The Pittsburgh Steelers, as led by second-year quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, have seemed to be the NFL's obviously best active team since the night when, earlier in the playoffs, New England's luck disappeared in Denver.

En route to almost certain victory in the Super Bowl, the Steelers illustrated first of all Sunday --- when they conquered Denver, 34-17 --- the value of a good quarterback. For, without Roethlisberger, they're just another good football team, one of many in the AFC.

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Big Ben transforms the Steelers into champions --- do-everything champions who play sound defense, run the ball with passion, and throw with brilliance.

Passing brilliance is something new for their leader, Bill Cowher, who has coached Pittsburgh for 12 years while always falling short of Super Bowl championships.

For, with rare exceptions, he's stayed with the defense-and-running game he loves --- until this year, when, finally, he told Roethlisberger that passing is permitted in key games.

Even last year, the Steelers were mostly Cowher's kind of team, reserving Roethlisberger's passes primarily for third down --- the traditional way of running teams.

This year, whenever they've had to pass assertively to compete, Cowher, gritting, has assented, and that's what's made the difference on this team. The Steelers have won their last two the new Steeler way, upsetting the Colts and Broncos with aggressive first-half passing and defense to get a lead. Each time, in the second half, they've run the ball to hold the lead while playing more passively on defense. Expect the same against the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl.


Hasselbeck Spins Consecutive Big Games

THE STEELERS may have only one flaw. Because their receivers aren't the NFL's fastest, thy seldom throws the long long pass. The Seattle Seahawks showed somewhat more affinity for that kind of football Sunday when they eliminated the Carolina Panthers, 34-14, on another big passing day for quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

A West Coast Offense team, the Seahawks prefer to mix Hasselbeck's short-range passes with runs by Shaun Alexander ---who had a 132-yard game this time --- but Carolina's defensive strength is aggressive cornerback play. And the Seattle coach, Mike Holmgren, designed a game plan to counter that.

Holmgren often had his receivers running two-step or double-move patterns --- hitch-and-go routes, for example, or post-corner patterns --- and when Carolina's defensive backs bit (as they say) on first moves, Seahawk receivers darted away on second moves to catch Haselbeck's well-placed longer passes.

Hasselbeck, who a week earlier had led Seattle past Washington, 20-10, has had two big passing games in a row against teams that didn't put up much fight. The Panther quarterback, Jake Delhomme, is an erratic passer who has lost his runners to injury and who only has one receiver, Steve Smith.

Carolina is, in fact, a one-man team --- the man is Smith --- who was taken out of the game by the Seattle defense. Along the way, doubling as a punt returner, Smith carried one in for a touchdown.

It was Carolina's only touchdown until the game was far advanced in front of Seattle's boisterous fans. The Steelers have had no such fan help. A wild-card team, they've played and won three road games in a row. They'll be ready for a fourth one.


Interceptions Bother Plummer Too Much

ONE KEY DIFFERENCE between the Steelers and Broncos in Denver was manifest in a second-quarter sequence that demonstrated why Rothlisberger is already more quarterback than Denver's veteran, Jake Plummer, who, in his biggest season, took the Broncos about as far as he can.

First, the Steelers, on a long drive, had reached the Denver 15-yard line when on third and nine their coaches called a complicated pass play for Roethlisberger. Before throwing a touchdown strike that time to wide receiver Cedrick Wilson, Roethlisberger was required to fake a shorter pass, pumping the ball to momentarily freeze a covering Bronco cornerback.