AFC Championship, 2008: Pittsburgh 23 Baltimore 14

Game information
Pittsburgh held the Ravens to 184 yards and forced five turnovers, including three in the last 3:13 of the game, en route to their seventh Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. Baltimore became the third consecutive road team (Pittsburgh was the last to win it), and the 11th out of 19 since the 1990 season, to lose the AFC title game and thus unable to duplicate their success in 2000 as a wild card team advancing to the Super Bowl.

On the first drive of the game, Ben Roethlisberger's 45-yard completion to Hines Ward set up a 34-yard field goal by Jeff Reed. Later in the first quarter, Deshea Townsend intercepted a pass from Joe Flacco and returned it to the Ravens 35-yard line. A few plays later, Santonio Holmes appeared to catch a 23-yard pass on the 1, but it was overruled by a Baltimore replay challenge and they ended up settling for a 42-yard field goal to make the score 6–0. Later on, the Ravens got a scoring opportunity when linebacker Ray Lewis forced a fumble from Pittsburgh running back Willie Parker and safety Jim Leonhard recovered it on the Steelers 43-yard line. But Baltimore turned the ball over on downs after failing to convert a first down on third and fourth down and 1.

Pittsburgh increased their lead to 13–0 on the second play of the second quarter with Roethlisberger's 65-yard touchdown pass to Holmes. But after several punts, a 45-yard punt return from Leonhard gave the Ravens a first down on the Pittsburgh 17-yard line. Two plays later, Willis McGahee scored a 3-yard touchdown run. Following an exchange of punts, Holmes returned a punt 25 yards to midfield. But the Steelers blew two chances to score before halftime. First, receiver Limas Sweed dropped a wide open pass near the end zone and the team ended up punting. However, a roughing the punter penalty allowed the Steelers to retain possession. Heath Miller's 14-yard reception on the next play moved the ball to the Ravens 21-yard line with 23 seconds left in the half and no timeouts left. Pittsburgh decided to run a few more plays before attempting a field goal, but Mewelde Moore's 8-yard reception in the middle of the field took too much time off the clock, and Pittsburgh could not spike the ball before time in the half expired.

Midway through the third quarter, Pittsburgh drove 51 yards and scored with Reed's third field goal of the game, making the score 16–7. But in the fourth quarter, the Ravens took advantage of another key special teams play when Mitch Berger's punt went just 21 yards to the Baltimore 42-yard line. Flacco then led the Ravens 58 yards, completing all four of his passes for 44 yards on the way to a 1-yard touchdown run by McGahee, cutting their deficit to 16–14. Baltimore's defense subsequently forced a punt and got the ball back on their own 14-yard line with just over six minutes left in the game. But four plays later, safety Troy Polamalu intercepted a pass from Flacco, ran all the way across the field, and took off for a 40-yard touchdown return, making the score 23–14. Pittsburgh then put the game away by forcing two more turnovers on the Ravens next two drives. First, a hit by Ryan Clark on McGahee forced a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Lawrence Timmons; McGahee suffered a concussion and was removed from the field on a stretcher. Then after a punt, Tyrone Carter intercepted a pass from Flacco with less than a minute left in the game.

This was the second postseason meeting between the Ravens and Steelers. Pittsburgh won the only prior meeting 27–10 in the 2001 AFC Divisional playoffs.

Wikipedia