PITTSBURGH – Tears streamed down Ben Roethlisberger’s face. Sitting beside him on the bench, Maurkice Pouncey, one of his best friends and longtime teammates, also cried when the emotion overflowed.
The scoreboard before them illuminated the unthinkable: their season was over, and so were their careers.
After falling behind by four goals in the first half, the Pittsburgh Steelers failed to complete the comeback on Sunday night, falling to the Cleveland Browns in the wild card round of the 48-37 playoffs. A promising 11-0 season reduced to a 1-5 final with an elimination in the first round at home, with a final result that seemed closer than ever.
“We haven’t done enough,” said coach Mike Tomlin of the collapse at the end of the season. “We did not place them in good condition. We did not make enough plays, especially at critical moments. We were a group that died on the vine.”
Pouncey, a 10-year veteran, and Roethlisberger made a promise years ago to play while the other played, and with Sunday night’s defeat and a year remaining in their contracts, that day is much closer than ever. They sat on the bench long after their teammates left the field, talking and absorbing everything.
“I love that guy,” said Roethlisberger of Pouncey. “He’s one of the best competitors and teammates I’ve ever had. It was a lot of fun to share a football field with him. I hate that it ended the way it did. I just wanted to apologize to him for it. Win it for him.”
While Roethlisberger and Pouncey were sitting on the bench, some Steelers approached the duo and shared a few moments with them. Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, now entering the free agency for the first time in his career, embraced his quarterback with tears.
“I’m very grateful to have him as a defender and I wouldn’t change that,” said Smith-Schuster of what he said to Roethlisberger. “I told him, I don’t know what your plans are or what is planned for you, but I’m really grateful, from the moment I entered, the first day, until the moment Ben put me under his protection. Ben me said that ‘you fought a lot, you are a warrior and thank you.’ It was all love. “
Roethlisberger, 38, shot for 501 yards in 68 passing attempts with four touchdowns. But his four interceptions condemned the Steelers, who were left behind 28-0 in the first half.
From the beginning, the first snap of what could be the duo’s last game at Heinz Field did not go the way they expected. A loud pop from Pouncey went over Roethlisberger’s head on the first play of the game. Roethlisberger and James Conner struggled to corner the missing ball, but neither made an effective move to hold it. Instead, the Browns pounced on him and got a 7-0 lead with just 14 seconds left.
It only got worse from there, when the Browns turned three more Roethlisberger interceptions in the first half into 21 points for an insurmountable advantage, as the defense failed to slow Nick Chubb and the Browns’ attack. The Steelers did not register a single withdrawal or force a turn. They are 1-4 this season when they didn’t have a turnaround.
“We blew it,” said defensive captain Cameron Heyward. “I can’t smooth it over. You look at the scoreboard. As a defense, we lost a lot of points. And as a leader, as a defense leader, I failed miserably, and you know, it’s hard to lose. It’s hard to lose guys in our locker room who made great things on and off the field. And you know, that stranger just kills me. Wasting an opportunity like this and knowing that we don’t play our football brand and sucks. “
Roethlisberger’s sad first half – 20 of 30 passes for 177 yards and three interceptions – was an ugly echo of the first halves against the Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts, when it seemed that the future Hall of Fame lost control. Against the Colts, he found his pace for a comeback win in the second half. Against the Browns, it was too late.
“It was not good enough,” said Roethlisberger of his performances. “When you lose a game like this, you can look back and evaluate everything you want in the season, how you did during that game, that game, races, stretches. I mean, at some point we will look back in general thing.
“But when it doesn’t end the way you want it, you will always feel somehow, as if you have failed or it is your fault.”
The Steelers started to rise after the break, beating the Browns 13-0, but Tomlin chose to play for the field and punt in the fourth-to-1 of 46 to open the fourth period, effectively interrupting his team’s momentum. . The Browns scored in the race that followed to take a 42-23 lead.
“We made a few stops, we wanted to locate them, maybe provide a short field for our attack,” said Tomlin. “We had maybe two or three consecutive stops. I just wanted to keep the momentum going in terms of field positioning. But we were not good enough in terms of doing that.”
With the defeat, the Steelers lost three consecutive playoff games, including the 2017 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, when they conceded 45 points to the visitors.
“It is what it is,” said Tomlin when asked about personal responsibility for the post-season failures. “Our record is our record. Our performances are our performances. Don’t run from it.”
Tomlin, who does not have a regular losing season as the Steelers’ head coach, has only a 0.500 mark in the postseason.
“We didn’t play well enough tonight,” he said. “Without training, without playing. You can attribute that to the game of the turn. But we were not good enough in many other areas, communication, in terms of details. It just wasn’t a good night for us. In the only elimination tournaments, when you don’t have a good night, you go home. “
With the end of the season, Roethlisberger has an important decision approaching. He still has a last year of a $ 41.2 million contract and has already said that if he is not playing in a way that helps his team, he will “hang up”.
After Sunday’s game, however, Roethlisberger said he had not yet made a decision about his future.
“It will start between me and God, a lot of prayer. Lots of conversation with my family, discussions, decisions. I still have a year of contract. I hope the Steelers want me back, if that’s how we go. There will be many discussions. But now is not the time for that.
“This loss is recent. It is just sitting in our hearts and minds now. It will stay for a while.”