PITTSBURGH -- Inside one locker room, the Pittsburgh Steelers were crying. Fullback Carey Davis stared at the media with red eyes. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sniffled back tears as teammate after teammate approached him for a hug.
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| David Garrard and Big Ben have up-and-down games in a thriller. (AP) |
"What's it say in that commercial?" Jackson screamed to no one in particular as he entered the Jacksonville locker room. "Oh, yeah: 'This is my house.'"
Hard to argue that. The Steelers have played just two games at Heinz Field since mid-December, and Jacksonville won both. Inside their locker room, various Jaguars mocked the Steelers on Saturday night. One of them broke up a handful of teammates by yelling, "Awww -- they don't have a game next week!"
You'll have to excuse the Jaguars for their glee, and forgive the Steelers for their gloom. This was the kind of game that will purge the emotions as thoroughly as any athletic contest can.
"It was a roller coaster," said Steelers center Sean Mahan.
It was the kind of game both teams -- or neither team -- should have lost. Jacksonville led 28-10 after three quarters. Pittsburgh led 29-28 and had the ball with less than three minutes left.
It was the kind of loss that will produce an offseason of second-guessing in Pittsburgh. Had the Steelers kicked extra points after their last two touchdowns, Josh Scobee's late field goal would only have forced overtime, not ended the game. And why did Steelers coach Mike Tomlin sacrifice his team's final possession with the 29-28 lead, calling for a Roethlisberger keeper on third-and-6 from the Steelers 26 with 2:50 left, knowing the Jags would have more than 2½ minutes to drive into field-goal range?
"If I had a crystal ball ..." Tomlin said.
Only with a crystal ball could Tomlin or anyone have predicted the individual turnarounds of each quarterback in the second half. Roethlisberger was so bad in the first half, even he had to laugh about it. After throwing his third interception shortly before halftime, this one being picked off by leaping Jags defensive tackle Derek Landri, Roethlisberger threw his head back and laughed. Roethlisberger's counterpart, Jacksonville's David Garrard, was almost as bad in the second half, throwing two interceptions.
Both quarterbacks rallied when they had to, however. Roethlisberger was monstrous in the second half, going 17-for-23 for 188 yards and two touchdowns, as the Steelers scored on four straight possessions to turn that 28-10 deficit into that 29-28 lead. But then Garrard uncorked the play of the game, a 32-yard run on fourth-and-2 that put the Jags into automatic field-goal range inside the Pittsburgh 15. Three plays later, Scobee's 25-yard field goal with 40 seconds left gave the Jaguars their victory -- and atoned for an earlier 46-yard miss.
Garrard and Scobee were able to make amends. Pittsburgh safety Tyrone Carter had the same chance at redemption but couldn't make it happen. It was Carter who was badly burned by Jacksonville running back Maurice Jones-Drew's 43-yard scoring reception in the first half. And it was Carter who was juked on Garrard's 32-yard ramble. Had Carter brought him down where they first met, Jacksonville would have had plenty of work left to get into comfortable field-goal range on this rainy, windy night. Instead, Garrard faked his way around Carter at the Pittsburgh 30 and wasn't stopped until he reached the 11.
Garrard did with his feet what he had been unable to do with his arm. He had missed receivers with low passes on two of the previous three plays, putting the Jaguars into that fourth-and-2 position.
"As a quarterback, if you make mistakes you definitely want the ball in your hands to make it up," Garrard said. "I definitely wanted it. I wanted that play."
That play seemed to break the Steelers' spirit. Jones-Drew powered up the middle for two meaty gains that put the ball at the Pittsburgh 2 with 40 seconds left. After Scobee's field goal, the Pittsburgh offense went out with a whimper as Roethlisberger fumbled the ball on his first play of the drive -- and his last play of the season. Afterward, the teary Roethlisberger said he apologized to his teammates for losing this playoff game.
"I just wanted them to know, for everybody, not just the offense or defense, that no one should blame anybody or anything other than myself," he said. "I take the heat for that. I dug us a hole. We got out of the hole a little bit, but it was too deep. I'm ashamed of the way I played today."
While Roethlisberger was talking in the media room, some of his teammates were right where he left them in the locker room -- sitting in front of their lockers, saying nothing, doing nothing. Just staring.
Reserve safety Grant Mason, a second-year pro from Michigan, did something. He dressed quickly and took pictures of his empty locker, including his nameplate. After a loss like this, who knows what the future will bring?
