Air Cowher stuns, wins

The Steelers' passing attack has become a major points producer.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- They are the NFL's prototypical grind-it-out offense, a slow-motion version of the West Coast system. After all, don't the Pittsburgh Steelers usually travel by Bus and not through the air?
But something got into the Steelers when they lost three in a row late in the season to jeopardize their playoff chances, and they haven't been the same team since.
Without warning to the rest of the NFL, the Steelers have become a risk-taking, high-rolling team, led by a quarterback who plays to win and not to lose -- and hardly loses at all -- and driven by a mindset that they will make the opposing team adjust to them and not the other way around.
Only a year after they ran the ball more than any NFL team in 20-plus years, the Steelers jumped out to a 21-3 lead over the heavily favored Colts on Sunday mostly because of their passing game.
Big Ben struck
With Ben Roethlisberger going 6-of-7 on a masterfully choreographed opening 84-yard drive, the Steelers opened a 7-0 lead and, rather than sitting on it with their running game, kept passing.
Across the field, the Colts seemed as surprised by how the Steelers were beating them as much as they were by the score itself.
"The football team we played was expecting us to the run the football," tailback Jerome Bettis said following a 21-18 victory that sent the Steelers to Denver for Sunday's AFC title game. "They did everything assuming we were going to run the football, so we knew we could take advantage of some things."
What they're taking advantage of is confusion.
The Steelers aren't known as a high-scoring team, yet, over their last seven games, they're averaging 28 points. That's more than any of the four teams still left in the playoffs except for Seattle, which edges them by a fraction of a point.
Ground threat
They haven't forgotten about the Bus or 1,200-yard rusher Willie Parker, both of whom still get their carries.
But the majority of those carries are coming in the second half, once the Steelers build up a lead, after the passing game has set up their running game and not the other way around.
Roethlisberger, so shaky and mistake-prone in the playoffs a year ago, is playing so well that Cowher and coordinator Ken Whisenhunt have opened up the offense to accommodate him. He has five TD passes and one interception in two playoff games, and his 124.7 passer rating is easily the best in the postseason.
"To me, he has earned that trust," Cowher said Tuesday of Roethlisberger, who is 25-4 as an NFL starter. "In a lot of respects we are going to be able to go as far as he is going to take us. I'm not trying to put any pressure on him. That's the fact and he likes that, he knows that."
Change of pace
For comparison's sake, look at the Steelers' initial scoring drive in their 20-17 divisional round playoff win over the Jets a year ago, then compare it to that of Sunday's opening drive against the Colts.
In the Jets' game, Roethlisberger threw only twice in seven plays, for 15 yards. Against the Colts, Roethlisberger threw on seven of 10 plays for 76 of the drive's 84 yards.
Cowher also is part of this Steelers personality change. The same coach who opted for a field goal rather than go for a possible momentum-shifting touchdown with the Steelers down by 14 to New England late in the third quarter of last year's AFC title game twice went for it on fourth-and-short in the second half against Indianapolis.
Going for broke
It's almost as if the Steelers, who played so tentatively in those four AFC title game losses at home since January 1995, are reveling in this opportunity to become the first team to win the Super Bowl after winning three road playoff games.
Away from the expectations, the bad memories of past failures and the pressures of being at home, they're playing much more like the team that was 15-1 last year than the one that was 7-5 barely a month ago.
"When we play with a chip on our shoulder and play mad, that's when we play our best football," linebacker Joey Porter said. "We play our best football when we're ticked off."
The way Cowher sees it, playing on the road means only that the hotel they stay in the night before the game doesn't have a Pittsburgh address.
"We are traveling a path right now that no one else has been on," he said. "But we certainly aren't going to let history dictate our journey. As I told the players, your journey can make history."