Time For A New King Of Clutch? Stewart Looks To Dethrone Elway As Nfl’s Comeback Kid

He has rallied the Denver Broncos from seemingly certain losses to breathtaking victories more than 40 times - more than Marino, more than Montana, more than anybody.

John Elway is the only quarterback to drive his team 98 yards in the closing minutes to win an AFC championship game - at Cleveland in 1987, a march that instantly became known as The Drive. No NFL quarterback has ever been more dangerous with a deficit.

But Elway will be 38 in June, and every playoff game may be his last - maybe even Sunday’s AFC championship game in Pittsburgh. When he retires, and that day likely will come sooner than later, Elway must abdicate to a new king of the comeback.

To find him, he might not need look further than to the opposing sideline Sunday, to Kordell Stewart. His unflappable composure and boundless confidence have led the Steelers within a victory of the Super Bowl in his first season as a starting quarterback.

“I never get nervous - ever,” Stewart said.

It shows.

Just check out this collection of comebacks, one that even Elway has been unable to match this season:

Down 21-0 in Baltimore on Oct. 5, the Steelers equaled the greatest comeback in team history as Stewart fashioned a game even Terry Bradshaw would have been proud of, throwing for three touchdowns and running for two in a 42-34 victory.

In arguably the NFL’s game of the season, Stewart made an astonishing fourth-down throw to Yancey Thigpen to keep a fourth-quarter drive alive in New England on Dec. 13. Stewart then hit Mark Bruener for the TD and Thigpen for the two-point conversion as the Steelers rallied from eight points down with 2 minutes to go to win 24-21 in overtime - a victory that ultimately clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Stewart showed the Broncos on Dec. 7, rallying the Steelers from a 21-7 deficit in the second quarter, again by throwing for three touchdowns - all to Thigpen - and running for two. It is his running, coupled with the pounding the lineman-sized Bettis puts on opposing defenses, that gives an the Steelers an added and extremely difficult-to-defend dimension.

Stewart’s only deficiency, other than his tendency to sometimes force the ball into coverage, is his growing reliance on comebacks. The Steelers repeatedly fall behind because of Stewart’s first-half inconsistencies, only to surge back in the second half after he rediscovers his passing touch.

Stewart has six touchdown passes and 14 interceptions in the first half, but 18 touchdowns and only four interceptions in the second half.

“It’s too early to start nicknaming him, like Elway,” Thigpen said. “Kordell’s a second-half guy. Elway has been doing it for years. Kordell, he’s a one-year guy.”

Yeah, but what a year it’s been.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CHAMPIONSHIP SUNDAY AFC: Denver Broncos at Pittsburgh Steelers, 9:30 a.m. (NBC) NFC: Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers, 1 p.m. (Fox)