The Chargers aren’t favored - they rarely are in Pittsburgh, where they’re 2-13 - but that hardly discourages a team that couldn’t have anticipated a return trip after being 4-8 not long after an 11-10 road loss to the Steelers on Nov. 16.
Going back to the chilly East Coast, going against the NFL’s top-ranked defense, probably doesn’t seem as daunting now that the Chargers, against long odds, are averaging 34.4 points during a five-game winning streak. The latest surprise was their 23-17 overtime victory last weekend over Indianapolis, which had won nine in a row.
As the Steelers’ Hines Ward said, “They’ve been in the playoffs for five weeks now.”
“When I think back to the 14-2 season (in 2006) when we had the home playoff game and got beat, you wonder if it was a little too big for us,” San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers said. “I think the fact that we’ve been in these types of games now, going to Pittsburgh will be right up there as a similar type deal. I think from a hype standpoint, playoff-game standpoint, we’ll be just fine.”
How fine? A Steelers defense led by James Harrison that statistically ranks among the NFL’s best in a quarter-century may determine that. Rivers was held to 159 yards passing and was sacked for a safety, and the running game produced only 66 yards in Pittsburgh’s regular-season win.
Still, the Steelers were set back by 13 penalties and needed Jeff Reed’s 32-yard field goal with 11 seconds remaining to win a game remembered for its final play, Troy Polamalu’s fumble return touchdown that was incorrectly overturned by referee Scott Green and his crew.
Despite having a 300-yard passer (Ben Roethlisberger), a 100-yard rusher (Willie Parker) and a 100-yard receiver (Ward), and outgunning San Diego 410-213, the Steelers never got into the end zone, at least on a play that counted.
“We just didn’t finish,” wide receiver Santonio Holmes said. “It was all field goals. But in the playoffs, you’ve got to score touchdowns.”
San Diego beat the Steelers in the Steel City in the 1983 and 1995 playoffs. Those remain the Chargers’ only two victories in Pittsburgh in 15 attempts.
“All the records don’t mean anything now,” Steelers tackle Willie Colon said. “You’ve just go to be able to match their intensity. They’ve got a swagger about them, you can see it on the tape, they’re bouncing around and yelling, so it’s going to be an intense game.”
Not letting Darren Sproles play as he did against Indianapolis, with 105 yards rushing and 328 total yards, is a necessity for Pittsburgh. Making sure receiver Vincent Jackson’s head is into the game following his arrest on a drunken driving-related charge, is one for San Diego.
Sproles had only one carry against Pittsburgh on Nov. 16 but is taking on an increasingly bigger role in the offense with 1,100-yard rusher LaDainian Tomlinson limping with a sore groin.
“It’s really hard to hit him,” Parker said. “He makes moves, does everything a running back’s supposed to do.”
The Steelers not only need to find Sproles, but their own game as well. This is their first meaningful contest since a 31-14 loss at Tennessee on Dec. 21 cost them home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. They finished 12-4, compared to San Diego’s 8-8.
That’s three weeks without worrying whether they won or lost.
Roethlisberger’s concussion also is a Steelers worry.
He was injured in a game that meant nothing, a 31-0 rout of Cleveland on Dec. 28, and experienced headaches for nearly a week. He played possibly the worst game of his career, throwing four interceptions in Oakland in 2006, the last time he returned from a concussion.
“He’s happy, he’s walking around, Ben’s fine. He’s ready to play,” Ward said. “We’re going to ride him all the way we can.”
Roethlisberger is likely to see considerably different looks from a Chargers defense he picked apart while going 31-of-41 for 308 yards in November. At the time, San Diego had just changed defensive coordinators, from Ted Cottrell to Ron Rivera.
“We are going to have to be ready for everything,” Roethlis-berger said.
