By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH(AP) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers apparently are going to
stay with this Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes combination
until somebody beats them.

Jeff Reed kicked a 33-yard field goal with 4:32 gone in overtime
and the Super Bowl champion Steelers again relied on
Roethlisberger's ability to lead clutch scoring drives to beat
the Tennessee Titans 13-10 in the NFL season opener Thursday
night.

The Steelers, their running game stuffed by Tennessee's defense,
didn't get going until Roethlisberger began repeatedly finding
Holmes and Hines Ward open downfield. Roethlisberger went 33 of
43 for 363 yards, with Holmes - the Super Bowl star - making
nine catches for 131 yards and a touchdown and Ward, despite a
potentially costly fumble, making eight for 103.

Holmes' statistics were exactly the same as the Super Bowl, when
he caught the winning 6-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger
in the final minute to beat Arizona 27-23.

Thursday's victory might be costly, however - star safety Troy
Polamalu, the best player on the field during the first half,
sprained the medial collateral ligament in his left knee on a
blocked field goal. Coach Mike Tomlin said the injury usually
sidelines a player 3 to 6 weeks.

"It is speculation at this point (how long he will be out),"
Tomlin said.

The Titans lost the coin toss to start the overtime and, as so
often happens, never saw the ball again. Roethlisberger, who led
a touchdown drive at the end of the first half, hit Ward for 11
yards, Holmes for 11 and rookie Mike Wallace for 22. Unwilling
to risk a turnover, the Steelers kicked the field goal on first
down to win it.

"It's nice to know we can win close games," Reed said. "This is
my eighth year here and I've been in a lot of close games, and
we usually are on the up side of those."

While the Steelers ended up winning on two Reed field goals, the
Titans may have lost because Rod Bironas twice couldn't convert
from inside the 40.

"The Pittsburgh Steelers didn't beat the Tennessee Titans, the
Tennessee Titans beat the Tennessee Titans," said wide receiver
Nate Washington, the former Steelers player.

Pittsburgh looked ready to win it late in regulation when
Roethlisberger, so adept at running the two-minute offense, took
advantage of good field position created by a shanked Craig
Hentrich punt to find Ward on a 30-yard completion to the Titans
4. But as Ward was trying to muscle his way closer to the goal
line, Michael Griffin stripped the ball and Stephen Tulloch
recovered with less than a minute remaining.

Even with no running game to support him - the Steelers were
outrushed 86-36 as Willie Parker was held to 19 yards on 13
carries - Roethlisberger had the third-most productive passing
game of his career. Tennessee's Kerry Collins, usually the
caretaker of a run-first offense, was 22 of 35 for 244 yards
after having only four games of 200 yards or more last season.

The Titans never led until Bironas connected from 45 yards with
11:03 remaining, making it 10-7, after Collins kept the drive
moving with 15-yard completions to rookie Kenny Britt and Justin
Gage.

"We had chances and opportunities but missed a field goal, had a
field goal blocked," coach Jeff Fisher said. "I believe we've
got a good football team in that locker room and we're going to
bounce back."

The Steelers tied it on Reed's 32-yarder with 2:57 to go, but
only after Mewelde Moore was held to 1 yard on two plays. Reed,
under pressure, barely got off a low line drive that squeezed
through the uprights.

Roethlisberger was 7 of 7 for 57 yards on the drive but the
Steelers' game-long lack of a running game again caused a drive
to stall after they had a second-and-2 at the 10.

The Titans were the last team to beat the Steelers, winning
31-17 on Dec. 21 to gain home-field advantage throughout the AFC
playoffs, but they never won again and the Steelers never lost
again. Still, Steelers' fans remembered how LenDale White, Keith
Bulluck and several Titans players stomped all over Terrible
Towels at the end of the game, and it created a buzz of
anticipation for a rematch that appeared likely to occur in
January but didn't.

Instead, this game wasn't a throwback to last season, but to the
1970s, when the Titans' predecessors, the Oilers, twice met and
lost to the Steelers and their famed Steel Curtain defense in
the AFC championship game. All that was missing were some Jack
Lambert hits on Earl Campbell.

"It was a 15-round, old-school Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight
that went the distance," Bulluck said.

The Titans spent the first quarter tromping on a Steelers
offense that managed all of 1 yard. Then, after Bironas'
31-yarder was blocked by Aaron Smith - he missed earlier from
the 27 following a bad snap - both teams suddenly found their
offenses.

"I got my hand up," Smith said. "I jumped and my vertical is
probably not that good, but ..."

Roethlisberger, again a master of the two-minute drive, needed
only five plays to lead a 79-yard drive in which he found
familiar target Ward for 29 yards ahead of his 34-yard touchdown
throw to Holmes.

Yes, those two again.

With the Steelers defense missing both Polamalu, who had earlier
made a remarkable, one-handed interception, and linebacker
LaMarr Woodley (leg cramps), the Titans needed only three plays
to tie it. Collins found Britt with no defender within 10 yards
on him for a 57-yard completion to the 14. Collins then hit an
equally wide open Justin Gage in the end zone with 48 seconds
left in the half. Britt, the first-round pick, made four catches
for 85 yards.

NOTES: The Steelers have won their last seven openers, the
longest ongoing streak ... The returning Super Bowl champion has
won its opener for 10 consecutive seasons. ... Roethlisberger is
4-0 with nine TD passes and two interceptions in openers. ...
Tennessee started 10-0 last season.