Third-and-12 at the Denver 18 (14:56, 2nd quarter): After a 21-yard pass to Eric Decker was overturned via instant replay challenge, momentum seemed to be on Pittsburgh’s side. Denver faced a third-and-long from deep in its own territory trailing 6-0, but this was the play that swung the momentum back to the home side as Tim Tebow found Demaryius Thomas deep down the left sideline for a 51-yard gain. The big play set up Tebow’s 30-yard touchdown pass to Eddie Royal two plays later that gave Denver a 7-6 lead.
Second-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 20 (13:21, 2nd quarter): Ben Roethlisberger connected on a 52-yard pass to Mike Wallace, but the Broncos successfully challenged the ruling. Instead of a long gain into Denver territory, Pittsburgh faced a third-and-10 and would go three-and-out, turning the ball back to the Broncos.
Second-and-7 at the Denver 30 (12:15, 2nd quarter): The Tebow-to-Thomas connection struck again, this time for 58 yards. Again, two plays after the long pass play, the Broncos found the end zone. This time, Tebow kept it himself and charged up the middle for an 8-yard rushing score to give the Broncos a 14-6 advantage.
3rd-and-16 at the Pittsburgh 14 (9:23, 2nd quarter): With heavy pressure from D.J. Williams, Roethlisberger heaved a pass down the field that ended up in the arms of Quinton Carter. The rookie safety returned the interception 9 yards to the Pittsburgh 18. The Broncos pushed the ball inside the Steelers 5-yard lie before settling for a 20-yard field goal to increase their lead to 17-6.
Second-and-6 at the Denver 35 (4:31, 2nd quarter): Tebow hit Daniel Fells over the middle for a gain of 40 yards to push Denver into scoring position. Prater added his second field goal of the game to give the Broncos a 20-6 lead.
Third-and-4 at the Denver 40 (0:39, 2nd quarter): With the Steelers at the edge of field goal range, Roethlisberger couldn’t handle a high snap from Doug Legursky. Roethlisberger recovered the loose ball, but not before Pittsburgh lost 23 yards on the play. Instead of having a chance to add points before the intermission, Pittsburgh had to punt.
First-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 23 (8:12, 2nd quarter): Roethlisberger threw what replays showed to be a backwards lateral to Mike Wallace. The whistle blew when the ball hit the ground, making what could have been ruled a Broncos fumble recovery non-reviewable. The play remained an incomplete pass, and Pittsburgh would go on to drive down the field for a touchdown to make the score Denver 20 Pittsburgh 13.
First-and-10 at the Denver 48 (7:43, 4th quarter): With the Broncos driving down the field looking to extend a 23-16 lead, Ryan Mundy forced a Willis McGahee fumble that was recovered by LaMarr Woodley. Pittsburgh used the turnover to knot the game at 23-23 after Roethlisberger threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Jerricho Cotchery on the team’s ensuing drive.
First-and-10 at the Denver 45 (0:29, 4th quarter): Pittsburgh had moved the ball into Denver territory in the final minute of regulation when Elvis Dumervil stip-sacked Roethlisberger for a loss of 11 yards. Roethlisberger recovered his fumble, but the 11-yard loss led to a last-play Hail Mary attempt that resulted in another Broncos sack.
-Stuart Zaas
Give people time and a few more games to put their faith in Tebow,if he continues to play good,people will come around,throwing it in their face everytime he has a good game will only push them away more,besides fans have a right to their opinions,and have the right to change their mind about anytime they want to,lol.
Who wudda thunk we would win a playoff game this year!
Enjoy the ride….EVERY BRONCO FAN!!!!!!!!!
I am late getting to this blog mainly because my wife is a big Steelers fan and I spent the evening after the game on egg shells; but wanted to chime in on the Kudos to our team. Well played and well deserved. We have our fair share of injuries and this was a TEAM WIN!!!!
Tebow did his job and so did everyone else.
Matt Willis was a little disappointing. Primarily because he was trying to fill Eric Decker’s role.
I am not ready to worry about New England… let’s enjoy this win for one more day!!! What a roller-coaster season. I am so proud of this team getting back to being a playoff team.
I think Irving has a chance to be good still, and I agree that Mays is a good fill in. I think we should cut Warren, keep Vickerson, bring back the guys playing this year and draft a DT, LB, and DE. No reason Mays, Hunter and McBean shouldn’t have competition from rookies in camp next year…
It’s official, according to NFL.com, Eric Decker will be out vs the Pats.
Good for Willis, he’ll have a shot at redeeming himself, just like Tebow did, LMAO!
Decker suffered strained ligaments in his knee.Glad it wasn’t worse!
By the way, I want to say thank you Bay, for all the work you do on this Blog. I really appreciate reading your opinions and game impressions. You are always fair with your analysis. I would prefer for you to drink a little more orange kool-aid, but that is just my optimism.
