Ben Roethlisberger ended the Pats' win streak in October, but New England got revenge when it counted. AP
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PITTSBURGH -- It's almost not fair. If you watched Sunday's AFC championship game, it stood out like a pair of red cheeks in the bitter cold: The New England Patriots are so much better prepared. So much bolder. So much more ready to seize the moment and make the other team pay for their mistakes. So much smarter. So much better coached. So much the team that takes the field expecting to win, rather than playing not to lose.

Which is exactly why they never seem to. At least when it really matters. Like in the NFL playoffs.

In today's NFL, the Patriots are the gold standard and everyone else is worthless pyrite. It's always so apparent after the fact, but New England beats you both physically and mentally. The Patriots out-play you, and out-think you. Last week, they pounded the Indianapolis Colts with their sledgehammer running game. This week, they went over the Pittsburgh Steelers' heads with their vertical passing game early, then slugged it out with the home team later on, once they had built a sizable lead.

Whatever it takes to win. That's what the Patriots do. Always better than you. They keep pressing, keep attacking, keep making you stop them. And they don't get timid, and never go wobbly in the knees. At times it seems like they don't even stop to consider what would happen if they failed. Then again, who can remember the last time the Patriots lost a truly big game? When was it, in the Bill Parcells administration?

"We just find a way to get it done. We just always find a way to win,'' Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri said of New England's latest January masterpiece, a 41-27 thrashing of the 16-1 Steelers, who saw their 15-game winning streak turn to dust in the face of the Patriots' relentless thirst for another victory. "We got it done and now we're going to Jacksonville.

"We knew if we wanted to go back to the Super Bowl, we had to come in here and beat this team. So even if we had to find a new way to get a win, we knew we just had to get it done. It's impressive.''

It's impressive, all right. The Patriots now have won eight consecutive playoff games dating from their 2001 season on, just one off the NFL record set by the 1961-67 Green Bay Packers. And in case you missed it last week, let me repeat myself: The Patriots will tie Vince Lombardi's Packers in two weeks at Alltel Stadium, winning their third Super Bowl in four seasons over the out-matched Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC's sacrificial lamb.

Count on it. With all the certainty we've come to expect the harshness of a New England winter.

Didn't you just know that New England's Halloween day loss at Pittsburgh in Week 8 meant nothing to these Patriots? They were trounced that day, losing 34-20 and seeing their NFL record 21-game winning streak ended with a thud. But that history had nothing to do with what would happen in this game, and everyone in New England red, white and blue knew it. It was another 14-point result, all right. But this time, it was the Patriots on the happy end of it.

So let the Steelers revel in their regular-season win over the champs. It's as meaningless as an early August Hall of Fame game triumph now. New England snapped the winning streak that really mattered.

"We realize what we did, coming into Pittsburgh and beating a [16-1] team,'' Patriots linebacker Ted Bruschi said. "[Sixteen and one], that doesn't happen a lot. We cherish what we did. You just don't get used to this feeling. This is special. You don't start to expect it. You just cherish it.''

I'm not so sure I can agree with Bruschi, even though I take his point. We have come to expect this from the Patriots. We are used to their postseason domination. And I still don't think the football world quite knows what it's witnessing these past four years in New England.

Get ready for a two-week dose of the D word, because dynasty is the only description that will fit if New England makes it a three-ring circus with a win in Jacksonville. And this time, it will be a discussion that the Patriots deserve to have held on their behalf.

"This team is a great team, and a team that knows how to win,'' said New England receiver David Givens, who had a team-high five catches for 59 yards, including a nine-yard second-quarter scoring reception that made it 17-3. "Our coaches put us in position to win week in and week out. And we play to win, instead of not to lose, because that's our mentality. And why not? We've won in the past and that's what we believe we're going to do.''

And the inverse is true for the Steelers. Pittsburgh is now 1-4 in AFC title games at home in head coach Bill Cowher's 13-year reign. For whatever reason, Cowher's Steelers are marvelous in the regular season, then can't reproduce that mojo in January. Something happens to Pittsburgh in the playoffs, and the Steelers freeze up and play tight. Then again, Cowher's football mentor was Marty Schottenheimer, so maybe it's a hereditary thing on that particular coaching family tree.

The difference between the trying-to-not-make mistakes Steelers and the supremely confident Patriots was so stark on Sunday at frigid Heinz Field. Three plays into the game, a horribly errant Ben Roethlisberger throw went off a pair of hands and into the waiting arms of New England free safety Eugene Wilson. The Patriots, sensing the Steelers' big-game fear, immediately turned it into points, opening the scoring with a 48-yard Vinatieri field goal.

On the next Pittsburgh drive, Jerome Bettis fumbled on 4th-and-1 at the Patriots 39, and the Patriots again pounced. This time it was a pretty-as-a-picture 60-yard strike from Tom Brady to Deion Branch on first down, giving New England a 10-0 lead.

The mistake by the rookie Roethlisberger led to one score, and the mistake by the veteran Bettis led to another. And before you could even say New England had done it again, the Patriots had found a way to demoralize a Steelers team that hadn't lost since mid-September, when hurricanes were still ravaging the Florida coastline.

And is anyone all that surprised that Roethlisberger had his fairy-tale magic carpet ride ended against Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who is now 14-0 against quarterbacks when he faces them more than once in the same season? With three interceptions, including one that went the other way for a touchdown for the second consecutive game, Roethlisberger turned into a pumpkin at the worst possible time -- in the postseason when the entire football world is watching.

"We got ourselves into a hole that we really couldn't get out of,'' Cowher said. "The things that we really have not done all year, and certainly the turnovers, we overcame last week. But we were not able to overcome it today.''

Funny, but no one seems to ever overcome much of anything when the Patriots are the opponent. New England does the overcoming. Everyone else has the Patriots' iron will imposed on them. It's so utterly familiar at this point, and yet still a marvel to behold.

And lucky us, we get to behold it one more time this season. Anyone care to bet against Belichick's merry band of believers at this point?

"That's why I signed up [here], for an opportunity like this,'' said Patriots running back Corey Dillon, who will be getting his first taste of the Super Bowl in Jacksonville. "It's an awesome feeling. We worked hard all offseason, and all season, and we made it happen. We got it done.''

Don't they always? With these Patriots, the next time they don't get it done will be the first time. I don't know about you, but I'm not holding my breath waiting.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.