AFC Championship: Steelers 23, Ravens 14

Fucking unbelievable. This game started at 5:45? I wasn't going to turn it on until 7:00! Is the NFL fucking scheduling games at RANDOM now? 2:00? 5:45?

When's the Super Bowl, next Wednesday at 4:15 in the morning?

So for the 2nd consecutive CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME, I sacrifice the first quarter of the game on account of quixotic television scheduling. Looks like the Steelers are having little trouble so far putting pressure on Joe Flacco, who just threw an INT under pressure. The Steelers are letting the Ravens get some whacks in on Ben Roethlisberger, too, though. Don't overestimate the Steeler offensive line. It's nowhere near as good as some of their past versions. In fact, Big Ben's the 3rd or 4th most-sacked QB in the league.

Bill Carollo just ROBBED Santonio Holmes of a TD catch. He clearly tucks the ball away and the ball only touches the ground because he's reaching for the goal line with it, but because of some nonsense about it being part of a tackle, the ball touching the ground makes it incomplete?????

Isn't that the Bert Emmanuel rule? I can't see any way in creation that shouldn't have been a catch, especially since Holmes' motion with the ball had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the tackle!

Jim Harbaugh wins another challenge, though. He's the undisputed king of that this postseason.

OK, back to play-by-play mode with 6:30 left in the first. 3-0, Steelers, 2nd-and-10 at the Raven 24 in the wake of the Flacco interception. Ben goes for Holmes up the left sideline in the end zone but Frank Walker breaks the pass up. Looked like a good defensive play. Third down. Ben shakes off Nakamura on the safety blitz, but throws it away deep after rolling clear. Ravens get away with a big late hit. Jeff Reed kicks a 42-yard FG to put Pittsburgh ahead 6-0. Harbaugh saved his team four points with the challenge.

Yamon Figurs brings a bouncing kickoff back to the 25.

Hines Ward sprained a knee the previous possession on one of those classic Raven bend-the-guy-over-backwards tackles, and is questionable to return. That injury may loom very large.

Willis McGahee up the middle for 4.
Great play-fake by Flacco, but nobody's open while he circles around the pocket and eventually throws it away. Third and six. Flacco is ONE FOR SIX FOR TWO YARDS AND AN INT.
Make it 1-for-SEVEN. Who does he think he is, me picking playoff games? Long ball for Mason incomplete. He was well-covered anyway.
Penalty will move the Steelers back to the 9 after the punt. Carollo and crew not making a lot of friends in the stands right now.

Willie Parker over the right side for 4.
Jim Leonhard blitzes in on 2nd down to stop Parker for no gain. 3rd-and-6.
Ward's on the field on 3rd down. Ravens bring Ray Lewis on the dog but Ben still gets ALL NIGHT, rolls and hits Heath Miller for a 1st down at the 33.
Empty backfield now as Ben rolls right and hits Nate Washington for a pretty-generous 8 yards.
On second down, Lewis RIPS the ball away from Parker and Leonhard pounces on it at the 43.

Baltimore ball. McGahee gets room around left end and gains 7. He skips up the middle for a couple to set up 3rd-and-1. Ravens go no-huddle, empty the backfield, and then... try to draw the Steelers offsides? Flacco ends up calling a timeout. I can't really explain what happened there.

More BIG injury trouble for Pittsburgh... Roethlisberger is in the tunnel complaining of lower back pain and Byron Leftwich is warming up on the sideline.

On third down, McGahee runs into Lamarr Woodley's back, and Woodley somehow instinctively knows to keep backing up, and he drives the RB short of the first down. 4th and 1. Ravens going for it from the 34. Flacco gets stuffed initially, by a flying Troy Polamalu, but appears to get it on 2nd effort.

Never mind, he's probably a foot and a half short still. What a play by Polamalu. Steelers ball at their 34.

Good analysis by Phil Simms, too, pointing out the Ravens' formation made the QB sneak pretty predictable there.

Parker's two yard run gives him 13 yards on 8 rushes as the first quarter expires.

