Pittsburgh and Seattle keep dream alive
Seattle’s Matt Hasselbeck threw for two touchdowns and NFL rushing leader Shaun Alexander ran for two more as the Seahawks routed Carolina 34-14 to reach their first Super Bowl since the team’s 1976 founding.
Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger threw for two touchdowns and ran for another while Jerome Bettis rumbled for another score as the Steelers routed Denver 34-17, a Cinderella run bringing their first Super Bowl trip since 1996.
Big Ben improved to 26-4 as a starter and Pittsburgh became the first bottom seed to win three road games to reach the Super Bowl, having earlier dispatched Cincinnati and top seed Indianapolis.
The Steelers will equal the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers with a record five Super Bowl titles by beating the Seahawks on February 5 at Detroit.
“We’re going to the Super Bowl to win it, not to just be there,” Steelers owner Dan Rooney said. “This is one of the great moments in the whole history of the league and I’ve been around a long time.”
While the Seahawks have never been to the American football championship spectacle, coach Mike Holmgren guided Green Bay there twice in the 1990s and could become the first man to coach two different clubs to a Super Bowl title.
Hasselbeck completed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jerramy Stevens to put
Carolina behind for the first time in the playoffs and Seattle stretched the lead thanks to two pickoffs of Jake Delhomme passes.
Lofa Tatupu’s interception set up a 24-yard Josh Brown field goal. Marquand Manuel’s pickoff set up Alexander’s one-yard touchdown run for a 17-0 Seahawks lead early in the second quarter.
Steve Smith returned a punt 59 yards for a touchdown to pull the Panthers within 17-7 with 9:05 remaining in the second quarter but Josh Brown booted a 39-yard field goal to give the Seahawks a 20-7 half-time lead.
Hasselbeck connected with Darrell Jackson on a 20-yard touchdown pass on the opening drive of the second half to put Seattle ahead 27-7. Alexander added a one-yard touchdown run with six minutes left. Drew Carter hauled in a 47-yard touchdown toss from Delhomme 51 seconds later but it was too little too late.
The Seahawks had not won a playoff game in 21 years until a week ago. They will face a team that won four Super Bowl crowns in six years from 1975 to 1980. Pittsburgh’s only Super Bowl since was a 27-27 loss to Dallas in 1996.
Power-rusher Bettis, nicknamed the Bus, will rumble into the Motor City to play what is likely his last game, hoping to finally capture an American football crown in a hometown farewell that might be a fairytale finish.
“The thought of Detroit was always in the back of my mind,” Bettis said. “I always thought we could get there and now it has come true. Detroit watch out, here we come.”
Barring an injury, 23-year-old Roethlisberger will be the second-youngest starting quarterback in Super Bowl history. Only Miami’s Dan Marino has started the title game at a younger age than Big Ben.
“We worked a plan and it worked,” Roethlisberger said. “The ball feels good in my hand. I made a promise to The Bus. I promised him I would get him back to Detroit. We’re going and I’m so happy.”
Roethlisberger threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward and a 12-yard scoring toss to Cedrick Wilson while Jerome Bettis scored on a three-yard run in the second quarter, giving the Steelers a 24-3 half-time edge.
“We’ve got a young quarterback who doesn’t play young,” Steelers coach Bill Cowher said.”
The Steel Curtain defence recovered a Jake Plummer fumble on the Denver 17-yard line with 4:52 to play and Roethlisberger scored on a four-yard run to boost Pittsburgh’s lead to 34-17 with three minutes left to seal a victory.
Pittsburgh was 1-4 in prior American Conference finals under Cowher, all at home, but the Steelers proved themselves road warriors by improving to 9-2 this season away from home.
The Steelers, who only clinched a playoff spot on the final weekend of the season, reached last season’s conference final but lost 41-27 to New England. Denver ended the Patriots’ bid for a fourth title in five years last weekend. “We’ve been on the doorstep a couple times,” Bettis said. “Once we got to the playoffs, we knew it was realistic possibility.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
