PITTSBURGH - With the defending NFL champs coming to town for Sunday's AFC Championship, one item was at the top of the Steelers' to-do list: Don't turn the ball over.

Turnovers nearly cost Pittsburgh dearly the previous week in its AFC Divisional win over the New York Jets. Doing it against the opportunistic New England Patriots would be a recipe for disaster.

Unfortunately, the Steelers provided all the ingredients for that recipe in the first half, when the Patriots picked off two Ben Roethlisberger passes and forced running back Jerome Bettis into his second fumble of the season.

New England cashed in the turnovers for 17 points and a 24-3 halftime lead.

Roethlisberger and the Steelers made a better showing of it in the second half, but the early deficit was too much for them to make up as the Patriots returned to the Super Bowl with a 41-27 victory that ended Pittsburgh's magical season.

"We got ourselves into a hole that we couldn't get out of," said Steelers coach Bill Cowher.

"There's not a whole lot you can say after a game like this," he added. "All you can tell (the Steelers) is to hold their heads up."

Roethlisberger's half to forget got off to a poor start when, on his first pass attempt of the game on third-and-3 at the Pittsburgh 32, Patriots cornerback Eugene Wilson intercepted at the Steelers' 48-yard line.

"I made too many mistakes today. That's the way the game goes sometimes," said Roethlisberger, who was 14 of 24 for 226 with three interceptions and two second-half touchdown passes.

The Patriots converted the turnover into a 48-yard Adam Vinatieri field goal.

On the Steelers' next possession, they started at their own 31-yard line and moved the ball on four Bettis runs sandwiched around a 16-yard pass from Roethlisberger to Plaxico Burress.

On third-and-5, running back Verron Haynes came up a yard short, setting up a fourth-down play at the New England 39. Coach Bill Cowher kept his offense on the field to try to pick up the first down, but Bettis was stopped short and fumbled in the process.

On the next play, New England quarterback Tom Brady found receiver Deion Branch streaking up the middle of the field past Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend for a touchdown that gave the Patriots a 10-0 lead with 6:49 left in the first quarter.

"All week long I was saying we had to play a mistake-free game," said Bettis, who was held to 64 yards on 19 carries.

"(The Patriots) are a team that capitalizes on your mistakes," he added. "They wait for you to make that mistake, and then they pounce on you. That's what happened today."

About five minutes later, Jeff Reed's 43-yard field goal put the Steelers on the board and cut the Patriots' lead to 10-7.

Brady, who was 14 of 21 for 207 yards and two touchdowns on the game, extended the New England lead to 17-3 when he hit wide receiver David Givens on a short pass. Givens ran 9 yards for a touchdown when Steelers cornerback Willie Williams slipped on the turf and fell down.

The backbreaker came on the next series, when, after the Steelers drove from their own 23 to the New England 23, Roethlisberger, on second-and-6, threw a pass intended for tight end Jerame Tuman.

But Patriots strong safety Rodney Harrison played the ball perfectly, picking it off and running for an 87-yard touchdown with 2:14 left before halftime that gave New England its 24-3 advantage.

"All week in practice I had been reading that safety jumping the tight end and then throwing over the top to (wide receiver Hines Ward)," Roethlisberger said.

"For some reason, I was thinking about moving the ball down the field instead of taking the big shot. Maybe I should have gone to Hines," he added.

Despite the big halftime deficit, linebacker James Farrior said the Steelers didn't feel they were out of the game.

"We all stayed positive," Farrior said. "We knew we still had the whole second half to play. Nobody was going to give up."

It was an admirable attitude, but those turnovers were too much to overcome.

"The great teams, they don't do that," Ward said about the turnovers.

"We played uncharacteristically," he added.

However, Ward, who caught five passes for 109 yards and a touchdown, wasn't about to chalk up the loss totally to the Steelers' miscues.

"The Patriots were the better team today," he said. "They went out and executed and made big plays when they had to."