SECOND QUARTER
Quick screen to Ward loses a yard. Doesn't matter to me who's running it, I HATE that play. Seriously, you're expecting to break that play on THE RAVENS? 3rd-and-9.
With the Ravens bringing a heavy blitz, Roethlisberger and Holmes pull off an incredible play, a 65-yard TD to likely put this game away at 13-0. Ben steps up from the pressure, then has to lean right away from more pressure and launches a very off-balance throw to Holmes, who has badly eluded Fabian Washington at midfield. Holmes then sprints crossfield left to right, gets overrun by Walker and Corey Ivy, who both looked just stupid, got an extended block by Miller on Nakamura, and at the end of the run, there's Nate Washington pointing out to him that he's going to block Ed Reed. Washington's stiffarm lets Holmes dive for the goal line and the TD this time, which Carollo does not take away. What outstanding teamwork by the Steeler receivers on that play. Jim Leonhard was running about as hard at the end of that play as Kareem used to run getting back on defense, btw.

The Ravens then make hash of the bouncing kickoff and Figurs gets swamped at the 12 with it.
McGahee bounces a middle run out to the right wing for 9, though.
A Gaither false start makes it 2nd and 5.001.
McGahee fights hard for 3 off left tackle.
On a delay run, McGahee spurts for about 4 and Baltimore's FIRST first down of the game.
Inside handoff to Ray Rice gains 3. Baltimore's very much taking baby steps trying to get back into this game.
The Rice gain is nullified by an illegal formation penalty. 1st and 15 from the 19.
Flacco's hit by Woodley and his throw in the flat is incomplete.
Rice roars out across the 40 after taking a little dumpoff from Flacco. He humiliates James Farrior by stiffarming him to the ground en route to gaining 22.
From the 41, McGahee gets nothing on a draw as Farrior redeems himself.
Steelers have been rushing 5 the last few plays. Screen to Todd Heap is in the dirt, leaving Flacco with 3rd-and-10.
Plenty of time for Flacco against a 4-man rush, though, and he hits Mark Clayton for about 15. Ravens ball at the Pittsburgh 43.
McGahee gains 3 on a cutback.

Oh, man, Harrison is down hurt now for the Steelers. Lucky for them they've got two weeks off if they win this thing.

3rd-and-6. Steelers bring a lot of pressure from Flacco's blind side and Aaron Smith eventually gets to him for the sack. Mewelde Moore DANGEROUSLY fields the punt at the 10 and gets taken down around there.

Steelers start at their 11. Parker runs over the right side for a couple. Another draw to him for a couple more. 3rd-and-6. 6:00 till halftime. Ben hits Washington on a slant for 8, beating a blitz.
Hold on, Harbaugh's challenging it, and he's always right. The Republicans should ask Harbaugh to challenge the Senate recount in Minnesota.

So much for that, Harbaugh's wrong this time. The ball slipped through Washington's hands but he trapped it off the ground with his legs. Carollo gets it right this time; first down, Pittsburgh.

Parker plows for 5 over the left side with 5:00 left in the half.
Haloti Ngata swallows Parker whole the next play. He gains maybe one. After the play, Kemoeatu knocks Marques Dougleas down with a retaliatory blow for a 15-yard penalty. Pittsburgh just draws Moore for 5 on 3rd-and-a-mile, setting up a punt.

Which turns out to be a big play for Baltimore. Most of the Steelers get sucked in too deep, and Leonhard sprints through them for a 45-yard gain. Mitch Berger the PUNTER takes him down and forces a fumble (which rolls out of bounds) at the Steeler 17.

After Flacco throws an incompletion in the end zone and McGahee gets stuffed up the middle, Pittsburgh gives the Ravens the ball at the 3 on a DPI call on Bryant McFadden. He did appear to get a little grab in. Ravens will have first and goal with 2:44 left in the half. Carollo still gaining no friends in the greater western Pennsylvania area.

NGATA at tight end. McGahee runs right behind him for one of his easier gains of the day, a 3-yard TD. 13-7 Pittsburgh.

