And the last thing the four clubs in this Sunday's AFC and NFC Championship Games want to see is a stop sign.

"There's no 'next week,'" says Carolina Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith about the finality of this week's games. Lose and the offseason smacks you right in the face. Win and you're on your way to a mid-winter blast at Super Bowl XL in Detroit on Feb. 5.

The championship teams are an impressive group:

• Pittsburgh will play in its third championship game in the past five years, and second in a row. Carolina is in its second championship in the last three years.
• The teams had a combined .750 winning percentage this season, and have averaged 10.5 wins the past three years.
• The head coaches -- Bill Cowher, John Fox, Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan -- boast a combined 15 championship game appearances. Each has led a team to at least one Super Bowl -- an NFL championship game first.
• Three of the four starting quarterbacks will be in the 2006 Pro Bowl -- Jake Delhomme, Matt Hasselbeck and Jake Plummer. The fourth -- Ben Roethlisberger -- is the first QB since 1970 to play in a championship game in his first two years.
• The four teams rank in the top five in the NFL in either offense (Seattle and Denver) or defense (Carolina and Pittsburgh).
• They typify the strong 2005 NFL playoff field. Pittsburgh is the first sixth-seeded team since the NFL instituted its present playoff format in 1990 to advance to a championship game. Carolina became only the third fifth-seeded team since 1990 to reach a championship game (Indianapolis, 1995; Jacksonville, 1996).
• Both Carolina and Pittsburgh can match the 1985 Patriots as the only teams to reach the Super Bowl by winning three road games. 

A rundown of the AFC and NFC Championship Games follows...

PITTSBURGH STEELERS (13-5) at DENVER BRONCOS (14-3) (Sunday, 3:00 PM ET, CBS)

STORYLINE: Good thing these teams wear different uniforms, because they are very similar.

Rushing by committee … big-time blitzing safeties … strongly efficient quarterbacks … one tough on the road, the other as tough at home.

"They're very similar to us," says Denver RB Mike Anderson of Pittsburgh. Anderson linked up with Tatum Bell this year to rush for almost 2,000 yards (1,935). The duo resembles Pittsburgh's fleet Willie Parker -- who had his first 1,000-yard season (1,202) since high school -- and the short-yardage pounder Jerome Bettis, who is aiming to play in Super Bowl XL in his hometown of Detroit.

The running game is the foundation for both teams, but both can hurt you with the pass. Look at the Steelers last week. The emulated the team they defeated, the Colts, by flinging the ball all over, with Roethlisberger throwing for two first-quarter touchdowns. His counterpart, Plummer -- dangerous when flushed out of the pocket -- managed his usual balanced game in defeating New England to give the Broncos a 9-0 home record this year.

The Steelers -- the final four's hottest team with six wins in a row -- are 8-2 on the road this year. "No team ever won all three games on the road and won Super Bowl," says Steelers WR Hines Ward. "Why not try to make history? We're one game away from having a chance to do it."

One of the keys to the game will be how fast the QBs get rid of the ball. Both clubs love to create frenzy by blitzing from anywhere, with safeties Troy Polamalu (Steelers) and John Lynch (Broncos) leading the way.

"It's going to be physical, probably the most physical game we play all year," says Lynch. "They're going to come up and hit you and we have to bring it back to them. The team that establishes the run the best is probably going to win."

Main targets: You know who they're going to -- you just have to stop it. Broncos WR Rod Smith (91) has 44 more catches than the team's No. 2 target, Ashley Lelie (47), and the Steelers' Ward (74) has 30 more than the No. 2 target, rookie TE Heath Miller (44).

CAROLINA PANTHERS (13-5) at SEATTLE SEAHAWKS (14-3) (Sunday, 6:45 PM ET, FOX)

STORYLINE: The roadies vs. the home dominators.

Tough to determine who might have the advantage in this one. The Panthers are 8-2 on the road this year and have won four consecutive road playoff games. "Our guys understand challenges, and that you have to be a road warrior," said Carolina head coach John Fox, 5-1 lifetime in the playoffs. The Seahawks were undefeated at home in 2005 for the second time in three years.

It could come down to an NFL version of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." That would be the NFL's Co-Comeback Player of the Year, Carolina WR Steve Smith. Recovered from a broken leg in 2004, Smith led the league in receiving yards this year (1,563), tied for the most TD catches (12), and has carried that production into the playoffs. Smith -- who includes Seahawks Hall of Famer Steve Largent as one of the five people in history he would most like to meet ("I like his style," he says) -- leads 2005 playoff receivers in catches (22) yards (302) and TDs (3).

"He's awesome," says Seattle CB Jimmy Williams. "Every time he gets the ball, he can take it the distance."

Of course, the 'Hawks have a "take-it-the-distance" guy themselves in 2005 NFL MVP RB Shaun Alexander, the season rushing champ who is expected to play after missing most of last Saturday's game with a concussion. If he is still under the weather, QB Matt Hasselbeck will ratchet things up a notch as he did against Washington in the divisional round by completing 16 of 26 passes, and throwing and running for TDs. He will rely heavily on WR Darrell Jackson, who had a nine-catch, 143-yard, one-TD day.

The Panthers may have a similar RB situation. They have lost DeShaun Foster to a broken ankle and will plug in Nick Goings, primarily a third-down back who showed in 2004 that he can carry the load. With four Panthers RBs on IR that season, Goings produced five 100-yard rush games in the club's final seven games.

Those four consecutive Carolina playoff road victories have been directed by QB Jake Delhomme, who with his divisional game win over Chicago, became the first quarterback in history to win his first four road playoff games. Those four wins match the all-time road playoff mark of Hall of Famers Len Dawson and Roger Staubach, both 4-1.