Pittsburgh – Uh-oh, those king-of-the-road Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t going to like this, not at all.
They are four-point favorites to beat the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Detroit after being underdogs against Indianapolis and Denver in their past two playoff games.
That means the Steelers can no longer recite that nobody’s-picking-us theme that has carried them through seven consecutive victories, all but two away from home. They can no longer say that they’re flying under the radar and are being overlooked even as they take down one higher-seeded team after another.
No wonder linebacker Joey Porter, the demonstrative and very confident leader of Pittsburgh’s defense, was practically begging oddsmakers to make the NFC champion the favorite after the Steelers’ 34-17 AFC championship game victory over Denver.
“Nobody’s been pickin’ us. Don’t jump on the bandwagon now,” Porter said. “People are still crying about the Colts, and their stuff has been over for a week now. So pick them (the Seahawks) so we can keep our edge.”
Of course, Colorado State alumnus Porter might not have felt that way if he knew the Steelers are 4-0 when favored to win the Super Bowl, as they were in the 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979 seasons, and 0-1 as underdogs, by 13 1/2 points before losing 10 years ago to the Cowboys 27-17 in Tempe, Ariz.
If nothing else, the Steelers’ remarkable playoff run also has quieted talk that they didn’t have enough quality receivers to give Ben Roethlisberger much help when opposing defenses stack the line of scrimmage to shut down the run – as the Colts and Broncos did the past two weeks.
“We thought we could take some shots in the air,” said Hines Ward, who has 10 catches and two touchdowns in the playoffs. “We’re an experienced team and we took our chances.”
Even if that experience doesn’t factor in for the 23-year-old Roethlisberger, the only quarterback in NFL history to take a team to a conference championship game and the Super Bowl in his first two seasons.
“It’s amazing to have done it on the road,” Randle El said. “Amazing.”