Man this game is running SLOW, it takes them five minutes to get to the kickoff. Steelers at their 21 with 2:35 to go. Ben's arm is hooked as he throws and the pass is high and incomplete. Short pass to Limas Sweed for 6, and he doesn't get out of bounds. Steelers get the snap off just before the 2:00 warning, but blitzing Corey Ivy knocks the pass down. Pittsburgh should have let the clock keep running. Instead, they punt and give Baltimore a full 2:00 to take the lead.

Ravens at their 33. McGahee off the right side for 2. Really? That's your hurry-up offense? Ravens do no-huddle, but Flacco's pass is nearly picked off by Farrior. 3rd-and-8. Steelers blitz two DBs on Flacco's blindside. He gets the pass off but air-mails it way high. Ravens punt.

Holmes returns the punt all the way out to midfield. 1:00 till halftime for the Steelers. Who expected all these possession changes late in the half?

Ben pump-fakes right and throws deep up the left sideline for a WIDE OPEN Limas Sweed, WHO BRUTALLY DROPS A TD PASS INSIDE THE TEN. Good call by Jim Nantz - Sweed stayed down after the play, apparently because of a bruised ego. He cost the Steelers a TD and a timeout, and his home fans BOO him off the field.

That's the guy I wanted to draft instead of Donnie Avery last April, btw.

2nd-10 at midfield. Ben barely eludes Jarret Johnson and throws a highly dangerous Favre shovel over his receiver's head incomplete. 3rd-10.
Holmes DROPS a pass over the middle he could have taken for a TD, because he had Fabian Washington badly beat. Rex Ryan stupidly blitzed big there and nearly ate it.

But now the Steelers get a LUDICROUS call in their favor, a call on Edgar Jones for roughing Berger on the punt, when he actually didn't touch Berger at all. Berger touched him when he fell down. Stupid fucking call. That wasn't even running into the kicker let alone the 15-yard variety. Both of today's conference championship games have been atrociously officiated.

But the Steelers have it now at the Raven 35. Ben scrambles around again and dumps to Miller for 14.
Sweed crushed Corey Ivy with a block at the end of the play. Ben rolls right the next play and nearly gets his throwaway attempt picked off at the end zone sideline. 2nd down, 0:16 left. Ben STUPIDLY fires for Moore OVER THE MIDDLE and the Steelers can't get lined up in time to spike the ball. Terrible play by Ben. Steelers likely threw away three points there as the first half runs out.

It's just as good that this game started at 5:45. At this rate, it's going to take five hours to play anyway. More if there's overtime.

Secondary injuries have got the Ravens in big trouble for the second half, and who they've got out there aren't playing that well. And they have got to do something to keep Roethlisberger in the pocket. He's eating them alive with rollouts. The DEs and OLBs have to do a FAR better job playing contain on Ben and the secondary is going to have to find a way to keep better coverage on the Steeler WRs, a very depleted group without Ward.

The problem for Baltimore is they're going to have to get some turnovers on D the way Flacco is playing. He's 3-for-14 for the first half, and they're not running well enough to take that kind of heat off of the rookie. There's just no way they're getting back in this game without huge plays on defense or special teams. And actually, the Steelers are the ones making those plays.

I'll go out on a limb... the blowout is actually well underway here for Pittsburgh; it just isn't showing up on the scoreboard. I don't really see any hope for the Ravens in the second half, even though they're down just a TD.

THIRD QUARTER
Ravens bring a good kickoff back to only the 18 as Edgar Jones gets away with a flagrant hold.
Handoff to McGahee for 3, followed by a timeout at 14:08 to save a delay of game penalty.
Oh, that dynamic Raven offense. Cam "Camtastic" Cameron, right?
Straight 4-man rush and Flacco has plenty of time to hit Derrick Mason for 16. I think that's his first catch.
NOW the Ravens are going no-huddle. Flacco tries to take off and run around left end, but Polamalu drops him for a HUGE loss. 2nd-and-18.
Lawrence Timmons doubles back from his blitz to stop Rice for 7 on a bubble screen. 3rd-and-11.
Flacco had plenty of time and a wide open receiver at midfield, but Polamalu deflects the pass incomplete. 4th down.

