Bill Belichick is no Phil Jackson, relying on the brilliance of individuals such as Michael Jordan or Shaq or Kobe to fill his jewelry case with championship rings. Belichick is no Joe Torre, treated to a seemingly never-ending supply of All-Stars courtesy of the bottomless pockets of his employer.

No, Belichick, the best and most influential coach in any sport, is the single most important member of his team. Working in a league committed to institutionalized mediocrity, where successful teams are penalized and failures rewarded, Belichick has somehow managed to build that rarest of commodities – the NFL dynasty.

Last night, Belichick’s New England Patriots, the defending NFL champions, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 41-27, in the AFC Championship Game to earn their third trip to the Super Bowl in the past four years. If you are of the type who believes that in victory, coaches get too much of the credit and in defeat take too much of the blame, believe this: There is no member of the Patriots more instrumental to the team’s success than the one who never plays a down.

Over the past three years, the Patriots have lost a starting quarterback (Drew Bledsoe) to injury, allowed a Pro Bowl safety (Lawyer Milloy) to walk in a contract dispute, placed a Pro Bowl DB (Ty Law) on injured reserve for the postseason, and just this week, lost All-Pro defensive tackle Richard Seymour to a knee injury. Because of their decimated secondary, a veteran wide receiver, Troy Brown, has been forced into service as a cornerback.

Many teams would have fallen apart and had a perfectly plausible excuse for it. Not the Patriots. As Belichick likes to say, “I don’t have any ERWs on my team.” In Belichick-speak, ERW stands for “eat well, rest up, and watch the game on Sunday.” And on the Patriots, everyone plays, and plays well, or they play elsewhere. As a result, over the past three years, despite losing several top-flight players, the Patriots won two Super Bowls and are now on their way to a third, on February 6 against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Yet the innovation of Belichick, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel is often easy to overlook. There is nothing showy about the coach or his team.

Last night, playing on the road against a team that had manhandled them, 34-20, in Week 8, the Patriots needed less than half the first quarter to set the tone for the rematch. All week long, the talk had been that no team could beat the Patriots twice in one season, and no rookie quarterback, even one as accomplished and seemingly unflappable as Ben Roethlisberger, could possibly escape the baffling permutations that a Belichick defense was sure to display the second time around.

The talk was right. Despite the rash of injury that left the defensive backfield depleted, this time around, the Patriots’ DBs gave little or no cushion to Pittsburgh wideouts Plaxico Burress, Hines Ward, and Antwaan Randle-El, Meanwhile, the mobile New England linebackers, notably Tedy Bruschi and Willie McGinest, dropped back to help in coverage. The plan seemed to be to allow the Steelers to do what they do best, which is run the football. If they were going to win the game, it would be up to Roethlisberger to do that.

Fat chance. Three plays into the game, Roethlisberger overthrew Antwaan Randle-El, and the swarming New England secondary tipped the errant football this way and that, until it settled in the arms of Eugene Wilson. Five plays later – and this had to hurt Herm Edwards wherever he was last night – Adam Vinatieri rammed home a 48-yard field goal, tying the longest kick ever made at Heinz Field.

On the next series, Belichick’s Pittsburgh counterpart, Bill Cowher, tried an innovation of his own, going for it on fourth-and-1 from the Patriots’ 36, but not only did New England stack up The Bus, Jerome Bettis, for no gain, they made him cough up the football. On the very next play, the buttoned-up Patriots aired it out, Tom Brady hitting Deion Branch with a 60-yard touchdown pass for a 10-0 lead barely eight minutes into the game.

Branch had missed the first game between these teams, as had Corey Dillon, and the receiver’s presence in this one allowed the Patriots to exploit the aggressive Pittsburgh pass rush. Unlike the Steelers, the Patriots didn’t need to run the ball to be effective – until Dillon’s 25-yard TD run midway through the third quarter, he had rushed 15 times for all of 23 yards – because they had a quarterback who was not only unbeaten in post-season play (8-0) but nearly immune to the type of game changing mistakes Roethlisberger had recently become prone to.

The Steelers, however, stayed within striking distance until Roethlisberger, who had a marvelous third quarter, overthrew Hines Ward and saw the ball once again nestle in the arms of Wilson for the final, backbreaking turnover. That ended the Pittsburgh fans’ hope for a first Super Bowl since 1980.

Not this year, not against this team or this coach. As Belichick said after the game, “This team has played its best in the biggest games.”

One of the reasons is that their coaching staff never stops coaching. Even with a 34-20 lead and a fourth-and-1 at the Steelers’ 25, Belichick passed up what would be a gimme for Vinatieri in favor of going for the first down. Kevin Faulk made it, and three plays later Branch took an end-around 22 yards for the Patriots final touchdown.

Next year, of course, will come Belichick’s sternest test. Just the way his mentor, Bill Parcells, was forced to prove he could duplicate the magic without Belichick, his defensive coordinator, Belichick will have to try winning without Weis, who is headed to Notre Dame, and Crennel, who is expected to be hired as the next head coach of the Browns.

But unlike Parcells, Belichick is likely to be more than willing to share the credit. “I’m just so proud of these players,” he said last night, shrugging off an announcer’s attempt to compare him to Vince Lombardi. “I’m very fortunate to have such an outstanding group of men on this team.”