Motivated Steelers too much for happy-to-be-here Chargers

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers wanted it more. You ask me, that was the biggest difference between the Steelers and the team they beat Sunday in the AFC playoffs, the San Diego Chargers: The Steelers wanted it more.

Their coaches wanted it more. Their players wanted it more. It's even possible that their medical staff wanted it more.

How much more? Eleven points more. A final of 35-24 and a place in the AFC Championship Game. That's how much more.

The Chargers will deny it, of course. That's what losing teams do, and that's what the Chargers will do after losing a game nobody thought they would reach in the first place. Playoffs? Playoffs? Someone cue Jim Mora's famous playoff rant, because the Chargers had no business getting into the playoffs, not after their 4-8 start. Had they beaten Pittsburgh on Sunday, the Chargers would have been the first 8-8 team in NFL history to win two playoff games.

For San Diego, getting here was enough. That's how I see it. Getting here was enough for the Chargers. OK, maybe not for all of them. Not for gutty quarterback Philip Rivers, my favorite player in the NFL. Not for cornerback Quentin Jammer, who tried to knock out everyone he hit. Not for halfback Darren Sproles, who carried the ball and caught passes and returned kickoffs and punts. But for the organization, getting here was enough. That's what I saw. That's what I sensed afterward, when the locker room doors were opened and inside there was a lot of ... smiling. Lot of joking. Lot of sunshine for a room that should have been nothing but gloom.

Two different players, both offensive lineman, made a big scene of wanting to be interviewed by the media. They were joking, knowing the media didn't want to interview San Diego's offensive lineman. But this wasn't a time for joking.

Or maybe it was.

Maybe getting here was enough. It's not like San Diego coach Norv Turner seemed all that ambitious. With the score tied at 7 in the second quarter, he punted on fourth-and-one at the Chargers' 39. Fine. But two possessions later, same score, Turner went for field position on third-and-12 at the Pittsburgh 32, gaining 8 yards to set up an easier field goal. Not good.

The Chargers were settling for field goals. The Steelers took touchdowns. Pittsburgh faked a punt. Pittsburgh went for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1. Neither play worked, come to think of it, but the tone was set. Pittsburgh wasn't just happy to be here, and Pittsburgh didn't want to just win. Pittsburgh was out for blood.

"That is an excited football team in there," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, gesturing to the victorious locker room. "It feels great to move from the field of eight (teams left in the playoffs) to the field of four, especially in the fashion that we desire to do it."

LaDainian Tomlinson finds himself on the sideline for yet another huge game. (AP)

Right. Pittsburgh desired to kick San Diego in the teeth. The Chargers desired to ... well, I'm not sure what they desired to do, other than fly out here and get dressed for the game. Turner gave credit to the Steelers while also bemoaning his team's bad luck, which is exactly what you'd expect Norv Turner to do. It's not like he was going to cop to being scared, to setting the tone early in the game by playing for three points because he didn't have the nerve to go for something bigger than a field goal. And it's not like LaDainian Tomlinson will ever, and I mean ever, question his decision to watch the second-biggest game of his career from the sideline, much as he did last year when he watched most of the biggest game of his career -- the 2008 AFC championship -- with a knee sprain.

You know what? I'm feeling generous. I'll cut Tomlinson some slack on this one. If he says he was too hurt to play, again, fine. He was too hurt to play. That's his story, and I'm sticking to it. Sincerely. Frankly, he's not worth a lot more of my time. Either he's the most jinxed SOB to play in the NFL, or he's unwilling to risk his health for the team. Whatever the truth is, that's between Tomlinson and his teammates. I asked him after the game if there had been even a chance that he would play, and he told me no.

In the other locker room, there is no doubt. No doubt about the desires of a coaching staff that was hungry for this win and willing to risk everything to get it. No doubt about the toughness of the franchise player, Ben Roethlisberger, who two weeks ago had suffered his third concussion in less than three years, a concussion so bad that he lost feelings in his arms. Not sure about you, but I've played sports for decades and I box now, and never in my life have I been hit so hard in the head that my arms went numb. It sounds bad. Bad enough to miss a playoff game two weeks later? Maybe if you're LaDainian Tomlinson, yes. But definitely not if you're Ben Roethlisberger. No.

Roethlisberger wasn't the difference in this game, statistically. Statistically, the difference was Steelers running back Willie Parker, who ran for 146 yards and two touchdowns. Or the difference was receiver Santonio Holmes, who returned a punt 67 yards for Pittsburgh's first touchdown and on three different third-down plays added two catches and one rush for first-down yardage. Heck, the difference might even have been poor San Diego safety Eric Weddle, who let a punt bounce off his head for a turnover in the third quarter and later was penalized for pass interference in the end zone, a 44-yard penalty that led to an easy Pittsburgh touchdown.

Roethlisberger wasn't the difference. Not statistically. All he did was throw for 181 yards, or 127 less than Rivers. He threw for one touchdown, which was two less than Rivers. Roethlisberger punted once, and shanked it. It was downed inside the 10-yard line, but still. He shanked it. So what did Roethlisberger do for the Steelers?

Everything. He walked onto the field.

"That's our man," said Steelers fullback Carey Davis. "He's our leader. He's our guy. He's been banged up a lot this year, but when it's crunch time, we depend on him to be out there on the field."

The Chargers have an equal quarterback, maybe even a superior quarterback, in Rivers. He matches Roethlisberger in talent, moxie and charisma, and probably surpasses him in talent. But Rivers can't do it alone, and too many times, he has been put in that position. You could say it's bad luck, and I wouldn't dispute that. It was bad luck that Tomlinson was suffering from the knee sprain that sidelined him in the 2008 AFC title game, forcing Rivers to go with backup running backs and, by the way, a torn ACL in his own knee.

And it's more bad luck that Tomlinson had a torn tendon in his groin that knocked him out of the playoff game last week against the Colts and kept him out this week. The injury could require surgery. It sounds bad, really bad. But the messages out of San Diego are mixed. Tomlinson was deemed well enough last week to play against the Colts, ran for 25 yards on five carries, then decided he couldn't continue. Afterward, Turner said Tomlinson hadn't made the injury any worse. Yet a week later he wasn't even active. Meanwhile, Rivers was forced to go with Darren Sproles as his only running back, and Sproles, who is only 5-foot-6 but almost all heart, managed just 15 yards on 11 carries. He's a dangerous return man and a talented reserve, but Darren Sproles isn't LaDainian Tomlinson. Or Michael Turner.

And the Chargers would have needed LT, and maybe even Turner, to get past a Pittsburgh team that won 12 games in the regular season, rested last week and was the only team Sunday that acted as if winning was the only option.