Steelers at their 20 after the punt. Parker misses a big cutback opportunity and stays up the middle for a couple. Washington makes a short catch for 5. His knee was down before the ball came out. Ben scrambles around again on third down but gets obliterated by Ngata and others for a sack. Leonhard returns Berger's punt to the Raven 39.

Flacco throws deep for Clayton in double coverage, incomplete.
In the game for the first time, LeRon McClain pounds for a couple. 3rd-and-8.
Steelers blitz a couple, Flacco crosses up Todd Heap with the throw and it bounces off his hand and is nearly intercepted. Ravens punt again.

Steelers at the 20 again after the punt. Parker spins for 1. Looks to me like both teams are playing for the big offensive mistake. Ben barely avoids getting killed by a blitzer on 2nd down, double-pumps the screen pass, then gets Moore KILLED by Bart Scott after the catch. Steelers were downfield illegally anyway. Ravens decline to make it 3rd-and-11.
Encroachment on the silent-so-far Trevor Pryce; 3rd-and-6.
With Ray Lewis blitzing, Ben scrambles again and finds Carey Davis open in the middle of the field for the first down.
Terrell Suggs, getting his name called for the first time, breaks past Darnell Stapleton to drop Ben for a huge sack, minus-14.
No matter. Ben gets FOREVER to throw on a 4-man rush and Miller beats Ray Lewis for a 30-yard catch. Rex Ryan just does not have an answer for the Steelers tonight.
Parker pops outside left for 5. Ball's at the Raven 35 now.
Parker over the right side for 5 more and a first down.
Parker up the middle for 1, shut down by a Corey Ivy blitz.
Ben stands tall under pressure on 2nd down but ultimately tosses it out of bounds. 3rd-and-9.
Ben looks deep for Sweed but underthrows a wobbler that Frank Walker has a bead on all the way. Sweed breaks up a likely interception, giving Jeff Reed the chance to kick a 46-yard FG and put the Steelers ahead 16-7. 3:38 left in the 3rd.

Ravens up man Daniel Wilcox brings a stupid funky short kick out to the 37. OK, Bob Ligashesky, what good did NOT KICKING IT DEEP do you there?
And McGahee gets 14 off the left side inside a nice block from Clayton.
Pitch left to McGahee for no gain from the Steeler 49.
Woodley beats Lorenzo Neal and sacks Flacco for a loss of about 4.
Steelers blitz 2 on 3rd-and-14, and the dumpoff screen to Heap gains 2.

Oh, that dynamic, Cam-tastic Raven offense. Holmes fair-catches the punt at the 12.

Parker bowls into Race Bannan for no gain. End around to Washington gets maybe a couple as the third quarter runs out. At least the Steelers are trying something creative.

FOURTH QUARTER
3rd-and-8 from their 14 to start the quarter for Pittsburgh. Ben guns it to Sweed for a sliding catch and 14 yards. Raven blitz continues to get to Ben late if at all.
Parker for a couple off the right side. He cuts back up the middle on 2nd down and nearly slithers for the 1st. 3rd and 1, Ray Lewis breaks up and nearly intercepts the quick out to Washington. Berger's punt is TERRIBLE - he hit it like he was kicking a cinder block, and it barely got six feet off the ground on its 21-yard trip. Ravens take over at their own 42.

HERE we go. Reverse (NOT double reverse, Nantz) goes from Mason to Clayton and back up the middle for 16. The Ravens have needed a play like this for 3 quarters now.
Then they hold on the next play and move backwards anyway. Not a career highlight night for Gaither.
1st-and-20. Smoke route to Clayton off a fake handoff gets maybe 3.
Flacco beats a blitz with a 14-yard square out to Mason.
3rd-and-short, Mason's wide open over the middle for a first down. Ball at the Steeler 24.
McGahee up the middle for 3.
Ravens pick up the Steeler blitz beautifully, McGahee upending Ryan Clark, giving Flacco time to throw an end zone pass for Marcus Smith, who Ike Taylor interferes with brutally to put the Ravens at the 1.
Yeah, so much for the Steelers running away with the game. McGahee bounces outside for his 2nd TD, a 1-yard run. Polamalu tried to time a leap like he did on that stuffed QB sneak in the first half but was way off this time.

