Four Teams Are Left on Road to Titletown

The Steelers were 3-4, coming off a loss to Jacksonville, and they saw a vision: You play hard the rest of the way and the only team standing between you and the Super Bowl will be the Indianapolis Colts.

A Free Ride To The Super Bowl: More than enough incentive for any team to win eight games in a row, blow past Buffalo and dream of warm winter nights in Arizona.

Has it ever been easier for a team? Buffalo demolished the Los Angeles Raiders, 51-3, six years ago in the AFC championship game, but the Raiders would have been a prohibitive favorite to blast these Colts.

The Steelers not only have a higher-ranked offense than the Colts, a higher-ranked defense than the Colts, a more productive kicker than the Colts and 59,000 screaming fans on their side, but also the constant reminder that they took the Chargers, a team like the Colts a year ago, much too lightly in the AFC championship game.

“We have a feeling of guilt from last year,” Steeler running back John L. Williams said. “The guys realize the opportunity in front of them. They’re not going to put themselves in position to repeat last year.”

Last year the Steelers were overwhelming favorites to clobber the San Diego beach boys on the frozen artificial turf of Three Rivers Stadium. But the Chargers won the AFC title, 17-13, knocking down a last-minute pass at the goal line.

“Some guys never get here,” Steeler linebacker Chad Brown said. “We’ve been here twice and it would be unforgivable to let this slip away.”

The Colts, who are two more victories away from earning a place in history, do not appear shaken by the Steelers’ resolve. They went to San Diego and won a playoff game they were supposed to lose. They did the same thing a week ago in Kansas City, and their team motto is “Let ‘er rip.”

“All we’ve heard is that they’re a team that’s not supposed to be here, a Cinderella team and who cares about the Indianapolis Colts?” Steeler cornerback Carnell Lake said. “They’re saying no one is giving them any credit, so they don’t have anything to lose. That’s very dangerous for us because they’re going to come out playing very loose with no worries about making mistakes.

“That’s the state of mind we also need to be in. We can’t play conservative football. We learned that hard lesson last year: Even though you’re a good team, it really doesn’t matter to the other team. You cannot take teams for granted, and this team we’re playing reminds me so much of the Chargers a year ago.”

The Colts will start a backfield that was sitting on the bench when the season opened. Jim Harbaugh, who replaced Craig Erickson as starting quarterback in the third game, finished the season as the NFL’s No. 1-rated passer. Running back Lamont Warren will be playing for the injured Marshall Faulk and fullback Zack Crockett for the injured Roosevelt Potts.

The Colts also lost Flipper Anderson, former Ram receiver, in the second game of the year with a knee injury, and will play with rookie Ken Dilger at tight end.

“The key to beating these guys is to stop the run and take Harbaugh out of his rhythm,” linebacker Kevin Greene said. “He’s not gonna let you collapse the pocket and crush him. I don’t know if you can contain Harbaugh if you’re pinning your ears back and he slips through.”

The Steelers, ranked No. 2 in the league in stopping the run, will try to confuse Harbaugh with their zone blitzes, make him hesitant and then grab him before he begins scrambling. The Colts, who were one of the worst teams in the league at protecting their quarterback (49 sacks allowed), will try to hog the ball.

“No drastic changes,” Colt Coach Ted Marchibroda said. “We’ll be in the same role we’ve been in the last two weeks--underdogs. Nothing has changed for us. We beat the team with the best record in the National Football League last week and we’re even more underdogs this week than we were last week.”

The Steelers, who got this far last year with a solid defense and an overpowering running game, have added the NFL’s eighth-best passing game to their arsenal. Quarterback Neil O’Donnell threw for 2,970 yards and 17 touchdowns with seven interceptions.

“The coaches came to me in mini-camp and said they were going to ask more of me this year; they said they were going to throw the ball more,” O’Donnell said. “I was really excited, and now as you can see, we’re a team that can put bunches of points on the board if necessary.”

Indianapolis’ defense, ranked seventh in the league overall, finished 20th against the pass. In the past three games, however, the Colts have intercepted 10 passes and given up an average of only 11 points a game.

“When we played San Francisco this year, Ted kept telling us that we weren’t playing the uniforms, we were playing the guys in the uniforms,” Colt defensive lineman Tony Siragusa said. “He said that the Colts uniforms were big underdogs, but that the men in the uniforms could win the game.”

The Colts, who have since produced a rap video entitled “Hanging With the Horseshoes,” defeated the 49ers, 18-17, and despite all of Indianapolis’ shortcomings, they now remain only 60 minutes shy of selling those videos at Super Bowl XXX.

“We’ve got guys hurt, we’re missing guys, we’re on the road,” Colt center Kirk Lowdermilk said. “But you know what? We hang together.”

The Steelers conducted auditions for their Super Bowl rap video on the Thursday before last year’s AFC championship game, and the Chargers said later they used that as added motivation to ruin Pittsburgh’s party plans.

“It was one 30-minute meeting,” Brown said. “I don’t think it blew our frame of mind, but at the same time, it’s kind of an indication we weren’t as focused as we should have been.

“No one this season has really scared us. The only thing that scares me is ourselves. If we don’t come out and play the way we’re supposed to, then anybody can beat us, and that’s scary. But beyond that, no, the Colts really don’t scare me.”

That’s what they were saying in San Diego two weeks ago. And Kansas City last week: The only thing standing between us and advancing in the playoffs is the Indianapolis Colts.