Regular guys

DENVER – Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, they most certainly are not.

Just a couple of “dirtbags” is how Jake Plummer described himself and Ben Roethlisberger, the pair of quarterbacks in charge of guiding their offenses through Sunday’s AFC title game.

Instead of glitz and glamour, football fans get facial hair and efficiency – Plummer versus Roethlisberger – when the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers meet with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line.

Last weekend, Plummer took care of Brady and New England while Roethlisberger knocked Manning and Indianapolis out of the playoffs.

“They got a chance to see that one earlier in the season, and maybe they’ll get to see it next year,” Steelers coach Bill Cowher said, referring to the marquee matchup that didn’t pan out for this week.

Instead, it’s a pair of quarterbacks who failed in the playoffs last season, but came back this year and embraced the notion – some say the somewhat unrealistic notion – that they are mere cogs in their respective offenses, not the players who must make them tick.

“That’s the big question that people are trying to figure out. I am, too,” Plummer said Friday when asked what’s so different about this year from last. “I’m just playing football. Five years ago, I prepared the same way.”

The results, however, have been different.

Maybe it’s because, as coach Mike Shanahan said, it takes three years in a system for a quarterback to acclimate.

Or maybe, as Plummer suggests, it’s because he got a new sense of security when Shanahan and owner Pat Bowlen showed their support by electing to pay the $6 million roster bonus Plummer was owed last off-season.

Off the field, Plummer refused to change his public persona. His scruffy, Grizzly Adams beard is something of an obsession in Denver, where John Elway set the standard for how quarterbacks should act, play, be.

Plummer doesn’t play that game.

What he wants to look at and talk about is the next game and honestly, that strategy has worked. Plummer threw only seven interceptions this season – compared to 20 last season – and the number dwindles to five if you throw out opening day, a 34-10 loss to Miami that has since been proven a major aberration.

“Everything he’s done over the off-season, I don’t exactly know what he’s done, but whatever it is, I like it,” Broncos receiver Rod Smith said.

While many might not have anticipated a mercurial turnaround for Plummer, in his ninth year, improvement for Roethlisberger in Year 2 could have been expected.

His troubles last season came mainly in the playoffs, when the speed of the game picked up and the long grind of the season really started wearing him down.

“He was a robotic quarterback a year ago,” Cowher said. “He’s been able to pace himself over the course of the year by understanding the length of the season. All these things are why you’re seeing the difference from this year to last year.”

Last year, even though the Steelers went 15-1, Roethlisberger tightened up under the pressure of trying to make the Super Bowl as a rookie. He threw five interceptions in two playoff games. He never looked comfortable under center, never looked like a favorite or a guy who’d been there before – precisely because he hadn’t.

Turns out, living up to Terry Bradshaw’s standard in Pittsburgh can be as sapping as living up to Elway is in Denver.

So, Roethlisberger changed.

One minor point: He grew a beard, although he insists it was only to stay warm during the Pennsylvania winters. His Abe Lincolnesque look didn’t create as much of a stir in Pittsburgh as Plummer’s did in Denver.

The quarterback’s improved play certainly did, though.

“I’m just trying to take it one step at a time and be better prepared for everything that is thrown my way and just making sure mentally that I’m sharp,” Roethlisberger said.

This season, with the help of an offensive plan that has the Steelers running the ball 57 percent of the time, the Pittsburgh quarterback is simply better. The genius of having such a run-heavy offense paid off last week against Indy when, in a move the Colts certainly didn’t expect, Roethlisberger threw on 12 of the first 19 plays.

By the time the Colts knew what hit them, they were trailing 14-0.

Though he threw it fewer times than almost anyone else, Roethlisberger averaged 8.9 yards per pass attempt, best in the NFL.

“I think that goes unnoticed quite a bit,” Shanahan said.

So, which of these quarterbacks will win it Sunday? Maybe a more appropriate question is, which one won’t lose it?

Thus far this season, neither has shown a penchant for mistakes that plagued them last year or, in Plummer’s case, over a long career.

Of course, “not losing” a game is much more difficult for a quarterback than it might appear.

“Regardless of what I’ve done so far, this is a big game and there will be pressure,” Plummer said. “It’s a great opportunity.”