And we've got a game, and a chance for me to go 1-for-10 in the playoffs. Steelers 16, Ravens 14.

Now the Ravens fucking stupid squib kick, and Pittsburgh returns it to the 41. WHAT IS THE MERIT IN THIS IDIOTIC STRATEGY?
9:20 left. Triangle formation doesn't help the Steelers as Parker gets no gain. Of course, Miller didn't block anybody, so I'm not sure what the point of the formation was.
Parker goes inside left tackle for only two. The crowd boos the call. 3rd-and-8.
And now a false start with a big Raven blitz stacking up. 3rd-and-13.
Even though it's only a 3-man rush, Suggs WHIPS Max Starks, who I'm not sure was awake at the time, and drops Roethlisberger for a loss. Leonhard returns the punt to the 39, and suddenly, here comes my Ravens-Redbirds Super Bowl.

IBM can take their "smart tolls" system and shove it up their ass, btw. There's the kind of innovation we need out of business right now, companies looking for ways to spend our tax dollars now so the government can bleed more taxes out of us later.

A STUPID personal foul on Daren Stone, yanking a Steeler down a mile out of bounds, pushed the Ravens all the way back to their 14. You may have just cost your team a shot at the Super Bowl, moron. Under 7:00 left.
McGahee gets dragged down on a left sweep for -2 and stays down injured. He does walk off under his own power. 2nd-and-12.
Heap makes a nifty grab out across the 30 for a first down. If we didn't have to ask where he's been all night, the Ravens might already be ahead. Under 6:00 left, though, and they're still very much in it, certainly more than I thought they'd be.
Rice up the middle for 1. When's it going to be time to abandon the run, if not soon? Offensive confusion then causes Baltimore to blow a timeout with 5:13 left. They have one left the rest of the way.

Cam-tastic!

Big blitz by Farrior flushes Flacco into Woodley for a sack. That makes it 3rd-and-13. Woodley's second sack.
With another blitz coming, Flacco fires a terrible pass, that first off, never would have gotten to Derrick Mason, even if Polamalu, whose name Nantz pronounces two different ways during the return, hadn't intercepted it. Troy seals the game with a winding, crossfield 40-yard TD INT return to put Pittsburgh ahead 23-14. The Steelers restore their nine-point lead with 4:34 left.

Ravens start from their 23 after the kickoff. Flacco to Heap for 4. Not sure how that was worth the effort. Ravens are running the slowest no-huddle ever. On second down, Ryan Clark has the collision of a lifetime with McGahee in the middle of the field. Frightening. No surprise McGahee drops the ball, and it's lost for a fumble that goes back to the Steelers, but things are really scary for both players right now. McGahee took a heavy but clean blow to the head. Clark knocked himself woozy but is helped off the field on his own two feet. McGahee is moving his limbs but they are going to stretcher him out. He's carted off with 3:29 left.

Appears to be all over but the shouting, as the Steelers have the ball in Raven territory and Baltimore has only one timeout. Parker runs left for a couple, then Race Bannan jumps him in the backfield for minus-2. The Steelers have to call a timeout at 2:01 as the play-clock wasn't quite with them. Ben ends up pitching it out of bounds under pressure on 3rd-and-long. 1:56 left.

Leonhard fields a pooch punt at the 15 and returns it to the 22.
Dumpoff to Rice for 14.
McFadden breaks up a sideline pass to Clayton.
13-of-29 for Flacco right now, 141 yards, 2 INTs. Bulger-rific!
Tyrone Carter intercepts a deflected pass to bring the game to an end.

