Steelers keep home fires burning

Home. Alone.

On an NFL weekend taken over by unruly guests, the Pittsburgh Steelers showed they’re still the kings of their castle. They did what the Tennessee Titans, Carolina Panthers and even the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants couldn’t.

They defended their home turf -- and next Sunday will play host to the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game at Heinz Field.

“It can’t get any bigger than that, man,” Steelers receiver Santonio Holmes said. “The road to the Super Bowl runs through Pittsburgh.”

Unlike the NFC road -- which, shockingly, is freshly paved through Phoenix -- the AFC version is as weather-worn and old-school as the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Pittsburgh and Baltimore will play for the third time this season, giving the Ravens a chance to avenge losses of three and four points to their bitter AFC North rivals. It’s not a comfortable scenario for either franchise, even though the Steelers are evolving into an outstanding all-around team, and the Ravens just knocked off top-seeded Tennessee in Nashville.

“We’re both very familiar with each other, so there’s not going to be any tricks,” Pittsburgh linebacker James Farrior said. “It’s just going to be a drag-down, dirty dogfight. . . . You’ve got two great defenses, so I think it’s going to be a low-scoring, hard-hitting game.”

The Steelers finished the regular season with a defense ranked No. 1 overall, first against the pass and second against the rush. The Ravens were second overall, second against the pass and third against the run.

“What else would you expect? Us and the Ravens,” Pittsburgh Coach Mike Tomlin said. “It would be a big game if it was a scrimmage. It just happens to be the AFC championship game.”

When the teams played at Pittsburgh in Week 4, the Steelers won in overtime, 23-20. They lost first-round pick Rashard Mendenhall for the season in that game and were down to their fourth running back before rallying from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to win.

In the rematch four weeks ago, Pittsburgh won in Baltimore for the first time since 2002, holding the Ravens to a season-low 202 yards in a 13-9 punch-out.

Even as the story of Baltimore’s season is still being written, the Ravens’ strongest suit stands to pay big dividends for defensive coordinator Rex Ryan. He interviewed in Baltimore on Sunday with the New York Jets for their head-coaching vacancy. In fresh ink on his resume: The Ravens have forced eight turnovers in the last two games.

The NFC championship will take place on the other side of the country -- and the other end of the spectrum. Arizona’s offense is burning nitro fuel again after sputtering to four losses in the final six games of the regular season. In their postseason victories over Atlanta and at Carolina, the Cardinals scored 30 and 33 points.

The only thing enjoying a more impressive rebirth than the Cardinals’ offense is their box-office sales. The same team that needed two extensions from the NFL to avoid a television blackout in the wild-card round sold out its allotment of championship tickets Sunday in six minutes.

No doubt some of those ticket holders are fans of the Philadelphia Eagles, who advanced by winning at Giants Stadium on Sunday for the second time this season. It was the sixth victory in seven games for a team that once looked lost.

“The city of Philadelphia is buzzing; this team is buzzing,” said quarterback Donovan McNabb, who this season was benched for a game for the first time in his career.

In the game after that benching, on Thanksgiving night, he threw four touchdown passes in a 48-20 throttling of Arizona at Philadelphia. The Cardinals, four days removed from a home loss to the Giants, were rapidly losing altitude.

“We just didn’t have our game today,” Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner said at the time. “And it was across the board.”

Clearly, the Cardinals have recovered, and then some. They also shook the stigma of being the only NFC team not to reach a conference championship game since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.

“When you get to this level, you have to win as a team,” Warner said after the latest shocker. “That’s what we’ve done these past two weeks. Nobody believed it. Nobody expected it.”

For the Steelers, this is much more familiar ground. This will be their 14th AFC title game. Still, Sunday’s win was their first postseason victory in two years, since beating Seattle in Super Bowl XL.

That game was in a climate-controlled stadium in Detroit. Sunday’s AFC game will be in the see-your-breath, can’t-feel-your-toes cold of Pittsburgh.

“It’s always a plus for us,” Holmes said of the weather. “We see it every day. We play in it, practice in it. That’s Steeler football. That’s the way it’s always been.”

It’s not cozy. It’s not too different from what Baltimore players are used to. But, hey, it’s home.

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sam.farmer@latimes.com