Over and out: Steelers ousted in wild one
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Receiver Mike Wallace walks off the field Sunday after losing to the Broncos in overtime at Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver.
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DENVER -- Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway instructed Tim Tebow this past week to "pull the trigger."
The Steelers never saw it coming, a 29-23 overtime dart fired by Tebow and the heavily underdog Broncos to quickly end the reign of the 2010 AFC champions.
"We felt we had a good grasp of what they would try to do to us," linebacker James Farrior said. "They made more plays than we thought they were capable of making.
"We really hadn't seen that out of him on tape."
Tebow, the most loved, maligned and statistically worst quarterback in the NFL, played more like Elway, who led the Broncos to two Super Bowl victories and works as their vice president of personnel.
PG VIDEOThe young quarterback stunned the Steelers with a huge second quarter of lights-out passing plays, and then shut down the whole party with an 80-yard pass-and-run combination to wide receiver Demaryius Thomas on the first play after the overtime kickoff by the Steelers, who lost the coin flip.
"Stunned, yeah. Shocking!" Hines Ward said. "I would never have thought one play would go all the way down field for a touchdown in overtime. ... We look up and the guy is running downfield for a touchdown."
Just like that, the Steelers season came crashing down, a 12-4 record in the regular season not good enough for a home game or bye. The Steelers, 81/2-point favorites, would have advanced to play the Patriots Saturday night in New England with a win. They could have accepted Tom Brady doing this to them, but Tim Tebow?
With a league-low 46.5 completion percentage and dreadful performances in the past three games, Tebow gave little indication he could pass the way he did, especially in the second quarter.
He completed 5 of 9 passes in the second quarter for 185 yards as the Broncos wiped out a 6-0 Steelers first-quarter lead. He completed some of his longest passes of the season -- 51, 58, 40 and 30 yards -- in the second quarter alone against not only the No. 1 defense in the NFL but the league's top pass defense.
First Published January 9, 2012 12:00 am