Polamalu had MVP of the game wrapped up even before his pick-six that sealed it. He broke up passes all day and made one of the game's biggest defensive plays when he stuffed the Flacco QB sneak in the 2nd quarter. Honorable mention to Woodley, but I'll go to the safety again and give game ball to Troy Polamalu.

Flacco's callowness was bound to get to Baltimore sometime, and it finally did today. They couldn't get the running game going, and since they were trying to keep the heat off him, not put the load on him, that blew up their offense in the starting gate. They suffered from their defense's inability to keep Roethlisberger in the pocket and some big breakdowns in the secondary. A lot of the offense is young and should come together over time. I'd suspect their primary offseason energy is spent on shoring up their cornerback situation.

So now it's two of the franchises I dislike the most, the Cardinals and the Steelers, in Super Bowl 43. At least I respect the Steelers. What a contrast in owners, the brilliant, respected league leader in Dan Rooney, and the bumbling, untrustworthy skunk in William V. Bidwill. It'll be Cardinal coach Ken Whisenhunt going against the team that wouldn't promote him to head coach. Mike Tomlin's the youngest coach to reach the Super Bowl, the third African-American in three years.

And, of course, KURT'S BACK.

Whom to pick? The Steelers beat the Ravens today by taking the run away from them. That won't affect the Cardinals, who don't run that well anyway. The Steelers like to get after the QB with heavy blitzing. That won't affect Kurt Warner. It didn't today. Hasn't all postseason. Despite Polamalu's presence, the Steeler secondary has no one who can even remotely hang with Larry Fitzgerald. This game's key matchup is probably James Harrison vs. Mike Gandy. Gandy's been getting whipped all postseason. Warner's not known for his sixth sense on the blindside. Can Harrison get to Warner enough times to get Kurt off his game and blow up the Cardinal offense with big sacks and turnovers?

Will the Cardinal defense struggle against a team dedicated to the run? Willie Parker figures to be much more productive against Arizona than he was against Baltimore. But is that a disadvantage the Cardinals can make back in the passing game? Hines Ward is going to be questionable at best. Roethlisberger gets sacked a lot. Surely Clancy Pendergast, who's having a brilliant postseason, will have a scheme that keeps him in the pocket. Their pass rush has been good all January, and they've done a super job forcing turnovers, something else Ben is vulnerable to.

Both of Kurt Warner's previous Super Bowls were tight struggles. Strangely, Al Michaels called the win; John Madden called the loss. One of those announcers is going to go 2-0. How will this one go?

Earlier in the week I had a hunch while taking a Sports Illustrated online poll that Pittsburgh was going to win the Super Bowl with Willie Parker as MVP, and I'm going to stick with it, much to the delight of anyone in Cardinal Nation who knows I'm 2-8 in this year's playoffs. Here's what it comes down to for me. I am not impressed with either team's tackles as pass protectors. That's going to make the key which team can force the other into more predictable passing situations. And Pittsburgh runs the ball better than the Cardinals do. And the Steelers have given up, what, a whole 75 yards rushing in two playoff games? If they can shut down the Chargers, and run on the Chargers, they can do it to the Cardinals. With the Cards forced into more predictable passing situations, we can look for Harrison to whip Gandy all game, we can look for blitzes from Woodley and Polamalu to get through, and we can look for the Steelers to force Warner to check down to Fitzgerald on short routes a lot, and if they tackle Fitzgerald well, they've done everything they could hope to do to bottle up the Arizona attack. Warner probably has to come out like Mike Martz had him come out in Atlanta in January 2000 and throw like 30 times in the first half. And God knows he can make that work. If Arizona does that, I'll be first in line to call their coaching staff brilliant, and they'll win the game.

I'm looking for a tight, down-to-the-wire, Super Bowl 25, 34, 36, type of a game. The defensive teams won two of those three, by hook or by crook. The Steelers are the better defensive team here and have been the better team all season. Unfortunately for their fans, I'm going to take them here.

Pittsburgh 24, Arizona 20. (Congratulations, Kurt.)