Steelers shift focus from running to Roethlisberger

	Ben Roethlisberger completed 21 of 29 passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday. AP

DENVER -- They're big and broad, with enough room for an entire football team to climb on them and get comfortable. No wonder the Pittsburgh Steelers put the AFC Championship Game on Ben Roethlisberger's shoulders and let it ride.

All the way to Detroit.

Historically speaking, home field is a great thing to have in the NFL playoffs. But I'll take a hot quarterback every time.

In truth, Roethlisberger isn't just hot these days. He's a river of molten lava (or steel, if you will), unstoppable and flowing in the direction of next month's Super Bowl, in the city they call Motown.

All you needed to see of Sunday's AFC title game at Denver's Invesco Field transpired in the first half of Pittsburgh's 34-17 win. The Steelers had the ball four times, and they scored four times, taking a 24-3 lead into the break. And Roethlisberger was in the middle of every bit of it, almost single-handedly ensuring that the Steelers (14-5) moved on to become the first No. 6 seed to ever reach the Super Bowl, thanks to a record-tying three consecutive road wins in the same playoff run.

"He was incredible,'' Pittsburgh running back Jerome Bettis said of Roethlisberger. "He did everything he had to do. From last year to this year, he's a different quarterback.''

And the Steelers, winners of seven in a row, are a different team. They're now Roethlisberger's team. There's no more denying that.

Pittsburgh's vaunted running game has been a trademark for most of the Bill Cowher era as it ran through a procession of middle-of-the-pack quarterbacks like Neil O'Donnell, Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox. But that was then, and this is most definitely now. Roethlisberger went to Pittsburgh in 2004. But it was on Sunday, in a town made famous by his boyhood idol, John Elway, that Roethlisberger truly arrived as a quarterback, carrying the run-oriented Steelers to their first Super Bowl berth in 10 years.

"A lot of people said if we have to throw the ball, we can't win the game,'' said Roethlisberger, who wears No. 7 in honor of Elway. "My line, my receivers and myself, we took offense at that.''

With emphasis on the word offense.