PITTSBURGH – Tears streamed down Ben Roethlisberger’s face. Next to him on the sofa, Maurkice Pouncey, one of his best friends and old teammates, was also crying when the emotion overflowed.
The scoreboard across from them lit up the unthinkable: their season was over – and maybe their career too.
After trailing four scores in the first half, the Pittsburgh Steelers were unable to complete the comeback on Sunday evening, falling against the Cleveland Browns in the wildcard round of the playoffs 48-37. A promising 11-0 season was cut to a 1-5 finish with a first round exit at home – with a final score that seemed closer than ever before.
“We haven’t done enough,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of the late-season slump. “We didn’t put them in good enough conditions. We didn’t play enough plays, especially at the critical moments. We were a group that died on the vine.”
Pouncey, a 10-year veteran, and Roethlisberger vowed years ago to play as long as the others, and with the loss of Sunday night and a year to go on their contracts, that day is much closer than ever before. They sat on the bench long after their teammates left the field, talking and taking it all in.
“I love that guy,” Roethlisberger said of Pouncey. “He’s one of the best competitors and teammates I’ve ever had. It was so much fun sharing a soccer field with him. I hate that it ended the way it was. I just wanted to apologize for wanting that. win it for him. “
While Roethlisberger and Pouncey sat on the couch, a pair of Steelers came up to the pair and shared a few moments with them. Wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, now entering free duty for the first time in his career, hugged his quarterback in tears.
“I’m so grateful to have him as a quarterback and I wouldn’t change it,” Smith-Schuster said, explaining what he told Roethlisberger. “I told him, I don’t know what your plans or what is planned for you guys, but I’m really grateful from the moment I came in, the first day to the time Ben took me under his wing. Ben told me that, “You fought hard, you are a warrior and thank you.” It was just all love. “
Roethlisberger, 38, threw for 501 yards on 68 pass attempts with four touchdowns on Sunday. But his four interceptions downed the Steelers, as they were 28-0 behind in the first quarter.
From the outset, the very first photo of what could be the pair’s final match at Heinz Field didn’t go as expected. A high blow from Pouncey sailed over Roethlisberger’s head during the very first action of the game. Roethlisberger and James Conner rushed to drive the loose ball, but neither made an effective move to secure it. Instead, the Browns jumped on and took a 7-0 lead with just 14 seconds off the clock.
Things only got worse from then on when the Browns converted three more Roethlisberger interceptions in the first half to 21 points for an ultimately insurmountable lead, as the defense failed to delay Nick Chubb and Browns’ attack. The Steelers didn’t book any pocket or force any sales. They are 1-4 this season if they have had no sales.
“We screwed up,” said defensive Captain Cameron Heyward. “I can’t soften it. Look at the score. As a defense, we’ve given up too many points. And as a leader, as a leader of the defense, I failed miserably, and you know, it’s hard to lose. It’s hard. “To get rid of guys in our locker room who have done great things on the field and beyond. And you know, that stranger is just killing me. To waste such an opportunity and know we don’t have our football and it sucks.”
Roethlisberger’s bleak first half – 20 out of 30 passes for 177 yards and three interceptions – was an ugly echo of the first halves against the Cincinnati Bengals and the Indianapolis Colts, when it looked like the future Hall of Famer was losing its touch. Against the Colts, he found his groove for a comeback win in the second half. It was too late against the Browns.
“It wasn’t good enough,” said Roethlisberger of his performances. “If you lose a game like this, you can look back and evaluate what you want about the season, how you did in this game, that game, runs, stretches. I mean, at some point we’ll look back at the whole season. thing.
“But if it doesn’t end the way you want, you’ll always feel somehow, like you’ve come up short or it’s your fault.”
The Steelers started to rise after halftime and outperformed the Browns 13-0, but Tomlin chose to play for field position, kicking in fourth and first place from 46 to open the fourth quarter, effectively boosting his team’s momentum. was discontinued. The Browns scored on the next drive to take a 42-23 lead.
“We had some stops, wanted to pin them down, maybe provide the short field for our attack,” said Tomlin. “We had maybe two or three consecutive stops. I just wanted to keep the momentum in terms of field positioning. But we weren’t good enough to do that.”
With the loss, the Steelers dropped three playoff games in a row, including the 2017 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, when they had to concede 45 points to the visitors.
“It is what it is,” said Tomlin when asked about personal responsibility for the failures in the postseason. “Our record is our record. Our performances are our performances. Don’t run away from that.”
Tomlin, who as head coach of Steelers does not have a loss-making season, only has a score of .500 in the post season.
“We have not performed well enough tonight,” he said. “No coaching, no playing. You can attribute it to the turnover game. But we weren’t good enough in many other areas, communication, in terms of detail. Just not a good night for us. In the single elimination tournaments, if you don’t. have a good evening, you go home. “
Now that the season is over, an important decision awaits Roethlisberger. He has one final year on his $ 41.2 million contract, and he has said before that if he doesn’t play in a way that helps his team, he will “hang” it.
But after Sunday’s game, Roethlisberger said he had not yet made a decision about his future.
“It will start between me and God, pray a lot. Talk a lot with my family, discussions, decisions. I have another year on my contract. I hope the Steelers want me back, if that’s the way we’re going. will be a lot of discussions, but now is not the time for that.
“This loss is fresh. It’s just in our hearts and minds now. It’ll take a while.”