Roethlisberger deflected talk about his shoulder after the game but did admit that he lost a lot of velocity on his throws on that final drive, when the Steelers had to call a series of short throws.
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And in the end, it didn’t matter. The Pittsburgh Steelers are heading to Denver after the Cincinnati Bengals did what they always seem to do this time of year: They imploded. Linebacker Vontaze Burfict hit Antonio Brown in the head with a brutal blow after a pass incompletion and, before the ball could be spotted, cornerback Adam Jones was called for a personal foul. Burfict dropped his shoulder and hit a defenseless Brown in the helmet as the All-Pro receiver came across the middle, and Jones lost his cool after getting into with Steelers assistant coach Joey Porter when Porter came onto the field as Brown was being tended to by trainers. He shoved Porter and got the 15-yard penalty that gave the Steelers an easy game-winning field goal.
When asked about his shoulder, the quarterback said: “We got a win, that’s all that matters”.
The Steelers bolted off the field without so much as shaking hands while the Bengals vented their frustration after easily the most painful of their eight straight postseason losses. Jones posted an angry, expletive-filled video on Instagram cussing out the referees before deleting it.
Trailing 16-15 with 1:23 left, Roethlisberger returned to his offense with the ball at the Steelers’ 9-yard line. When this passionate rivalry took an ugly turn on Saturday night, it was the Bengals who paid the biggest price.
Pittsburgh had the ball at the Cincy 47 with just 22 seconds left and threw a pass to Antonio Brown that was incomplete.
Defensive end Carlos Dunlap said people will point fingers at whoever they can find to blame, but it falls on everyone, adding “I wear stripes too”.
For the first time since January 6, 1991, the Cincinnati Bengals almost secured their first postseason win in the 9,134 days between victory.
Just when the Bengals thought they had it won, they imploded with a pair of late personal foul penalties.
All Cincinnati had to do was keep the Steelers out of field-goal range and they’d finally get that coveted playoff victory that has eluded them for so long.
“He’s trying to go over and defend the play”, Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis said. Dalton finished with 3,250 yards and 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions, making it the best season of his five-year career.
@ The Steelers had a strong rushing attack using both Fitzgerald Toussaint and Jordan Todman to replace injured DeAngelo Williams. Bryant caught five passes for 29 yards and a touchdown while also running for 44 yards off his lone carry. History is against him: No quarterback with so little National Football League starting experience has won a playoff game since Gifford Nielsen led the Houston Oilers over the Chargers in the 1979 season.
Still, that production didn’t look like it would be enough.
Cincinnati, who scored 16 fourth-quarter points, taking a 16-15 lead with 1:56 remaining in the game, almost iced the game when Vontaze Burfict intercepted Landry Jones at the Steelers’ 26-yard line.
Two Bengals touchdowns followed, first a one-yard run by back Jeremy Hill and then a catch by receiver A.J. Green, with a two-point conversion failing on the latter.
And just as suddenly as it appeared, the Bengals’ resolve vanished. However, Cincinnati halfback Jeremy Hill lost a fumble on the next play to give the ball right back to the Steelers after a six-yard run.
Then, an equally huge play by the home team.
Another long winter looms in Cincinnati.
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With Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton missing for a fourth-straight game, it was the Steelers who were favourite sto advance into the divisional play-offs.
