PITTSBURGH – Tears streamed down Ben Roethlisberger’s face. Sitting next to him on the bench, Maurkice Pouncey, one of his best friends and long-time teammates, also cried as the emotion poured out.
The dashboard in front of them shone unimaginably: their season is over – and so could their careers.
After falling four points behind in the first half, the Pittsburgh Steelers were unable to complete their comeback Sunday night, falling to the Cleveland Browns in the 48-37 wild-card playoff round. A promising 11-0 season was reduced to 1-5 with an outing in the first round at home – with a final score that looked closer than ever felt.
“We haven’t done enough,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of the late season’s collapse. “I didn’t position them in good enough circumstances. I didn’t do enough plays, especially in critical times. We were a group that died on the vine.”
Pouncey, a 10-year veteran, and Roethlisberger took an oath years ago to play as much as the other did, and with Sunday night’s loss and a year left on 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 like that guy,” Roethlisberger said of Pouncey. “He’s one of the best competitors and teammates I’ve ever had. It was so much fun to share a football field with him. I hate that it ended the way I did. I just wanted to apologize for that I wanted to win it for him. “
While Roethlisberger and Pouncey sat on the bench, a few Steelers approached the pair and shared a few moments with them. Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who is now joining the free agency for the first time in his career, hugged the defender with tears.
“I’m so grateful to have him as a defender and I wouldn’t change,” Smith-Schuster said, explaining what he told Roethlisberger. “I told him, I don’t know what your plans are or what you are going to do, but I’m very grateful since I came in, the first day Ben took me under his wing. “You fought hard, you are a warrior and I thank you.” It was just all love. “
Roethlisberger, 38, threw for 501 yards in 68 touchdowns with four touchdowns on Sunday. But his four interceptions condemned the Steelers as they fell 28-0 in the first quarter.
Right from the start, the first shot of what could be the pair’s last game at Heinz Field did not go as expected. A great blow from the Pouncey over Roethlisberger’s head in the very first play of the game. Roethlisberger and James Conner hurried to free the ball, but neither of them made an effective move to secure it. Instead, the Browns rushed at her and took a 7-0 lead, just 14 seconds off the clock.
It got worse as Browns turned three more interceptions into Roethlisberger’s first half into 21 points for an ultimately insurmountable advantage, as the defense couldn’t slow down Nick Chubb and Browns’ offense. They did not register any bags or did not force a turnover. They are 1-4 this season, when they did not have a turnover.
“I blew,” said defensive end Cameron Heyward. “I can’t cover it. You look at the score. As a defense, I gave up too many 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 the locker room “They did great things on and off the field. And you know, this stranger just kills me. To waste such an opportunity and to know that we didn’t play our football brand and it sucks.”
Roethlisberger’s first disgusting half – 20 of 30 that went 177 yards and three interceptions – was a bad echo of the first half against the Cincinnati Bengals and Indianapolis Colts, when it seemed that the future Hall of Famer had lost touch. Against Colts, he found his ditch for a comeback in the second half. Against Browns, it was too late.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Roethlisberger said of his performances. “When you lose such a game, you can look back and evaluate everything you want in the season, how you did during this game, that game, run, stretches. I mean, at some point we’ll look back on the whole thing.
“But when it doesn’t end the way you want it to, you’ll always feel the same way, as if you were short or to blame.”
The Steelers began to grow after the break, beating the Browns 13-0, but Tomlin opted to play for the field position and scored the fourth and 1 of 46 to open the fourth quarter, effectively stopping his team’s momentum. Browns scored in the next race to take a 42-23 lead.
“We had a few stops, we wanted to identify them, maybe we could provide the short field for our crime,” Tomlin said. “I had two or three consecutive stops. I just wanted to keep up the momentum in terms of positioning on the field. But we weren’t good enough in that.”
With the loss, the Steelers gave up three playoff games in a row, including the 2017 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, when they lost 45 points to the visitors.
“It’s what it is,” Tomlin said when asked about personal responsibility for post-season failures. “Our record is our record. Our performance is our performance. Don’t run from it.”
Tomlin, who has not lost a regular season as the Steelers’ head coach, has just a .500 mark in the postseason.
“I didn’t perform well enough tonight,” he said. “Not a coach, not a game. You can believe it until the game of turnover. But we weren’t good enough in many other areas, communication, in terms of details. It just wasn’t a good night for us. In eliminating single tournaments, when you don’t have a good night, you go home. “
With the season over, Roethlisberger has a major decision coming up. He has another last year of contract worth 41.2 million dollars and said that if he does not play in a way that will help his team, he will “close” it.
However, after Sunday’s match, Roethlisberger said he had not yet made a decision on his future.
“It will start between me and God, a lot of prayers. A lot of discussions with my family, discussions, decisions. I have another year of contract. I hope the Steelers will return me, if that’s how we are. They will be a lot of talk, but now is not the time for that.
“This loss is fresh. It’s just sitting on our hearts and minds right now. It will be for a while.”