BALTIMORE -- When a week of trash-talking was officially concluded and by the time the rhetoric had finally been reduced to an unalterable result on the PSINet Stadium scoreboard a little before midnight, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher tucked in his trademark lantern jaw and munched down mightily on his tongue.

Refusing to gloat publicly in the wake of his team's 26-21 victory, a game in which the score did not reflect the dominance demonstrated by a Steelers team that claimed its first AFC Central title since 1997, the coach with the trademark silhouette instead opted for the low profile.

Purposely understating the significance of the moment, Cowher chose terms like "confident" and "pretty good" and "focused" to define the Steelers and almost demurely danced around what he and a lot of other people suspect to be true: The road to Super Bowl XXXVI, at least in the AFC bracket, almost certainly figures to go through Pittsburgh now.

	Bill Cowher's smile, not his trademark chin, was his most noticeable feature after Pittsburgh's 26-21 win.

The reigning champion Baltimore Ravens, physically manhandled by Pittsburgh for the second time this season, might as well have been little more than a mouthy human speed bump on Sunday. They were dominated in virtually every element of the contest, save the punt and kickoff return games, and grudgingly allowed that they have been knocked from their lofty perch by a tough-minded adversary that dresses in black and gold but lusts in turning foes black and blue.

While the thousands of Pittsburgh partisans who made the four-hour drive here existed into the night twirling Terrible Towels, the locals were left with their crying towels, the braggadocio well silenced by a Pittsburgh attack that alternately possessed all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and the slash of a stiletto.

Consider this: The Steelers controlled the ball well enough to post a huge time of possession edge of 22 minutes, 10 seconds. Against the NFL's top-rated run defense, they grounded out 158 rushing yards, and that was minus injured 1,000-yard tailback Jerome Bettis. Even though the first drive of the third quarter produced no points, when kicker Kris Brown clanked a 32-yard field goal try off the right upright, Pittsburgh had 16 snaps on the possession and held the ball 11 minutes.

Yet the Steelers also had 318 net passing yards, registered five completions of 24 yards or more and put the game away on a 90-yard bomb to wide receiver Bobby Shaw. The much-maligned Kordell Stewart completed 20 of 31 passes for a career-best 333 yards and two touchdowns and also ran 10 times for 55 yards.

"Nobody does that kind of (stuff) to us," said Ravens defensive tackle Tony Siragusa, beaten thoroughly all night by Steelers left guard Alan Faneca. "They had us back on our heels all night long. They pushed us around and that doesn't feel good. I guess they're a pretty good team."

Make no mistake about it, the Steelers are more than just pretty good, and a new unpredictable offense makes them a viable title contender.

Of course, if Cowher was overly shy about declaring the championship potential of the Steelers, the team valedictorian wasn't about to suddenly go mute on this night.

"Hey, the sky is the limit, man," said strong safety Lee Flowers, pulling on a baseball cap that was emblazoned with the words "AFC Central Champions" across the front. "We've got goals. This is one goal down, and a lot more to go, because we don't want to just be a 'settle' team this year. The division title is great. But why settle for that when the big game is out there for us?"

Weakside linebacker Joey Porter, part of one of the league's premier linebacking units, was hardly so subdued. "Dominated man, absolutely dominated, didn't we?" he crowed. "Who's doing all that trash-talking now, huh? You talk all that talk, you better back it up, and we did. They talked bull all week and they played like (horsefeathers)."

In winning for the sixth straight time, a streak that began the week after the Steelers were beaten by the Ravens at Heinz Field on Nov. 4, Pittsburgh raised its record to 11-2. That is the best mark in the conference and, with a soft schedule remaining, the Steelers could well go 14-2 and secure homefield advantage throughout the playoffs.

Pittsburgh finishes the season with home games against Detroit (Dec. 23) and Cleveland (Jan. 6) sandwiched around a game at Cincinnati (Dec. 30). The team's new playing facility doesn't have the history or mystique of Three Rivers Stadium but, ask any of the AFC contenders, and they'll tell you they don't want to have to travel to Pittsburgh in January for a playoff matchup.

The insufferable Ravens head coach, Brian Billick, is fond of reminding his legion of media fans here that he has never lost in Pittsburgh. It might be noted, since Cowher wouldn't take the bait when asked, that the Steelers are 4-0 at PSINet Stadium, named now for a bankrupt dot-com company.

Flowers was among several Steelers veterans who pointed out the Steelers have lost two of the three AFC championship games played in Pittsburgh since 1994. But this Steelers team showed on Sunday night that it has the mettle to stand up to even the most pressure-packed situation, and much of that is attributable to the reworked offense of first-year coordinator Mike Mularkey and the quantum leap accomplished by Stewart this year.

Mularkey, who only six years ago was begging for an assistant coaching job in the NFL, is the eighth coordinator Stewart has had since his college career began. And he may be doing an even better job than Stewart's favorite mentor, Chan Gailey, in identifying the quarterback's strengths and then devising a game plan that avoids his usual pitfalls.

The Steelers are a team that seems to unveil some new gimmick every week, and by an unofficial count they used at least 17 different offensive sets on Sunday night, but it is a newfound accuracy and the confidence exuded by Stewart that remains the biggest upgrades.

"He is," said Cowher of his quarterback, "a very focused man right now."

In fact, at least three of Stewart's longest completions came with Baltimore defenders right up in his face. He hung in tough against a blitz by Ravens free safety Rod Woodson to throw a 25-yard scoring strike to Carnell Lake on the 90-yarder bomb to Shaw, who was running a "double post" pattern with fellow wideout Hines Ward on the opposite side.

The 90-yarder, which tied for the longest pass play in Pittsburgh franchise history, came on third down, with the Steelers backed up to their 10-yard line, needing seven yards for a first down.

	“	Maybe before this year, we run the ball and punt and hope that our defense holds the fort. But that's not how we play anymore. Even in games where we've had trouble scoring touchdowns, we're moving the ball, and we're really confusing defenses. ”
		— Hines Ward, Steelers wide receiver

"A really ballsy throw," said Ward. "Maybe before this year, we run the ball and punt and hope that our defense holds the fort. But that's not how we play anymore. Even in games where we've had trouble scoring touchdowns, we're moving the ball, and we're really confusing defenses."

Indeed, the Steelers now represent an intriguing offensive mix, and that made a big difference in a matchup viewed by both clubs as a "statement" game. The Ravens had won the first meeting of the year because, while outplayed, Steelers kicker Kris Brown missed four field goals.

Conventional wisdom held that, in the return match that featured two of the NFL's most suffocating defenses, yards and scoring would be at a premium. Yet the only Baltimore defender who played up to his reputation was incomparable middle linebacker Ray Lewis, credited conservatively with 16 tackles and a sack.

Mularkey got Burress hooked up one-on-one with cornerback Chris McAlister on virtually every big third down, and the second-year receiver came up big. The Steelers also targeted their former teammate, Baltimore "nickel" safety Carnell Lake, and abused a proud old veteran who needs to consider retirement. And Faneca did the impossible, making the 350-pound Siragusa disappear, sealing him off and turning him time after time.

Beaten at their two best specialties, woofin' and wildin', the Ravens appeared confused and out of sorts most of the night. Truth be told, the five-point spread hardly did justice to a Pittsburgh performance that was clearly superior, and a game plan that was well designed.

"The best feeling in the world is when the other team gets all quiet, you know, when you can look in their eyes and know you've got them," said Pittsburgh fullback Dan Kreider, whose four-yard touchdown run with 3:05 to play sealed the deal for the Steelers. "We shut them up pretty good and that was fun. But winning the game, the division, that was more fun because it came against these guys."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.