San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Roethlisberger’s last game? Steelers hope not
Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethlisberger are brutally honest about the Steelers’ chances of advancing past the wild-card round of the playoffs, especially given the Chiefs humiliated them just a few weeks ago in Arrowhead Stadium.
First, the Pittsburgh coach: “I don’t know how much you learn from it, to be quite honest with you. They smashed us so definitely,” Tomlin said of the first meeting, in which Kansas City won 36-10. “More than anything, this is like a reboot.”
Then the quarterback: “We probably aren’t supposed to be here,” Roethlisberger said. “We probably are not a very good football team. Out of 14 teams that are in, we’re probably at number 14. We’re double-digit underdogs in the playoffs.” You almost wonder whether the Steelers will even show up Sunday night.
But they need only look at their own postseason history to know there’s always a chance. The likely retiring Roethlisberger was a second-year pro in 2005 when the Steelers parlayed another wild-card berth into a Super Bowl triumph. Few folks back then expected a team featuring the retiring Jerome Bettis to make such an inspired playoff run.
“We’re probably 20-point underdogs,” said Roethlisberger, who won another Super Bowl title after the 2008 season, “and we’re going against the No. 1 team that’s won the AFC the last two years — arguably the best team in football. We
Ben Roethlisberger has won two Super Bowls with the Steelers, who play the Chiefs on Sunday.
don’t have a chance. So let’s just go in and play and have fun.”
Indeed, the Steelers (9-7-1) are playing with nothing to lose while the Chiefs (12-5) carry the weight of hefty expectations.
Not only have they won the past two AFC titles and beat the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, they’ve been to the past three championship games, and they’re fresh off a record sixth West division title. The organization that once went nearly three decades without winning a home playoff game has now won five in a row, thanks to a bevy of talent surrounding Pro Bowl quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“I think the first thing you realize is that at any moment, one play can change the entire game,” Mahomes said. “It’s like that in the regular season, but the playoffs, it even goes to another level. One play can end your season or keep it going.”
Eagles at Buccaneers: Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers begin defense of their Super Bowl title Sunday — and that’s as far ahead as they are looking.
Brady says his focus is on trying to help host Tampa Bay beat the Philadelphia Eagles
and not on a possible eighth Super Bowl title or how well he has played at age 44.
The Bucs (13-4) set a franchise record for wins during the regular season, with Brady joining Drew Brees and Peyton Manning as the only quarterbacks in the past 30 years to lead the league in passing yards, touchdowns, attempts and completions.
With a career-best 5,136 yards — the third-highest single-season total in NFL history — and 43 TDs, the argument can be made that this has been his finest season.
If Brady agrees, he’s not saying.
“I feel like it’s, for me, always about the team’s success so it’s hard to compare one year to another. I feel like I want to play as a championship-level player. That’s what I’ve said for a long time,” Brady said. “Obviously, we’ve put ourselves in a decent position. Now we’re in the postseason, and we’ve got to take care of a very tough opponent.”
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts was 3 years old when Brady made his first postseason start in 2001.
Brady enters Sunday’s NFC wild-card round matchup at Raymond James Stadium with a 34-11 playoff record. He has thrown for 12,449 yards and 83 touchdowns — both records — in those 45 games.
Hurts, 23, is in his first year as Philadelphia’s full-time starter. The Eagles have won seven of 11 games since losing to Tampa Bay 28-22 at home on Oct. 14, including four of the past five to earn the No. 7 seed in the NFC.
“He has definitely gotten better throughout that time, which doesn’t surprise me at all because Jalen is a student of the game. Jalen wants to get better and craves to get better. … I think you’re just seeing him grow closer and closer to his ceiling,” first-year Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said.
Hurts is one of eight quarterbacks in league history to throw for more than 3,000 yards and run for more than 750 in the same season. He led the Eagles with 784 yards rushing and 10 TDs on the ground.