Denver officially open for business
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The Broncos' D.J. Williams takes down David Johnson Sunday in the third quarter.
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DENVER -- A Steelers operative threw open the door of the losing locker room 10 minutes after their season ended and barked to the awaiting media, "We're open."
Ouch.
He had unwittingly restated the general status of the Denver Broncos receiving corps over four-plus quarters of throbbing playoff football.
The Broncos were open just happens to be the main reason the Steelers season is officially closed. Not only open, mind you, but open deep. And if there was one thing you did not expect to see in the Steelers' opening and closing playoff game it was a nondescript stable of Denver wideouts operating with a highly unaccomplished passer completely outplay Ben Roethlisberger and his young money contingent of Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders.
"Offensively, you feel like you can do so much more, and you don't do it," Roethlisberger said after a dark one-pick, one-backbreaking-fumble afternoon. "Give credit to their defense."
Uh, no thanks.
It was almost purely offensive raggedness that sent the Steelers to the halftime locker room down, 20-6, perhaps worst exemplified by the 52-yard pass Mike Wallace settled under virtually uncontested at the Denver 28, and somehow failed to control the ball as he tumbled to the grass. That wasn't the first drop of the game nor the last, but it likely would have overturned a 7-6 Denver lead, to say nothing of dismantling the momentum Tebow established in 20-point second quarter.
"They all hurt about as much as they can hurt," said tight end Heath Miller, whom Roethlisberger used effectively early and all but abandoned thereafter. "For this team, the whole point is to play that first week in February, and anything short of that really hurts."
For all its fits and stops, Roethlisberger still coaxed the offense into a 23-23 tie with three desperate second-half scoring drives, the last capped 31-yard roll-and-throw to Jerricho Cotchery with 3:48 remaining. After a crucial defensive stop on the following Broncos possession, the Steelers had an opportunity to sculpt a winning drive with 1:37 remaining from their 24.
"We were moving it, and we had a shot," Roethlisberger said. "Someone got -- it felt like a finger -- on the ball and knocked it out. After that, you're looking at a 70-yard Hail Mary, and that's hard."
Denver rookie Von Miller got the fateful felt-like finger on for an 11-yard sack after the Steelers had moved almost into field-goal range on a day Shaun Suisham was 3 for 3, and they still had a shot when they had Hines Ward take his coat off on the sideline and jog onto the field for a second-and-21 play.
First Published January 9, 2012 12:00 am
