Philadelphia and New England, thriving in the cold weather, convincingly clinch Super Bowl berths -- the Eagles’ first since 1981 and the Patriots’ third in four years

With all the fixation this NFL season on the arm of Peyton Manning, the head of Ricky Williams, the ankle of Terrell Owens, the moon of Randy Moss and the body of Nicollette Sheridan, something obvious got lost in the shuffle:

The heart of the New England Patriots.

Again.

“Heart, heart, heart -- and preparation,” safety Rodney Harrison said Sunday after a 41-27 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, one that clinched the Patriots’ third trip to the Super Bowl in four seasons. “They had the 6-foot-5 receivers and Pro Bowl players, but we just showed we have heart.”

And the two-time champions will get a chance Feb. 6 to prove they belong among the great teams in NFL history, when they face Philadelphia in the Super Bowl. There was precious little hooting and hollering from the Patriots as they made their way through the locker-room tunnel.

“We have really high expectations,” New England tight end Christian Fauria said. “This is a great accomplishment, but the trip isn’t over. The grail is in Jacksonville.”

In beating the Steelers, Patriot Coach Bill Belichick improved to 9-1 in postseason games, tying Vince Lombardi for the all-time best playoff record. One more victory, and Belichick will have a better record than the guy whose name is on the Super Bowl trophy.

“He’s got great attention to detail and he doesn’t ever really let us get away with everything,” quarterback Tom Brady said of Belichick. “We didn’t have a great practice on Wednesday. He let us know it. You would’ve thought we were 0 and 16 the way he spoke to us. It gets everyone in the right frame of mind.”

Defense is Belichick’s specialty, and it was New England’s defense that led the way on a frigid day at Heinz Field, where the sun was shining but the mercury didn’t climb higher than 11 degrees at kickoff. The Patriots used their swarming defense to confuse and confound quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, forcing the Pittsburgh rookie into three interceptions.

Harrison had the most dramatic of those picks, scoring on an 87-yard return to give the Patriots a three-touchdown lead in the second quarter.

The Steelers battled back, giving their frozen fans reason to twirl their yellow Terrible Towels, but could pull no closer than 31-20 early in the fourth quarter. The day belonged to the Patriots, who handed Pittsburgh its first loss since a Week 2 defeat at Baltimore.

“We got ourselves in a hole that we really couldn’t get out of,” said Steeler Coach Bill Cowher, whose team has gone 1-4 in the five AFC title games it has played host to since 1994.

A pivotal point came on the fourth play of the final quarter, when Pittsburgh was facing a fourth and goal at the two. Instead of trying for a touchdown that could have trimmed the deficit to seven, Cowher opted for a field goal. His team would get no closer than 11 points.

“I thought there was too much time to go with two yards to come away with nothing,” the coach said. “That was my decision. I would do it again.”

Pittsburgh’s top-ranked defense wasn’t so unwilling to give ground. It was picked apart by Brady, who threw two touchdown passes, including a pinpoint 60-yarder to Deion Branch in the first quarter. Branch scored again in the fourth quarter on a 23-yard reverse.

It was the first time Branch faced Pittsburgh this season. A knee injury kept him out of the first meeting, a game the Steelers won, 34-20, ending the Patriots’ record winning streak at 21 games. On that day, New England was outrushed, 221 yards to five, and surrendered 21 points in the first quarter, the most against the Patriots since 1979.

“We couldn’t do anything,” Harrison recalled. “We got our butts kicked. It was embarrassing. ... They were jumping around and celebrating. They were very cocky. It just hurts your pride.”

Payback came Sunday, when the Patriots delivered knee-buckling hits, did a couple of end-zone dances, and -- in the case of Harrison -- walked the last few steps across the goal line for six points. That touchdown came after Roethlisberger moved the Steelers into scoring range and then forced a pass toward tight end Jerame Tuman.

“It was extremely frustrating,” Roethlisberger said. “I saw Harrison driving on it. I thought I could squeeze it in to Jerame. But I obviously made a bad choice, a bad decision.”

There were too many of those bad decisions Sunday for Roethlisberger, who hadn’t tasted losing since the opener of his last season at Miami of Ohio. He finished his college career with 12 consecutive victories, then won his first 14 starts as a pro. Although he was shaky at times, especially in recent weeks, his team never lost faith in him. He wore a glove on this throwing hand in a divisional playoff game against the New York Jets, but went bare-handed Sunday.

“All week I practiced without it to see if I could get a better grasp on the ball,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how the ball was going to feel because it was going to have the AFC championship logo on it.”

Maybe it wasn’t the slickness of that logo but the constant reminder of the importance of the game that crept into Roethlisberger’s head. He was the runaway offensive rookie of the year, a guy who rocketed into the national consciousness and was viewed as a fuzzy-faced leader of a group of grizzled veterans. But all that was of little consolation to him after the game.

“We had a record-breaking storybook season,” he said. “Unfortunately, a lot of people will see it as all for nothing because [we] didn’t go all the way. But I learned a lot this year.”

And a lot of that learning came at the hands of the Patriots, the devastatingly efficient team that day by day is constructing a dynasty. No flash. No dazzle. No problem.

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One Step Short

Under Coach Bill Cowher, the Pittsburgh Steelers have played host to the AFC championship game five times but have lost four of them -- two against Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots. Cowher’s only conference championship came against Indianapolis in the 1995 season.

Season; Site; Opponent; Result; Game Summary

2004; Heinz Field; NEW ENGLAND; Lost, 41-27; A 60-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Deion Branch gave the Patriots a 10-0 lead and set the tone for a first half in which New England took a 24-3 lead.

2001; Heinz Field; NEW ENGLAND; Lost, 24-17; Patriots scored two special teams touchdowns: one on a punt return by Troy Brown and the other on a blocked field-goal attempt by Kris Brown.

1997; Three Rivers Stadium; DENVER; Lost, 24-21; Quarterback John Elway led the Broncos to 17 second-quarter points for a 24-14 halftime lead. Steeler quarterback Kordell Stewart was intercepted three times.

1995; Three Rivers Stadium; INDIANAPOLIS; Won, 20-16; Bam Morris ran for the winning touchdown with a minute left, and defensive back Randy Fuller batted away a desperation pass in the end zone as time expired.

1994; Three Rivers Stadium; SAN DIEGO; Lost, 17-13; Stan Humphries threw two touchdown passes in the second half and linebacker Dennis Gibson deflected a fourth-down pass by Neil O’Donnell with 1:04 left.