Jacksonville stuns Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH» The Steelers’ drama-filled season ended shockingly. A final, forgettable act.
No shot at the Patriots. No seventh Super Bowl trophy. No tomorrow.
And when it ended after a game no one expected, Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown and the rest of the dejected Steelers searched to find words to describe all that had gone wrong.
This was a struggle from the start.
“It wasn’t our day,” Roethlisberger said. “It wasn’t our year.”
Doomed by two first-half turnovers and a pair of head-scratching play-calls on fourth down, Pittsburgh was stunned in the AFC playoffs by the Jacksonville Jaguars, who outslugged the Steelers 45-42 on Sunday to earn a trip to New England for next weekend’s conference championship game.
Roethlisberger, who had wondered if he was washed up after throwing five interceptions in a loss to the Jaguars on Oct. 9, set a franchise postseason record with five touchdown passes Sunday. But it wasn’t enough as the Steelers (13-4) couldn’t stop a Jaguars offense that supposedly was weak.
“It’s disheartening,” said Brown, who caught two touchdown passes and played at his all-pro level at wide receiver while battling a calf injury. “I thought we had the right guys. As a player, you live for these moments. Now we start all over.”
As Roethlisberger dressed at one end of Pittsburgh’s locker room, a few of his team-
mates sat at their stalls in disbelief.
This wasn’t the plan. Cam Heyward handled wave after wave of questions about the team’s defensive lapses. Bell downplayed that his messy contract situation created an unnecessary distraction in the days leading up to the game, and Artie Burns sat in his uniform and stared blankly at the floor.
The Steelers never recovered from a 21-0 firsthalf deficit and are now left to wonder what might have been. Twice they got within seven points in the second half only to give up back-breaking plays to the Jaguars, who rushed for 168 yards and seemed to come up with a big play whenever they needed one.
“It’s crazy that we couldn’t get off the field,” Heyward said. “They played better than us — simple as that.”
The Jaguars (12-6) had the Steelers out of step early. After rookie Leonard Fournette’s second TD, the score set up by linebacker Myles Jack’s interception of Roethlisberger, Jacksonville was up 14-0 and Pittsburgh’s rowdy fans were using their Terrible Towels to muffle their disgust.
The Steelers seemed to panic when coach Mike Tomlin decided to go on fourth-and-inches but inexplicably ran a sweep to Bell that got snuffed. Later, Roethlisberger threw an incompletion on fourth down when a simple sneak might have moved the chains for a first down.
“We didn’t execute well enough and they did,” Tomlin said when asked about his decisions.
Roethlisberger finished 37-of-58 passing for 469 yards and the five TDs, the last coming with one second left. It was a sobering moment for the star quarterback who has orchestrated so many comeback wins during his 14-year career. Roethlisberger found some solace in his final throw. “Nobody quit, and that speaks volumes about this team,” he said.
Roethlisberger also dismissed any talk that the Steelers were looking past the Jaguars and a rematch with the powerhouse Patriots, who handed Pittsburgh its only loss in the previous 11 games. “We were dialed in,” the QB said. “I know I wasn’t looking forward.”
Bell finished with 155 total yards and afterward sidestepped much talk about his contract. He was franchise tagged by the team for $12 million this season and has made it clear that he wants a raise.
“I wasn’t thinking about it,” Bell said. “All I was thinking about was getting to the Super Bowl.”
Jacksonville safety Barry Church said of the Jaguars: “It’s time to roll to New England, baby.”