By Brad Everett
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- All the talk this past week surrounding
the AFC championship matchup centered on two specific questions.

Could the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Baltimore Ravens for the
third time this season? And which highly touted defense truly
was the best?

Advantage, Steelers - on both counts.

Forcing four turnovers and limiting the Ravens to just 198 total
yards, the Steelers earned the hat trick, knocking off the
Ravens once again, 23-14, at Heinz Field on Sunday.

Pittsburgh's win sets up a Super Bowl matchup in two weeks
against surprising Arizona (12-7), which upset Philadelphia,
32-25, in the NFC championship earlier in the day.

The Steelers (14-4) will be looking for their second Super Bowl
win in four seasons and an NFL-record sixth overall against the
Cardinals, who will be making their first appearance in the
game.

"I don't think it's hit me yet, but it feels good to be back
again," said James Harrison, the NFL Defensive Player of the
Year. "Most people are lucky to get there once, and now, this
will be our second time. I'm happy to be going back."

Allowing the Ravens to stay close with the help of several key
penalties, the Steelers morphed a two-point, fourth-quarter lead
into a nine-point win when safety Troy Polamalu intercepted
rookie Joe Flacco's pass and returned it for a 40-yard touchdown
to seal the Ravens' fate with just over four minutes left.

"It was man-to-man with Todd Heap and he was in the backfield,"
Polamalu said. "We anticipated him staying in the backfield to
block LaMarr (Woodley) and James Harrison, so it allowed me to
free up and just kind of react to the quarterback's eyes."

Baltimore got the ball back twice more, but the drives resulted
in a fumble and interception.

The top-ranked Steelers defense was lethal throughout,
particular in their harassment of Flacco, who finally played
like a rookie after looking so cool in two previous postseason
wins.

Flacco completed 13-of-31 passes for 141 yards, was intercepted
three times and sacked three times.

"They did a good job," Flacco said of a Steelers defensive unit
that came in allowing a paltry 237.2 yards per contest. "We were
trying to take some shots, but they didn't give us anywhere to
go with the ball. We just didn't get it done today."

Ben Roethlisberger completed 16-of-33 passes for 255 yards and a
touchdown for the Steelers.

Roethlisberger played most of the game without favorite target
Hines Ward, who left the game in the second quarter with a right
knee injury. Ward said he expects to play in the Super Bowl.

"We're a team. There's no offense, there's no defense and
there's no special teams. We're one," Roethlisberger said. "We
want to fight for each other. We let nothing come between us."

Up 13-0 at one point, the Steelers let the Ravens hang around
after committing two critical pass-interference penalties, the
second of which - on Ike Taylor - gave the Ravens the ball at
the Steelers 1.

That resulted in Willis McGahee's second short touchdown run to
bring the Ravens within 16-14 with 9:29 left in the game.

But in what has been commonplace all season, the Steelers'
defense made a play when it needed to, and got one yet again
when Polamalu pulled in the errant Flacco pass and maneuvered
his way to a touchdown that salted away the game.

"I was just running for my life, to tell you the truth,"
Polamalu joked.

Said Flacco: "We hard our play set on that side and we were
trying to get to the sticks. I think that Troy was probably able
to read my eyes. He does a great job doing that. You have to try
to influence him as much as you can away from where you are
going to throw the ball, and on that specific one he was just
able to jump over there and make a good play."

The loss ended quite a season for the Ravens (13-6), their
rookie quarterback and their rookie head coach, John Harbaugh,
who helped engineer an impressive turnaround after the team
finished 5-11 a season ago.

"I thought our guys, throughout the course of the season and
throughout the course of this game, demonstrated who they are as
men and what they are all about," Harbaugh said. "I couldn't be
more proud of them and I couldn't be more proud to stand with
them in victory and today in defeat."

Already ahead 6-0 after a pair of Jeff Reed field goals on two
of their first three drives, the Steelers hit for the game's
first big play when Roethlisberger found Santonio Holmes for a
65-yard score just over a minute into the second quarterback.

Ravens defensive back Fabian Washington fell on the play,
allowing Holmes to make the catch at midfield and use some fine
downfield blocking by his teammates to reverse his field and
dive into the left corner of the end zone.

"I got lazy and let the defender feel like the ball was going to
be thrown out of bounds," Holmes said. "When I saw it short, I
reacted to the ball quicker than he did, and I had a group of
guys that were running with me."

The Ravens, who didn't secure their first first down until the
second quarter was nearly three minutes old, struggled to find
any offensive consistency in the first half but stayed alive as
a result of a timely play by their special teams and another
costly Pittsburgh penalty.

Jim Leonhard's 45-yard punt return put the Ravens in business at
the Steelers' 17. After gaining just a yard on the ensuing two
plays, a 3rd-and-9 pass play to Derrick Mason resulted in a
defensive pass-interference penalty by Bryant McFadden that gave
the Ravens a 1st-and- goal from the 3. On the next play,
McGahee ran off left guard for a 3-yard run that pulled the
Ravens within 13-7 with 2:40 left in the half.

"We took advantage of some opportunities and started to come
back," said Ravens running back Ray Rice. "But as the game went
on, we just couldn't do it enough."

McGahee ran 20 times for 60 times and two scores, but was carted
off late in the game after a helmet-to-helmet hit that involved
Steelers safety Ryan Clark. McGahee had movement in his arms and
legs, but was suffering from extreme neck pain and was taken to
Presbyterian Hospital for observation.

"He was talking and moving when they carried him off. That is
always a good sign. Hopefully he can still take the ride home
with us," said Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs, who fought
through a sprained right shoulder to register two of the team's
four sacks.

Reed added a third-quarter field goal to put the Steelers ahead,
16-7.

The Steelers next turn their attention to an Arizona team that
has many Pittsburgh connections, most notably Cardinals coach
Ken Whisenhunt, who was the Steelers offensive coordinator when
they won the Super Bowl in 2006.

When Pittsburgh was searching for a replacement for the retired
Bill Cowher one year later, Whisenhunt interviewed for the job,
but the Steelers eventually selected Mike Tomlin. Cardinals
assistant head coach Russ Grimm - then the Steelers offensive
line coach - also had interviewed for the job.

"Like everyone else, I was a little disappointed that we
couldn't get a Super Bowl matchup with any compelling story
lines," Whisenhunt quipped. "But honestly, it's unbelievably
special that we're going to the Super Bowl under any
circumstances, but now to find out that we'll be playing the
Steelers certainly takes it to another level."

The Steelers undoubtedly will be heavily favored to beat an
Arizona team that was an underdog in their first three playoff
games.

"I just told this group that we have miles to go until we
sleep," Tomlin said. "We are excited about trying to meet this
challenge and we will prepare like we always do because we have
something to do that we intended to address."