Steelers rally from 17 down, top Broncos

Over that same span, Seattle Seahawks signal-caller Russell Wilson has thrown for 19 scores without an interception during the team’s five-game winning streak.

The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t need a reminder of how bad they looked while falling behind Denver by two touchdowns at halftime Sunday.

“I think there were some plays we should have made by a lot of people, not just the quarterback”, Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said. “Just throwing the ball, which is their strength, what do they call themselves, the ‘No (Fly) Zone.’ It’s a great challenge for us”.

Coming into Sunday’s game between the Steelers and Broncos at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field, there were two National Football League truisms at play. Roethlisberger hit Brown for two second-half touchdowns, and on both of those scores, Brown beat Denver cornerback Chris Harris, who hadn’t given up a touchdown since Week 12 of the 2013 season.

“We have to be better than that”, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.

The Steelers controlled the second half, finally taking the lead when Ryan Shazier intercepted Brock Osweiler to set up a 23-yard dart from Roethlisberger to Brown with 3:34 to go. Osweiler stumbled his 6-foot-7 frame across the goal line to make it 20-7 and when Thomas stiff-armed Pittsburgh’s Antwon Blake to finish off a 6-yard touchdown, the Broncos were up 27-10. ” … That’s this business, you better be built for four quarters”.

The Denver Broncos melted down in the second half for the second straight week, squandering a 14 point lead to take a 34-27 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The pass protection wasn’t exceptional in this game, but it provided Osweiler enough time to find his receivers on most plays.

OSWEILER HURTING: Osweiler completed 14 of 18 passes in the first half but was just 7 of 26 after the break.

Former Steelers receiver Emmanuel Sanders had a monster day for the Broncos against his former team with ten receptions for 181 yards and a touchdown.

The Broncos led 27-10 at one point in the first half (converting eight consecutive third downs) in what seemed to be Steal City, but wouldn’t score again in the misery of the second half (one third- and fourth-down conversion). After the half, the Broncos punted six times, threw an interception and basically swapped places with the unit they were having their way with in the first 30 minutes. “This is something that we will work on and we will fix”. But they were quickly put in a hole – Ronnie Hillman fumbled deep in Denver territory, and the Steelers recovered. But they failed to score on nine possessions in the second half when they converted just 1 of 9 third-down opportunities.

Brock Osweiler spent two glorious quarters confounding the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Brown remained consistent throughout the game, but the Steelers’ offense sputtered at times.

Packers 30, Raiders 20 – Green Bay (10-4) punched its ticket to the playoffs by virtue of the Giants’ loss to Carolina earlier in the afternoon, then picked up a road win behind Aaron Rodgers’s go-ahead 30-yard TD pass to James Jones in the third quarter.

“What I said was what everybody in the National Football League knows and when it comes to Peyton Manning, the guy is the ultimate leader”, Sanders told the national media about last year’s comments.

“They played good”, said Talib. For the season Manziel has actually played pretty well with 1,203 passing yards, six touchdowns and three interception. Denver ends the regular season with home games against Cincinnati and San Diego.