I still agree that we probably shouldn’t be in the position we are in, but I still think we have a chance with #15 back there as well as the rest of the team, just like when #7 was back there.
Go Broncos.
Willis is fine……….lol.
Thanks and you are welcome mnm, I do what I do for the fun of it and for folks just like you who appreciate it.
I was checking out our roster… maybe time to give Greg Orton another shot? I also noticed who we have on injured reserve ready to make a contribution next year…Ty Warren, Syd Quan, Vickerson, Moreno.
The second year players and young O-Line will be ready to make another run next year guaranteed. It will be an exciting off season for the Broncos.
Back to the game… seeing James Harrison get beat by Tebow running the option on the edge was sooooo rewarding!! I wanted him penalized for that Hit on Decker. Eric had not even gotten his feet under him after the catch. How was that not a hit on a defenseless receiver?
Bay,glad to hear the praise about Ayers(the guy we both wanted in the draft),he was a BEAST yesterday,hopefully the start to his turning it up!!!
Harrison is a cheap shot artist and a coward in my book,and should be banned from the NFL,he’s always trying to hurt people,it’s disgusting!!!
ha ha bay. ya i wanted to change my pick after i calmed down but oh well. take it like a man i will. but just think if the broncos make it all the way to the superbowl and i hit 1st place on all the game score predictions, and the people at the top hit the WOS, then boom, 1st place for me. Hell if we can beat the steelers like that after how we played previous, then anything can happen!!
Hey beast that 850 post was good, logical, fair, and very true. You should have a talk with turtle….
DT owned Ike Taylor ALL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Awesome, awesome game. Was totally pumped up at the end. We continue to do the unthinkable, beating the mighty steelers. What a wonderful day. Those idiots at ESPN First Take (mainly Ritchie and Mangini), keep doubting because you will eat your words.
DT was a beast….so much for all that smack talk about our receivers, even Royal got in the mix. Man o man, just keep believing.
lbf…Turtle was drunk last night,I’m sure he’s man enough to admit it.
He apologized several times last night,but then started pouring it on again,just overlook it dude,Turtle is a good guy,but the Vodka was talking last night,I’ve been there,lol.
lbf….Bama is favored by 2 points tonight.
The BCS National Championship Game…LSU vs Alabama 8:30 EST tonight,should be a great battle!
Romeo Crennel named KC HC……big surprise there,DUH!
Jeff Fischer narrowed his decision down to the Rams and Dolphins,look for him to be the next HC of the Rams.He wants a good QB and power over the team,which I think he deserves!
BFE – i’ll be watching LSU’s DE, Montgomery, and Alabama’s LB’s, Upshaw and Hightower tonight!
OT…there will probably be a huge amount of NFL ready players in this game,I will be watching Claiborne CB LSU!
I don’t think that hit on Decker was necessarily dirty, but I do think that was a shot that Harrison was waiting for. Finally he can say he took someone out on a legal hit..and it was a legal hit. As someone said earlier Harrison doesn’t know how to tackle, he just delivers the big hits. We do see these types of hits from CBs which are like 180 lbs if that..the same hit from a 250 lb LB can be devastating as we’ve seen in Decker’s case. I think he’s done for the rest of the year regardless if we move forward in the playoffs.
I think we need a CB,DT,and a RB,those were the 3 things that stood out the most to me in yesterday’s game.
We’ll have no shot at Claiborne tho.. Upshaw is 21 overall, Hightower is 26 overall, and Montgomery is 31 overall. Of course this could all change as we get closer to the draft
brian,Harrison went for Deckers knee on purpose,it shouldn’t be legal to do that,Decker was a defensless Receiver,wasn’t he?
We need a RB no doubt, maybe even two of them, but I don’t like taking one in the first IMO
Oh I know we have no shot at Claiborne,I just love to watch a guy with his talent play,lol.
Agreed,we need a RB,but 2nd round or later,maybe even FA!
Calvin Johnson 211 receiving yards
Demarylis Thomas 204 receiving yards
In great company there!
I hear you, this game has two top CB’s in college, Claiborne and Kirkpatrick.. Should be fun to watch!
Should be interesting what we do at RB.. I think we keep McGahee and call me crazy, but I think giving Moreno another shot is a good idea.. We also have Fannin, and I think we look to FA there, maybe a later round roll of the dice
Trust me, I’m not real high on Moreno, but considering Ayers is starting to pan out, why not Moreno (same draft).. He’ll never be a feature RB, but could be a good change of pace back, and could thrive in the option IMO.. Plus, being sidelined during this magical run, could be the wake up call the young kid needs… Give me a Moreno with a chip on his shoulder with something to prove, I’ll buy me some of that!!
