Steelers stop “LT-less” chargers to advance to afc finals

LaDanian Tomlinson couldn’t play due to his torn groin tendon and the Pittsburgh Steelers took advantage of his absence to completely shut down the San Diego Chargers’ rushing attack en route to a 35-24 victory in the Steel City on Sunday.  Pittsburgh will now host the hated Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship game with a Superbowl berth hanging in the balance.

The Steelers held the Chargers to a net 15 yards rushing—all by Darren Sproles.  Sproles had an effective game overall, with 91 yards receiving and 164 yards on kickoff returns but his inability to find any daylight on the ground left the Chargers with a woefully one-dimensional offensive attack.  At the same time, the Chargers’ defense couldn’t stop the Steelers who had an answer any time the passing of Phillip Rivers put points on the board for San Diego.

For the game Phillip Rivers finished with an impressive 308 yards on 21/35 passing with three touchdowns and one interception.  He passed for 103 yards in the first quarter alone, with much of that coming on a 41 yard touchdown strike to Vincent Jackson that put the Chargers up 7-0.  The Steelers would tie the score before the end of the quarter on a 67 yard punt return from Santonio Holmes.  San Diego would regain the lead late in the second period on a 42 yard FG from Nate Kaeding, but would trail at halftime as Willie Parker scored on a 3 yard run with :40 to play to put the Steelers up 14-10 at the break.

Ben Roethlisberger, showing no ill effects from a concussion suffered in the final week of the regular season, extended the Pittsburgh lead to 21-10 on an 8 yard pass to Heath Miller midway through the third quarter.  This would set the stage for a wild fourth quarter, with a Gary Russell 1 yard run opening the scoring and giving the Steelers a 28-10 advantage.  San Diego would respond less than three minutes later with a 4 yard TD pass from Rivers to Legedu Naanee to cut the deficit to 28-17.  Willie Parker scored his second TD of the game with just over 4 minutes remaining to make the score 35-17, but San Diego kept coming with a 62 yard TD pass by Rivers to Sproles with just under two minutes remaining.  The Chargers couldn’t get any closer, however, sending the Steelers to their 7th AFC Title Game in the past 15 seasons.

The winner of next weekend’s Steelers/Ravens game will earn the right to play in Superbowl XLIII to be held in Tampa on February 1st.