Steelers win AFC title

PITTSBURGH (AP):

Ben Roethlisberger knelt on the turf and buried his head in an AFC championship shirt.

"I'm going to enjoy this," he later said.

No one had to ask what he meant. A season that began with a four-game suspension is one win away from giving him a third Super Bowl victory.

His Pittsburgh Steelers hung on Sunday and won their third AFC championship in six years, 24-19 over the New York Jets.

Terrible Towels will wave again at the Super Bowl, where the Steelers will meet Green Bay after silencing Rex Ryan's wild bunch. Look out Big D, here comes another Big D - in black and gold and with an unmatched history of carrying off the Lombardi Trophy. And here comes a quarterback with a history of winning the big ones.

"Shoot, any time you get to the Super Bowl, it feels good," he said. "I don't care what you're going through or what's going on. We put a lot of stuff behind us early and found a way."

They clearly found a way to shut down the Jets' season, ending it the way it started - with hard knocks. And not the kind on HBO.

The Steelers (14-4) will challenge the Packers, who are 2 1/2 -point favourites, with a versatile attack led by their quarterback and running back Rashard Mendenhall. And with a defence, led by James Harrison, that had a fumble return for a touchdown and a goal-line stand that shut down the Jets' comeback in the fourth quarter, it will certainly test Aaron Rodgers in the title game in Dallas on February 6.

The Steelers ended the Jets' season with a dominant first half for a 24-3 lead. Mendenhall had 95 of his 121 yards and a touchdown.

"We played a good half. We never played a good game and that was the difference," Ryan said in a postgame interview with CBS.