I’m in no way defending Harrison but a defenseless receiver as I understand it is “a receiver who hasn’t had sufficient time to catch the ball and protect himself.” I just think that Harrison made an example of what could happen.
Its hard to call Harrisons hit a illegal or dirty hit … sure it injured our guy .. but thats football … and thats what players on D have been tryign to say. He went low because anything high can have incidental helmet to helmet contact which would result in a defenseless receiver hit. D is at such a disadvantage … doesn’t matter if the receiver ducks his head or puts him self in the situation all that matters i that helmet to helmet occured … so he went low. I don’t think he was looking to hurt Decker. He probably thought going low was the safe thing to do (for his team as to not give up a penalty) … we are just made cuz our boy was hurt but playing defense in the NFL these days is tough … alot of adjustments over the years to help the O and not much to help the D.
TRB
I think we should just go back to leather caps for helmets. That would probably help with these “helmet to helmet” hits because how wants to go head to head with just a little piece of cloth holding your brains in??
We won’t have much of a shot at anyone at 32 overall
lol
But honestly I love clairbornes size and speed but he is goign top 5. Kirkpatrick is goign top 10/15. Alphonzo Denard and Minnifield are the only CBs we may have a chance at in the 1st round. I wanted DT Still from penn state but that is a pipe dream as well. I want Defense so bad but also would not fault us for trading up for Trent Richardson or something lol. But the price would be to much.
TRB
“Praise the Lord! Thanks to all my great teammates, coaches and fans…This win was for Bronco Nation!”
Tebow Tweet.
Someone please tell him we are Broncos Country … BLASPHEMY!!!! lol
Good Morning Broncos Country!!!
It truly was great to experience that “Mile High Magic” once more yesterday!! That magic feeling was back again.
What a gut performance by the whole Team!
What an incredible, catch and run by Demaryius Thomas !!
bay-bay said bye-bye with that great stiff arm and the race was on!!! OMG!!! I don’t have a voice this morning.
How does that old 5th dimension song go…….”This is the dawning of the age of Demaryius, age of Demaryius, age of Demaryius…. DEMARYIUS”!!! lol!!
Sorry guys… adrenaline is still wearing off.. lol.
My man Eddie…. what an incredible catch and TT had faith in you to make that catch and you did it!! We love you kid !!!
Bruton was all over the field yesterday, and is playing inspirational football.. thank you #30!!!
Carters INT got the house rocking — yes!!!!
Defense fought hard in the trenches and got after Big Ben!!
Thank you Tim Tebow for restoring that “Mile High Magic” once again!!
Here we go Broncos – Here we go!!
GO BRONCOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On ESPN they said that Ike Taylor had his nameplate ripped off his locker and woodchips spread on the floor in front of it…apparently because he got “burned”
had to step away but ya bfe i guess but I didnt like turtles handling of it and he took it too far. And trb, point earlier taken. was worked up last night. Heres hoping we can pull of another upset. I also want to point out all the attacks on the coaches and they being mostly the reason for tebows failures. I guess now the coaches can get some slack from those people because we have good coaches who will take this team far. As much as the tebow doubters are being attacked, the attacks are coming from the same people who should be answering their own questions about their opinions of the coaches. just sayin. and i am ssssoooo stoked about the playoff win still. gonna be an exciting week!!
Harrison is a dirty player,and I guarantee he meant to hit Decker in the knee,were talking about a man that was gonna retire because he was told he couldn’t hit WRs in the head!
lbf,I’ve backed the coaches all year!
brian,Taylor got owned by DT bro!
For all the fans that wanna give TT and DT most of the credit for the win,remember when Doom stripped Rothliberger and Ayers sacked him,knocking them outta FG range so they couldn’t end the game with a FG at the end of the 4th qtr!
Bronc’ on guys…I’m out!
LBF, I agree, people need to give more credit to the coaches, they have done a good job. I do think they have had some bad playcalling here and there though throughout the year.
The First play of EVERY game is a handoff up the middle to McGahee. (Or whoever started). 3rd and long and a Tebow run up the middle doesn’t get it done either. Those calls frustrate me, but overall, I agree, the coaches deserve some credit.
Do those play calls frustrate anyone else besides me?
Go Broncos!
It was a complete TEAM effort……..and it’s gonna take another complete TEAM effort to pull out a win in foxborough.
bay, are you thinking McGahee’s lack of production and fumbles are attributed to being gassed?
thanks for the update bay on Fox/Miller winning the division in 1st year.
This is pretty cool, not sure if anyone has posted it yet. Hope it works. it is from the DP
Timelapse: Sports Authority Field at Mile High for Broncos vs. Steelers Photos – Photos and Videos f
http://photos.denverpost.com/mediacenter…