Scary Moment Seals Smash-Mouth Affair

PITTSBURGH -- Even up here, several stories above Heinz Field behind sealed panels of glass, the sudden frightening sound -- crack! -- was heard. It resonated. And the quietude of fear that immediately silenced Sunday evening's raucousness in the crowd spread into the press box, too.

Ravens running back Willis McGahee was down. So was the human missile, Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who launched himself off from Earth, shoulders and head into McGahee's helmet, knocking McGahee's head backwards, his torso and extremities quick to follow.

At that moment, there were but three-and-a-half minutes left in the grudge match disguised here as the AFC Championship. The Steelers had just sealed it with the long-haired one's -- Troy Polamalu -- 40-yard interception return for a 23-14 lead. That wound up the final score in what was the type of game so many of us expected from Ravens-Steelers III: smash-mouth, take-no-prisoners, defensive football.

If the Steelers, two weeks from now in the Super Bowl, can muster the intensity they unleashed on the Ravens from the opening kickoff -- when Steelers special teamer Carey Davis laid out Ravens special teamer Daren Stone -- the Cardinals, who held off the Eagles earlier Sunday at home in Arizona, won't have a chance. We all know that defense wins championships and that was what won out Sunday, decisively. It seemed almost unfair for a rookie quarterback in Baltimore's Joe Flacco to have to go up against Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin's group.

It has been a while since the NFL has witnessed a defense that appears to hit as hard and as often and as much as these Steelers. Ray Lewis' Ravens that won it all in the 2000 season jump to mind, of course. Ironically, they sealed their place in history by overwhelming the Giants in Tampa, the site of next month's Super Bowl.

"We had a goal this season to get to the championship," Steelers linebacker James Farrior said afterward. "People were comparing us to all the great defenses of the past, but it won't mean a hill of beans if we don't win it all."

They'll be forgotten more quickly than the undefeated record the Patriots brought to last season's ultimate game. They probably wouldn't be remembered for much of what they've accomplished this season as the NFL's No. 1 defense.

They stuff the run. They thwart the pass. They leave opponents battered and bruised.

"We try to make plays at the right time," Steelers' linebacker James Harrison said matter-of-factly.

They just don't want to leave them where McGahee was headed -- to the hospital.

"It was one of those bang-bang plays that was set up for a big hit," explained Clark, who knocked himself woozy making the hit on McGahee. "I just pray he's alright."

That is one of the most fascinating dynamics of pro football, the fine line players are always up against, especially defensive players: to do their job without destroying the livelihood of one of their brethren in another color. As a Pro Bowler from not-too-many years ago told me once, the hardest thing to do is seeing an opportunity to deliver a knockout blow but holding back because of how devastating it could be. It is a decision that must be made in split seconds.



When football is like that, which it was on Sunday, it can't really get any better. It can only get worse. It can only dare to be more riveting for the wrong reasons, being crippling at best, or something worse.

Stone was helped to his feet and led back to his sideline, stumbling a little along the way. Ravens defensive back Corey Ivy just before the half suffered the same fate after being blindsided by a block from Steelers rookie receiver Limas Sweed.

"You respect these guys," Farrior explained. "It's easy for me to hold that respect and play these guys."

McGahee was strapped to a gurney, placed on a cart and wheeled out of the stadium for a trip to the hospital.

Someone gave him a pat on his chest before he disappeared from view.

Not long after, it was announced in the press box that he was able to move his arms and legs but had great pain in his neck.

So we sighed relief.

It reminded us all of why talk of bounties in this league, as Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs claimed earlier this season -- and then backed off upon a league investigation -- that his Ravens had put on Steelers' wide receiver Hines Ward and running back Rashard Mendenhall, should never be tolerated.

There is something about the brutality of this great game to marvel in. And it is enough.

Kevin B. Blackistone is a panelist on ESPN's Around the Horn, the Shirley Povich Chair in Sports Journalism at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, and a frequent sports opinionist on other outlets. A former award-winning sports columnist for The Dallas Morning News, he currently lives in Silver Spring, Md.