Steelers arrive despite Bus trouble

~ Pittsburgh overcame a late fumble by Jerome Bettis to reach the AFC championship game.

PITTSBURGH -- They overcame a bungled call and a fumbled ball, and now the Pittsburgh Steelers are headed to their sixth and least-anticipated trip to the AFC championship game in a dozen years under coach Bill Cowher.

The difference this time is the road they're taking, a route they've never traveled in their 73-year history but one that is bringing out the best in a team that in recent years has played its worst in mid-January.

To reach Sunday's AFC championship game in Denver, the Steelers withstood a late-season three-game losing streak that left them without a home playoff game -- and the biggest breakdown The Bus has ever had.

After going 100-1-1 in regular-season games under Cowher when leading by 10 points or more, only what may be remembered as the Great Escape allowed the Steelers to get this far.

"We all believed we can get this done," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "We all believe."

But would anybody have believed all this?

After underachieving so many times before in the playoffs -- remember the AFC title-game collapse against the Chargers in January 1995, and the twin failures in 2002 and 2005 against the Patriots? -- these Steelers are overachieving like never before.

Until this season, the Steelers had won only two road playoff games in 30 years, none under Cowher. Now they've won two in two weeks, including a 21-18 heart-stopper of an upset Sunday in Indianapolis that almost featured one of the most amazing collapses in NFL playoff history. Almost.

"Maybe this is the way to do it," Cowher said of going on the road in the playoffs rather than playing at home, where they are only 1-4 in AFC title games under him. "We haven't been too successful the other way."

They have been wildly successful this way, playing with confidence and an on-the-edge aggression that was visibly missing when they were 15-1 and the top-seed in last season's playoffs before losing to New England 41-27 for the conference title.

"Everybody counted us out about six weeks ago, so don't change now," linebacker Joey Porter said. "Everybody was against us, so keep it that way. It keeps a chip on our shoulder, it makes us play like we know how to play."

Well, at least for 55 minutes Sunday in Indianapolis it did.

After dominating the Colts for three quarters to open a 21-3 lead, the Steelers admittedly may have gone into a protect-the-lead shell too early, and the Colts surged back to make it 21-18.

Of course, it didn't help that the second Colts' TD came after what the NFL said Monday was a blown call, referee Pete Morelli's reversal of Steelers safety Troy Polamalu's interception with 5:26 remaining.

But the Steelers made a far worse gaffe of their own with 1:20 remaining. With Bettis carrying on a first down at the Colts' 2 and his teammates already celebrating on the sidelines, the Colts' Gary Brackett slammed his helmet into the ball and knocked it loose, sending it bouncing upfield.

Normally, Bettis carries the ball protectively, tucked high against his chest, but this time the ball seemed to be more in front of him than usual. That was all that Brackett needed to create Bettis' first fumble all season, one that almost rivaled Earnest Byner's famed The Fumble on what would have been a go-ahead touchdown for the Browns late in their 1988 AFC championship game loss to Denver.

If the Colts' Nick Harper hadn't been running on two sore legs after scooping up the ball, and if quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hadn't somehow stuck out an arm to make perhaps the most fortuitous tackle in team history, Bettis might have ended a Hall of Fame career with the mistake of a lifetime.

But Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt prevented that by missing a game-tying 46-yard field goal attempt on the Colts' final play.

Not since Franco Harris caught a fast-tumbling deflected pass off his shoetops and scored the most remarkable touchdown in NFL history -- the Immaculate Reception -- against the Oakland Raiders in 1972 have the Steelers been involved in such a bizarre and miraculous finish.

"When Jerome fumbled, we were over there talking, saying, 'Well, there must be a reason, because he doesn't fumble,' " Roethlisberger said. "So, somehow, something's supposed to happen."

Sunday in Denver, they'll find out what that something is supposed to be.

"We know that everybody's against you, and all we have is us," Roethlisberger said. "That's what makes this team so strong."