Bus crushes Jets as Steelers join Colts, Falcons and Patriots in taking honours

THE National Football League’s elite sewed up division titles on Sunday.

The Pittsburgh Steelers held on to beat the New York Jets to capture the AFC North crown. The Indianapolis Colts wrapped up the AFC South while Atlanta and New England also locked up their divisions.

Jerome ‘The Bus’ Bettis drove Pittsburgh to an 11th consecutive win, passing for a touchdown and running for another score in the fourth quarter as the Steelers beat the Jets 17-6.

The Steelers (12-1) matched the 1975 Super Bowl-winning team for consecutive regular-season wins in franchise history. All 11 wins have come since rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger replaced injured Tommy Maddox. But the formula for success under coach Bill Cowher has been a strong running game with the tandem of Bettis and Duce Staley and the NFL’s top-ranked defence.

Pittsburgh kept the Jets (9-4) out of the end zone and intercepted Chad Pennington three times. Pennington had just four interceptions this season before Sunday. Roethlisberger struggled against the Jets, completing just 9-of-19 passes for 144 yards with two interceptions.

But Bettis made the key plays on offence, throwing a 10-yard touchdown pass and sealing the win with a 12-yard scoring run with three minutes left. It was the third career touchdown pass for Bettis, the last caught by Jerame Tuman as well in 2001.

Bettis finished with 57 yards on 10 carries and fell into sixth place on the all-time rushing list with 13,037 yards. Curtis Martin was held to 72 yards on 24 carries by Pittsburgh, but it was enough to pass Bettis with 13,046 yards. New York’s loss clinched the AFC East title for New England (12-1).

Tom Brady passed for two touchdowns and corner-back Asante Samuel returned an interception 34 yards for a score to lead the Patriots to a hard-fought 35-28 victory over the Bengals.

“Like we expected, we got a very explosive game out of Cincinnati and it was one of those back and forth, up and down the field-type of games,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said.

“Fortunately, we were able to get some turnovers and make the most of our scoring opportunities.”

It was the 18th straight home win for the Patriots but it didn’t come easy. The Bengals had 478 yards of total offence, despite losing starting quarterback Carson Palmer late in the third quarter with a sprained right knee.

The Bengals’ all-time leading rusher with 8,061 yards, Corey Dillon has rushed for 1,309 yards this season for the Patriots.

Dillon said: “I didn’t get there by myself. I’m not going to say anything negative about Cincinnati. We caught a couple of breaks and outscored them.”

In Atlanta, TJ Duckett rushed for a career-high four touchdowns and the Falcons also came up big defensively in a 35-10 victory over the mistake-prone Oakland Raiders.

It marked the third division title in team history for the Falcons (10-3).

Peyton Manning threw two early touchdown passes but was contained the rest of the way as the Indianapolis Colts clinched the AFC South with a 23-14 victory over the pesky Houston Texans.

It looked like Manning would be on his way to erasing Dan Marino from the NFL record book after he threw a three-yard touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison and a 12-yard TD to Reggie Wayne in the first quarter.

But Manning was unable to find the end zone again. He now has 46 TDs on the season, two shy of tying Marino’s single-season record set in 1984. He finished an efficient 26-of-33 for 298 yards.

The re-match of Super Bowl XXXI looked very much like the original. This time, rookie Eli Manning played the role of the bewildered quarter-back. The Baltimore Ravens forced six turnovers, including two interceptions of Manning, on the way to a 37-14 rout of the New York Giants.

In San Diego, Donnie Edwards returned an interception 30 yards for a touchdown with 4:09 remaining as the Chargers extended their winning streak to seven games with a 31-24 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.