroughly as in almost any meeting in the rivalry's 55-year history. Pittsburgh outgained Cleveland 457-178 and sacked Frye eight times. The Steelers handed the Browns (5-10) a loss every bit as demoralizing as their 43-0 shutout in the 1999 season opener when Cleveland made its return to the NFL as an expansion team. ``It's definitely the most embarrassing loss of my career,'' Browns cornerback Daylon McCutcheon said. ``This is way worse than '99. In '99, we didn't have a good team, now we got talent. But from the opening kickoff, we played bad football. Today we stunk.'' Then there was the fan who jumped the railing and sprinted onto the field in the fourth quarter. He made a move toward Pittsburgh's bench before he was picked up and pancaked by Harrison before police took him away. ``I didn't know what he was going to do,'' Harrison said. ``So I waited until he turned his back to me. Then I thought I could safely take him down and hold him until the authorities got there.'' Frye was treated even worse by the Steelers, who had him running for his safety on nearly every snap. The Steelers game plan was to make Frye uncomfortable, and they did much more than that, confusing him with a variety of coverages and blitz packages. ``We wanted to rattle him,'' linebacker James Farrior said. ``He's looked good, but he's a rookie. So we threw a lot of different looks at him and brought a lot of pressure.'' Pittsburgh, which can clinch a playoff spot with a win over Detroit at home next week, seems to have fully recovered from a three-game losing streak that seriously jeopardized the Steelers' postseason hopes. Roethlisberger, now 21-3 as a starter, picked the Browns' defense apart, going 13-of-20 for 226 yards in three quarters. Hines Ward caught a 7-yard TD pass in the first quarter and had seven receptions for 105 yards. ``Everything clicked real good for us on offense,'' Roethlisberger said, ``and our defense was flying around. They're fun to watch when they're playing like that. We went out there and did what we wanted to do.'' Parker finished with 17 carries for 130 yards, giving him 1,067 this season and making him the first Steelers back other than Jerome Bettis to go over 1,000 yards since 1992. Bettis scored Pittsburgh's first TD in the first. The Steelers were already ahead 20-0 when Parker broke through a huge hole in the line and easily outran Cleveland's defensive backs for Pittsburgh's longest rushing play since Kordell Stewart went 80 for a TD in 1996. ``That play was supposed to go left, but the hole was so big to the right that I took it,'' Parker said. ``I never thought I would lead the Steelers in rushing or get 1,000 yards. It's an emotional moment for me.'' Pittsburgh's dominance in the first quarter was so complete that it produced some almost unbelievable stats. In the opening period, the Steelers outgained the Browns 196-1; had 162 passing yards to minus-2 for Cleveland; and led in first downs 9-0. ``We didn't do anything good or right,'' Browns coach Romeo Crennel said. ``I'm embarrassed getting beat like that.'' |
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