One week, you’re the beneficiary of a fumble. The next, you’re the fumbler.
That’s life in the 2016 NFL Playoffs for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They walked the tightrope in Cincinnati, but they fell off it on Sunday in Denver against the Broncos. As a result, Brady-Manning Playoff Battle: Episode V, a CBS special presentation, will come to a television near you next Sunday at 3:05 Eastern. The hypefest for one last meeting of the two greatest quarterbacks of our generation can commence, but let’s say this much at the outset: This day didn’t have much to do with Peyton.
This was about Pittsburgh largely outplaying Denver on the road, but then committing the giant mistake which turned this game on a dime.
Everything was lined up for the Steelers with just under 10 minutes left. Leading, 13-12, they were moving the ball into Denver’s third of the field. The Broncos had already used two of their three timeouts. Merely falling behind by four points, at 16-12, would have very likely prevented Denver from using two field goals as its path to victory (ironically with the same 18-16 score Pittsburgh used to beat Cincinnati).
Pittsburgh’s Fitzgerald Toussaint, a backup running back pressed into service because of an injury to DeAngelo Williams, was about to get a first down. Then he did this for the very first time in his NFL career:
https://twitter.com/NFL_RealUpdates/status/688878126504497152
The timing couldn’t have been worse for the game’s only turnover. Denver gained a reprieve.
Pittsburgh needed Cincinnati’s Jeremy Hill to fumble in order to mount its improbable rally eight days earlier. This time, the Steelers were the team in control, but in an instant, they ceded leverage to their opportunistic hosts.
Manning didn’t do a lot on Sunday, although his receivers didn’t help him out very much, dropping more than a handful of passes (wordplay intended). Manning didn’t play poorly, but he was clearly far from the dynamic passer who existed through the first half of the 2014 season. At some point, however, Manning was going to need to do something significant.
That one moment came on third and 12, just after the fumble and a holding penalty which negated a long C.J. Anderson run into Pittsburgh territory. Manning missed a deep ball down the middle of the field to Demaryius Thomas in the second quarter. In the fourth, when the pressure of the moment reached a crescendo, Manning fired a strike to Bennie Fowler for a 31-yard gain to the Pittsburgh 36.
From that point onward, the Broncos — liberated by the knowledge that victory was suddenly just as attainable as defeat, if not more — finally unlocked a stagnant rushing attack the sturdy Steelers had bottled up.
Manning threw one hitch pass for a first down, but most of those final 36 yards were gobbled up on the ground, finished by a one-yard plunge from Anderson for the Broncos’ only touchdown of the afternoon with three minutes left. Manning burned his team’s last timeout before the 2-point try, but he threw another hitch to Thomas for a 20-13 lead. Denver hadn’t merely taken the lead with a field goal — that would have begged for a 16-15 Steeler triumph on a last-second kick, with the timeout-free Broncos unable to stop the clock. The Broncos were able to force Pittsburgh to score a touchdown and prevent the Steelers from winning in regulation, unless they dared to go for two.
They never got a chance to do so.
Denver’s secondary — on a day when Pittsburgh’s best receiver, Antonio Brown, was out — struggled at times with relatively simple combination routes involving a Steeler receiver curling to the outside. The Broncos’ corners went to the curl man and allowed a release downfield with no safety help.
Pittsburgh required big plays (20 or more yards), including an end-around, to set up almost all of its 16 points. Up by seven, however, Denver was able to securely guard against the big play. The Broncos gained clarity and focus, playing their best series of the game to not only stop the Steelers on downs, but take over at the Pittsburgh 31 inside the two-minute warning.
That last detail proved to be crucial, as the Broncos were able to send kicker Brandon McManus out for a 45-yard field goal and a two-score lead, at 23-13, with 53 seconds to go, effectively sealing a win which was confirmed when Denver recovered an onside kick inside the final 20 seconds.
McManus gacked on a late-fourth-quarter field goal against Cincinnati in week 16. He rebounded to make an overtime field goal which gave the Broncos a first-round bye and, ultimately, the No. 1 seed in the AFC. His consistency on a windy day — including a 51-yard boot into the gusty mess — made him the Broncos’ MVP…
… other than Fitzgerald Toussaint, that is.
