3 trap games that cost the Pittsburgh Steelers their season

1. Steelers vs Broncos 2012 Wild Card Playoff

Personally, I have always liked Tim Tebow due to his demeanor as a team captain from the University of Florida and how he acted among his teammates, fans, and friends off the field. He is a good man at heart and a mentor. That season as a Denver Bronco before Peyton came to town was a dream for him, probably his only good season in the league. He made a come-from-behind win against the Miami Dolphins and then led the Broncos to win critically-important divisional matchups against the Chiefs, Chargers, and Raiders to secure the division title and host a playoff game (in this case was the Wild-Card).

Tebow had much respect for the work he needed to do and did, but the Sunday of the game, for only one time, that all went away. Coming into Denver, the 2011 season for the Steelers was about defending the AFC Title crown after winning against the Jets the previous year. Because of two key losses against the Ravens allowing them to not have the tiebreaker, the Steelers though finished 12-4, had to finish second but earned a Wild-Card berth.

Besides the storyline on the field, there was this off-the-field. Recently there has been controversy regarding the current playoff system that if a team wins their division, but has a lesser record than the others, they are still able to host a playoff at home. The Steelers had that into their plan for this game that because they had more wins than the Broncos have, they should defeat these guys like it’s nothing.

Boy did Tebow and his friends proved us wrong with a stellar performance and a walk-off touchdown in overtime (the NFL changed the rule so that the other team gets a chance like how the NCAA plays overtime only after a field-goal attempt). As a fan, this was a total heartbreaker, and I still get the feelings to this day.

As an honorable mention, this game can be referred back to the 1998 AFC Championship where John Elway on the road was coming to a hostile environment at Three Rivers but managed to escape with a 24 – 21 victory earning a trip to San Diego where the rest was history.

With upcoming games against Washington (Well how the NFC East is this year, they just have a chance), Jacksonville, and another game against Cincinnati of which all teams could miss the postseason, these will be the games I keep a close eye on as a Steeler fan, and as a Coach as well. For Tomlin’s regime, in the last several years up to 2016 where the Steelers were favored, their record was 29-8 and the losses have come later in the season as I previously pointed out.

Can we fall into these games? Although we have had a fantastic season up to this point at 9-0, the margin of victory has been around 9 points or a drive and a half. Letting off the gas pedal for a split second is a possibility. That’s up to our team and the coaching staff to not make it happen.