DENVER -- Unable to feed the orange madness, unable to beat the Steelers or escape the shadow of John Elway, there was nothing left for Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer to do except walk away as the loneliest man in Colorado.

Ten solitary steps from the locker room, Plummer finally threw in the towel.

It landed in a heap against a wall.

With a chance to lead Denver to the Super Bowl and capture the city's heart, Plummer dropped the ball. He fumbled twice and threw two interceptions.

Asked to be the hero, he stumbled in a 34-17 loss to the Steelers in the AFC championship game.

"If we lose, I'm taking the blame," Plummer said. "That's my job."

As Denver wakes up this morning, it is still very much Elway's town.

Plummer?

He's trying. But trying is not enough. It's never enough.

"All season long, Jake Plummer had eight turnovers. And then he gives the football away four times to the Pittsburgh Steelers. They don't need any help. They're good enough," former Denver tight end Shannon Sharpe said.

Everywhere you turned yesterday, there were ghosts and reminders of the way we were in Denver, when the Broncos defined excellence in the NFL. Denver running back Mike Anderson reported to work wearing a bright orange No. 7 jersey, with ELWAY stitched across the back.

Why?

"This was the time to bring it and come up big," Anderson explained.

As orange balloons filled the sky before kickoff, Sharpe unabashedly wept with emotion for the first time since he retired from football. But here is what was most haunting. As Elway and more than 75,000 Broncomaniacs watched, a hero wearing No. 7 put his signature on the game.

This No. 7, however, played quarterback for the Steelers. He walks to the line of scrimmage with a swagger and casts a long shadow, the same way Elway did. This hero's name is Ben Roethlisberger. By passing for two touchdowns, then scoring another on a 4-yard run, the Steelers' quarterback was everything the Broncos hoped Plummer could be, but ultimately was not.

Roethlisberger was super.

Plummer looked scruffy. At age 31, he played like a slacker along for the ride.

"It would be OK if the NFL automatically put the Broncos back in the championship game next season for all the good work they did this season. But it doesn't work that way. You start back at Square One," Sharpe said.

All season long, coach Mike Shanahan had meticulously schemed to avoid the very situation the Broncos found themselves in against the Steelers. They were forced to rely on Plummer to make the big plays rather than not mess it up.

Plummer made the big plays. For the Steelers.

He committed errors of passion, then compounded them with pressing harder.

What happened to No-Mistake Jake?

Two Plummer errors in the opening half set up the Steelers for two easy touchdowns, staking them to a 24-3 halftime lead that not only trashed the Denver game plan, but left the crowd too stunned to provide any Mile High mojo.

Abandoning their running attack, the Broncos had no choice except to put their hope of a comeback in Plummer's hands. He battled. True to his nickname as the "Snake," he slipped from the grasp of defenders. He briefly teased die-hard fans, pulling Denver within 10 points midway through the fourth quarter.

But in the end, after two more turnovers that had Shanahan rubbing his eyes in disbelief, Plummer failed.

After the loss, Plummer gave a private, emotional farewell to Broncos assistant Gary Kubiak, leaving to accept the job as head coach in Houston. He taught Plummer how to think, teaching a quarterback who likes to let his hair down how to find happiness coloring within the lines of the playbook.

Last week, when asked about Elway, you could practically see Plummer's skin crawl. Sure, the comparisons aren't fair. But, after falling flat on his unshaven face in the biggest game of his NFL career, the scrutiny of Plummer will only grow hairier.

In Denver, no quarterback who walks in the shadow of a legend ever gets a free pass.