Steelers trying to recover from near miss against Patriots

PITTSBURGH — Maybe Mike Tomlin called it. Maybe it was Todd Haley. Maybe Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Rogers went rogue.

The chaos surrounding Pittsburgh’s decision to go for the win instead of force overtime late in a 27-24 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday doesn’t lead to easy answers.

Roethlisberger initially said he was told to run a play rather than spike the ball to set up an easy field goal.

Roethlisberger later backed off, offering “maybe I should have clocked it” regardless of what was going on.

“We’re not going to look back and second guess anything or anybody,” Roethlisberger said.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter.

Pinning a fifth straight loss to the Patriots on everything that wrong for the AFC North champions in the final 35 seconds — from Jesse James’ lunging touchdown grab that was overturned on review to Roethlisberger’s fake spike that turned into a game-ending pick — the Steelers are aware they had plenty of chances in the first 59 minutes to end years of frustration at the hands of Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and company.

“They’re beatable,” safety Sean Davis said. “It’s a tough game. We had some bad calls, but I ain’t going to put it on the refs. But we can’t leave the game in the ref’s hands. We was up big. We’ve got to bury them next time.”

Covering Gronkowski effectively would help. Davis got an up-close look at the seemingly unsolvable matchup problem the 6-foot6 Gronkowski offers when the 6-foot-1 Davis spent Pittsburgh’s final drive fruitlessly chasing Gronkowski downfield.

Gronkowski caught three passes for 69 yards as well as the 2-point conversion that put the Patriots up three, a sequence Pittsburgh (11-3) could have avoided if Davis had held onto a tipped Tom Brady pass that smacked off Davis’ hands on the first play of New England’s penultimate possession.

“Brady was throwing it right in there, man,” Davis said. “He just made more plays than us. They made more plays than us.” But did they really? The Steelers outgained New England 413-360, picked off Brady for the first time in 12 years, held the ball for 35 minutes and did it all without much from wide receiver Antonio Brown.

The only player to have five consecutive 100-catch seasons left in the second quarter with a left calf injury and didn’t return to the game.

Pittsburgh offered no update on Brown’s status Monday, though he hardly seemed despondent in a Twitter post.

“We had a lot of chances to close the door in that game, we didn’t,” Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward said. “We learned (and) we lived.”

Pittsburgh has an extra day to recover emotionally before going to Houston to face the Texans on Christmas Day.

A victory and another over Cleveland on New Year’s Eve would secure a first-round playoff bye and maybe homefield advantage if the Patriots stub their toe at home against Buffalo or the Jets.

It’s possible. It’s just not likely.

Heyward knows this, but he’s not going to let it define what has been a special season.

There may be a rematch against the Patriots in January.