A year ago, the ball bounced away in the end zone, and the Pittsburgh Steelers came up inches short of the Super Bowl. This year, the ball dribbled to the ground in the same end zone and, by inches, the Steelers are back there at last.
The Steelers didn't fall 3 yards short of the AFC championship on the final play Sunday, as they did last January. They survived by inches, beating the Colts 20-16 when Indianapolis receiver Aaron Bailey failed to hold on to Jim Harbaugh's looping pass as time expired."Maybe it was poetic justice, having been there again with the ball in the air, and an opportunity to win a championship," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said.
Now, they'll have a chance to win the Super Bowl in two weeks when they play the Dallas Cowboys, who later beat Green Bay 38-27 in the NFC title game.
With the Three Rivers Stadium crowd on its feet to watch a play that seemed to last forever, the ball was tipped, rolled across Bailey's chest, down his left arm and onto the turf.
For several seconds nobody seemed sure what happened. Two Colts had their arms in the air, signalling touchdown. But then the referee ruled it incomplete.
"This erases last year," defensive end Ray Seals said, "because this time we finished it."
A year of anguish was over and the Steelers were heading for their first Super Bowl since 1980, ending Indianapolis' miracle run. Barely.
"I saw everything in slow motion," Bailey said. "I saw the ball in slow motion. I saw me jump in slow motion. I came down in slow motion. I fought for the ball in slow motion.
"It hit the ground. I am not going to argue with it."
One year ago, almost to the day, the Steelers drove to the San Diego 3 where, on their last play, Neil O'Donnell's pass fell incomplete.
One of the defenders on Sunday's final critical pass thought for a moment the Colts had scored.
"I thought he caught it," said cornerback Willie Williams, who was in the pack in the corner of the end zone. "I was in disbelief. It was sick. I can't explain what I felt.
"I kept looking at the referee and finally he signaled incomplete."
That signal touched off a mob scene on the field as nearly the entire team gathered to hug and slap hands.
"Today we said we would not be denied," said running back Bam Morris, whose 1-yard surge provided the winning touchdown with 1:34 remaining. "We've been saying for 30 weeks that if it came down to one play, we had to get it done. And we got it done."
Finally, if not emphatically.
Harbaugh, the league's most efficient passer this season, guided the Colts to the Pittsburgh 29 with five seconds remaining. His pass, and two teams' Super Bowl hopes, hung tantalizingly in the air. The ball, and two cities' championship dreams, came down in a cluster of reaching arms.
As Bailey fell to the ground, the ball dropped into his lap. It rolled in his searching arms as Bailey himself rolled over.
And it slipped away.
"What a great effort it was," Harbaugh said. "Nobody counted us in, but all of the guys in the locker room believed until the very end."
The end of the Colts' miracle run provided a spectacular finish to what was a dull, sloppy game. Their stunning postseason performances carried them to upsets at San Diego and Kansas City before coming within a breath of their first Super Bowl in a quarter-century.
"All I know is we played our hearts out. We just ran out of miracles," Harbaugh said.
They lived up to their slogan and "Let 'er rip" on one play. Floyd Turner got behind safety Darren Perry for the go-ahead touchdown, a 47-yarder midway in the final period that was eerily reminiscent of the play that beat the Steelers in the '94 title game.
Harbaugh, who dislocated his right middle finger on the last drive, knelt down as if in prayer, then flashed his index finger in the air as he joined the celebrations.
Throughout the season, when it went 9-7, Indianapolis wasn't considered a legitimate championship possibility. The Colts, who made the playoffs once in their first 11 years in Indianapolis, were more often a laughingstock than a title contender. They were minus their only real star, running back Marshall Faulk, out with a knee injury.
Yet, suddenly, they appeared headed to the Super Bowl.
Instead, the Steelers displayed the fortitude they lacked a year ago. This group got serious - no rap videos, no cellular phones in the locker room, no distractions - midway through the season, when Pittsburgh was 3-4. It won eight in a row to take the AFC Central crown.
Faced with their biggest challenge, in the most dire situation Sunday, the Steelers came through.
O'Donnell hit Andre Hastings for 9 yards on fourth-and-3 at the Colts 47 on the winning drive. He then found Mills down the right sideline, putting the ball at the 1.
Morris plunged in two plays later, and redemption belonged to the Steelers, who won all four of their Super Bowl appearances during their glory years.
"Deja vu, all over again," linebacker Greg Lloyd said, noting there was a major difference in 1996. "We waited for one whole year to get this trophy. It means so much."
"Even though we've only accomplished half of what we want, this is for the fans of Pittsburgh," Cowher said. "One more to go, guys."
One more, on Jan. 28 at Tempe, Ariz., against the Cowboys.
Rookie sensation Kordell Stewart sparked the Steelers' first TD drive and Norm Johnson kicked two field goals for Pittsburgh, while the Colts got three field goals from Cary Blanchard.
The Indianapolis defense, which had 10 interceptions through 15 games, then 10 more the last three weeks, got the Colts going with another pickoff. Tackle Tony Siragusa deflected O'Donnell's pass on Pittsburgh's second play of the game. Linebacker Jeff Herrod, who didn't have an interception all season, grabbed the wobbler and returned it 17 yards to the Steelers 24.
Blanchard made a 34-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.
The Steelers tied it late in the opening quarter on a 31-yard field goal by Johnson, the league's leading scorer among kickers.
Blanchard got his second field goal, from 36 yards early in the second period.
Pittsburgh's offense, which led the conference in scoring, finally woke up on its final series of the half, a well-organized 80-yard, 17-play monster of a drive that lasted 7:27. Stewart keyed that drive with a quarterback sneak, an option run and a run with a pitchout - all for first downs - and the 5-yard TD catch.
O'Donnell was forced to scramble and Stewart cut diagonally across the end zone from left to right. He stepped out of bounds in the back of the end zone, but no call was made. Then he made the catch in the same corner where Bailey barely failed on the last play of the day.
The Colts got points on their opening series of the second half. A 30-yard pass to Dilger led to Blanchard's 37-yard kick, making it 10-9. But Blanchard missed a 47-yarder after the Colts made a strange call, running Warren outside on third-and-1 at the Steelers 28. He lost 2 yards.
Johnson added a 36-yarder with 43 seconds remaining in the third quarter.