Steelers miss playoffs despite 30-24 victory
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Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers won't get a chance to defend their Superbowl title.
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MIAMI -- The Steelers' season came to an end in a nutshell of a 30-24 victory against the Miami Dolphins yesterday, a big lead nearly vanishing in the fourth quarter along with their playoff hopes.
They received news as they walked off the field that Houston had beaten New England, and they got the final news they were eliminated later when their chartered flight landed back home, after Baltimore defeated Oakland.
The Houston win was enough to set a gloomy postgame tone despite a three-game winning streak.
"Yeah, we got some bad news right after the game," said linebacker James Farrior, explaining the generally down mood among his teammates.
"It's disappointing," nose tackle Casey Hampton said. "The fact of not having an opportunity to get in the playoffs and control our own destiny to do it. But we finished strong and guys fought and at the end of the day, man, that's what it is. We didn't do enough to get it done."
They did just enough yesterday to withstand yet another defensive letdown in the fourth quarter to finish 9-7, losing playoff tiebreakers to others. In six of their seven losses, the Steelers blew fourth-quarter leads. It seemed beyond their capacity to do so yesterday when they went up, 27-10, in the fourth quarter on Jeff Reed's second of three field goals and three touchdown passes by Ben Roethlisberger.
The Dolphins had lost their first two quarterbacks, Chad Henne (eye) and rookie Pat White (concussion) when third-stringer Tyler Thigpen led Miami to two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. And, when former Steelers linebacker Joey Porter recovered a Roethlisberger fumble at the Steelers' 13 with 6:55 left, it looked like one final monumental collapse by the defense was in the works.
As Hampton said, "That's what we do."
Instead, safety Ryan Clark intercepted Thigpen at the 2 and the Steelers mounted a field-goal drive that put the Dolphins away.
"That game right there is kind of a snapshot of how it's been for us," coach Mike Tomlin said, "but how the guys fought is also a snapshot of how it's been for us."
That's how it has been at least over the past three games, all close victories.
"It wasn't typical because we won," Hampton said. "In the past we lost. So at the end of the day it's all about winning and we did that. I think we did a good job of pulling together and doing what needed to be done, something we hadn't been doing all year."
First Published January 4, 2010 12:00 am
