PITTSBURGH -- The NFL should have moved Sunday's AFC title game from Pittsburgh's Heinz Field to a back alley. They could have shifted it to behind the 7-Eleven. It was a street fight, down and dirty.

Forget smash-mouth football, this was punch-in-the-mouth football, and the New England Patriots answered the bell with a hard-fought 24-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday.

Steelers WR Hines Ward gives Ty Law a facial, but Law is called for a personal foul moments later. (AP)

"We made up our minds early going into this game that we weren't going to come in here and let them push us around or bully us," Patriots linebacker Bryan Cox said. "Our plan was to not back down, and on this day they couldn't hold up to the fire."

Toe to toe they fought. Football turned into footbrawl as both teams tried whatever means possible to advance to the final week of the NFL season. The game came complete with several roughing calls, illegal punches and bell-ringing hits. Despite a tremendous second-half surge by the Steelers, the Patriots were left standing at the final bell.

"We're like Vernon Forrest last night," Cox said, referring to Forrest's boxing upset of world champion "Sugar" Shane Mosley. "Nobody thought either one of us would win. Like Forrest, come in with a plan and hit them in the mouth."

In the simplest of pugilistic prose, the Patriots simply beat up the Steelers and have lived to fight another day. That day, however, is Super Sunday.

"That was one of the things coming into the game, we wanted to come in and turn it into a street fight," linebacker Ted Bruschi said. "I think we got so caught up with fighting at one point that we forgot about the football, and that's when they started coming back in. But we were able to settle down luckily."

The victory extends the most improbable of seasons for Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who entered this season on the hot seat. He was seemingly one season away from being fired and forever banished to NFL head-coaching purgatory. But Sunday, his players completed the most improbable turn from cellar to king of their conference.

"Nobody gave us a chance, but I think he's the character of this team," running back Antoine Smith said of his coach. "Bill took a chance and brought in guys like me, Bryan Cox, Roman Phifer, Anthony Pleasant, guys who nobody else wanted. He brought it all together."

Belichick's group was masterful, using defense, special teams and an old familiar face to send the Patriots back to the big show. The Patriots three Bs of Bledsoe, Brown and Belichick were simply too much for the Steelers.

But the most significant factor that turned the tide for the Patriots was their dominance on special teams.

After the defenses kept the other offense in check for much of the first quarter, Patriots' Pro Bowl returner/receiver Troy Brown fielded a punt by Pittsburgh's Josh Miller and used a great first move and tremendous blocking to streak through the Steelers' punt team for a 55-yard touchdown return.

Brown sent out an early statement to the heavily favored Steelers. If the battle lines hadn't already been drawn, they were then.

Brown and defensive back Antwan Harris struck together in third quarter. On a field-goal attempt by embattled Steelers kicker Kris Brown, New England's Brandon Mitchell blocked it. Troy Brown scooped it up and scampered 11 yards before being caught by the Steelers kicker. But the Patriots were able to score when Brown flipped the ball to a trailing Harris, who took flight and capped the score by running the additional 49 yards.

"It's hard to overcome two big returns like that," Steelers head coach Bill Cowher said. "It was very much a defensive battle all game. Two teams who played a game evenly, but the difference in the game was the two big returns. It's hard to overcome those mistakes."

Backup QB Drew Bledsoe steps in and saves the Patriots. (AP)

In between special teams scores, Drew Bledsoe -- subbing for Tom Brady, who was knocked from the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury -- hit receiver David Patten for an 11-yard score. It was all the scoring the defensive guru Belichick would need.

"Drew was big for us," Patriots safety Lawyer Milloy said. "He could have dropped his head. He could have shut it down, but he didn't."

Belichick and Patriots defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel put together a masterful game plan. Once again, his players bought into his preaching. Once again, the opponent simply could not match wits with the defensive mastermind.

Belichick's defense held more than its ground in the opening quarter Sunday. The Patriots also held the Steelers' running back Jerome Bettis to minus-1 yard on his first four carries. Steelers running backs combined for two yards on six first-half carries, and Bettis' first nine carries amassed a grand total of eight yards.

Belichick's plan was superb. He and Crennel called outside run penetration, making a cornerback, safety or linebacker break to the line of scrimmage but well outside of the offensive tackle. Thus, every time Pittsburgh tried to get the wheels of "The Bus" moving to the outside, a Patriots defender was laying in wait.

It took the Steelers until 5:11 was left in the third quarter for "The Bus" and the Steelers offense to cross the goal line. By then it was too late.

Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart did not have it much easier than Bettis. The Patriots baffled Stewart from the start, sending a frenzy of blitzes the quarterback was unable to beat. The Patriots sent a minimum of five men, sometimes six, on nearly every passing play the Steelers attempted in the first half.

In addition, Belichick and Crennel instructed their linemen and linebackers to each rush a different gap. Rather than go head up on a lineman or send two men into the same hole, the Patriots played gap control to prevent Stewart from having an open lane.

Aside from an early 34-yard run on which Stewart broke away from a sack in his backfield, his other two first-half rushes were for zero yards. He was sacked two other times. Plus, the blitzes nearly got Stewart for a safety and forced him to throw errant passes on three first-quarter series.

"You better take away his lanes because he's too hard to tackle in the open field," said Crennel. "You have to take those running lanes away from him. You better have some people there or else he's too dangerous."

Belichick's crew confused Stewart often and forced him into throwing three interceptions, the final one to Patriots strong safety Lawyer Milloy with 1:56 to go. The pick sealed the deal.

The Steelers' vaunted defense tried to add a little punch to the fight, but only managed to a land a few jabs here, a couple of hooks there. But the league's best defense could not do enough to knock the Pats to the canvas.

It was time to throw in the Terrible Towels, and Belichick has clearly gotten off the hot seat.

Unlike Forrest, however, the Pats have one more opponent to fight before they are given the world title belt.