stillers4me
01-02-2012, 04:45 PM
The Steelers won the battle but lost the holiday bauble that would have brought them a gift of a first-round postseason bye and a home game.
Instead, they will open their playoffs at 4:30 p.m. Sunday as a wild-card team in Denver at Sports Authority Field against the Broncos, the AFC West Division champions, and hope to follow the same path they did in 2005 by winning four in a row to claim a seventh Super Bowl championship.
The Steelers did their part toward a parlay that might have brought them the No. 2 playoff seed by beating Cleveland, 13-9, with Hines Ward getting the five receptions he needed to hit 1,000 a happy by-product.
But at the other end of Ohio, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-16, to clinch the AFC North Division title and the No. 2 seed in the conference and a bye. The New England Patriots have the No. 1 seed and the other bye.
"We have our marching orders," coach Mike Tomlin said. "We're on our way to Denver. ... We're excited about that. We're comfortable in that arena and we look forward to pursuing the Lombardi [Trophy]."
But they will have to do so without their starting running back. Rashard Mendenhall left the game in the first quarter with a knee injury that Tomlin feared was an ACL tear, which takes 6 to 8 months of rehabilitation...............
Read more @ http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12002/1200801-66.stm
Instead, they will open their playoffs at 4:30 p.m. Sunday as a wild-card team in Denver at Sports Authority Field against the Broncos, the AFC West Division champions, and hope to follow the same path they did in 2005 by winning four in a row to claim a seventh Super Bowl championship.
The Steelers did their part toward a parlay that might have brought them the No. 2 playoff seed by beating Cleveland, 13-9, with Hines Ward getting the five receptions he needed to hit 1,000 a happy by-product.
But at the other end of Ohio, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 24-16, to clinch the AFC North Division title and the No. 2 seed in the conference and a bye. The New England Patriots have the No. 1 seed and the other bye.
"We have our marching orders," coach Mike Tomlin said. "We're on our way to Denver. ... We're excited about that. We're comfortable in that arena and we look forward to pursuing the Lombardi [Trophy]."
But they will have to do so without their starting running back. Rashard Mendenhall left the game in the first quarter with a knee injury that Tomlin feared was an ACL tear, which takes 6 to 8 months of rehabilitation...............
Read more @ http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12002/1200801-66.stm