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Monday, January 21, 2002

By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

There were 60 handoffs in the AFC playoff game between the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens yesterday at Heinz Field. According to the statistics, anyway.

	Cornerback Dewayne Washington wraps up Ravens wide receiver Qadry Ismail, who can't hold onto a pass. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette)

The one that didn't show up on paper was the most profound.

In their quiet locker room after losing, 27-10, the Ravens felt as if they had just handed the baton to the Steelers.

Last year, the Steelers stayed home after the holidays as Baltimore and it's tough-as-nails defense bulldozed to a Super Bowl championship.

This year, the Ravens are going home expecting to watch the Steelers get to the NFL's title game -- and perhaps win it.

"They played an outrageous game," Baltimore defensive tackle Tony Siragusa said. "If they keep playing this way, I have no doubt they'll be world champions the way we were last year."

The Steelers solved that vaunted Ravens defense with an impressive balancing act. They rushed for 154 yards and passed for 143 and had a handle on the game by halftime with a 20-3 lead. They scored three touchdowns against a defense that had given up just one in five previous playoff games.

To Baltimore, that was secondary to the Steelers' defense. The Ravens finished with 22 yards rushing and 150 overall and got their only touchdown on a special-teams play. They converted only 1 of 12 third downs. They had the ball for just 19:15 to the Steelers' 40:45.

"It's probably the best defense I've faced in my 12 years," said tight end Shannon Sharpe, a sure Hall of Famer who led the Ravens with five catches for 56 yards. "Obviously, I didn't face our defense last year.

"They do a great job of scheming. They have great personnel. They make you nickel-and-dime them. They don't give you big plays, and that's the mark of a great defense. Sooner or later you'll make a mistake."

Baltimore made four glaring mistakes, turning the ball over on one fumble and three interceptions by quarterback Elvis Grbac, who was just 18-of-37 passing.

Receiver Qadry Ismail, who led the Ravens in the regular season with 74 receptions and 1,059 yards, had just one catch -- an 8-yarder in the fourth quarter.

He said the Steelers surprised Baltimore by going with some new things on defense, something teams don't always do in the playoffs.

"Pittsburgh did a good job of mixing up their schemes," Ismail said. "They had given up a lot of passing yards in the last three weeks, and what they did to offset that was a lot of rolling coverages and a lot of things that they hadn't done in the past. My hat's off to the defensive coordinator [Tim Lewis] for scheming it in that way.

"The team that can adjust and put their players in the best position to win more than likely is going to win, so I think their defensive coordinator felt that they were confident enough to handle the change, and they did. They played some inspired football."

The Steelers weren't just inspired. They were superior in Sharpe's estimation.

"I looked up in, maybe, the third quarter and we had 78, 80 yards of total offense," he said. "They had 30 minutes [of possession time]. That won't win football games. We were prepared, but as painful as it is to say this, they have a better football team than we do. They made every play offensively and defensively. We never were able to get in a rhythm offensively."

All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis was equally impressed with the Steelers.

"We played one hell of a ballclub today. The respect factor is there," he said, adding that if it is now the Steelers' turn; the Ravens' run was fun while it lasted.

"The greatest thing about it is you ride it as long as you can ride it," Lewis said. "And when that day comes [when it ends], hopefully, you can be a man about it."

Siragusa said there is no shame in the defending Super Bowl champion losing to a team that had missed the playoffs the previous three years. After all, Baltimore was 8-8 in 1999, the year before it won the crown.

"This league, with free agency and the way it's going, anybody has a shot," he said. "If you had asked anybody here if they would have thought the Steelers would be in the AFC championship game after losing their tight end [Mark Bruener to injury] and getting rid of [center] Dermontti Dawson, and [linebacker Levon] Kirkland being gone, you would have said you're crazy, that this is a rebuilding year.

"We gave it our best shot. I don't want to sit here and cry and say 'Oh, man, we should have won. We shouldn't have won.'"

So the fairy tale ends of Baltimore.

"For Cinderella, midnight came early," Sharpe said. "It came about 3:30 today."

And it might be just beginning for the Steelers.

"They're going to be fun to watch as they progress," Ravens Coach Brian Billick said.