DENVER -- A week after sneaking out of Jacksonville with a last-second win, the Steelers seemed poised to perhaps pull off another miracle here Sunday.
Instead, their fourth turnover of the game, an interception in the end zone by defensive tackle Shelby Harris, kept the Steelers out of the end zone for a sixth time in eight trips into Denver's side of the field as the Broncos snapped the Steelers' six-game winning streak, 24-17, at Broncos Stadium at Mile High.
The Steelers, who fell to 7-3-1, marched up and down the field throughout this game, rolling up 527 yards. But most of those yards were empty as Ben Roethlisberger threw two interceptions, the Steelers lost two fumbles and also had a field goal attempt blocked.
"It was a good game plan. Obviously, we moved the ball," David DeCastro said. "But yards and points are a different story."
They certainly were in this game.
"When you turn the ball over that many times, it's hard to win those games," said Roethlisberger, who completed 41 of 56 passes for 462 yards, one touchdown and the two interceptions. "Give them credit. They made the plays and forced the turnovers."
Worse yet, the Steelers turned the ball over twice at the goal line.
The first came on the first play of the second quarter after their opening possession ended with a 48-yard Chris Boswell field goal attempt that was blocked.
Trailing 3-0, on third-and-1 from the Denver 24, the Steelers ran third-string tight end Xavier Grimble on a shallow cross following a strong play-action fake by Roethlisberger. Grimble was wide open and caught the ball with nobody around him.
As he streaked for the front corner of the end zone, safety Will Parks streaked over and hit the much larger Grimble low. The ball squirted out before Grimble crossed the goal line and rolled through the end zone for a touchback.
"I just wanted to get to the goal line as fast as I could," Grimble said. "I saw him. He was smaller. I tried to run through him. The ball came out."
He was hardly the only player to have a similar kind of issue.
Typically sure-handed return man Ryan Switzer muffed a punt that he was fortunate to recover.
James Conner was not so fortunate.
His fumble on the final play of third quarter at the Steelers' 23 following a 23-yard catch-and-run was another tough one. Conner tried to cut around corner Bradley Roby, who went low on him, cutting out his legs. Conner lost the football but fell on it, only to have safety Darian Stewart wrestle it away on the ground.
"Turnovers are fluky things," DeCastro said. "A ball like the one James had, I mean come on. X's (Grimble) play? That’s football, though. That’s how it goes."
The Steelers might have survived in spite of those things if not for the flukiest of all plays.
Trailing 24-17, the Steelers got the ball back 4:26 remaining at their own 44.
Roethlisberger, who had thrown an interception in the third quarter, drove the Steelers to the Denver 3 at the two-minute warning.
His pass to the deep right corner on first down to JuJu Smith-Schuster was overthrown. Then, on second down, the Steelers went to a run by Conner -- the only time he touched the ball following his fumble -- for a 1-yard gain to the 2.
On third down, the Steelers went to a run-pass option. But the snap came in low and Roethlisberger had to stoop to get it. That threw off the timing just enough that he and Conner bumped into each other. Roethlisberger then threw to a streaking Antonio Brown in the middle of the end zone with Chris Harris in tow.
The ball never made it there. Center Maurkice Pouncey, who had delivered the low snap, did too good a job blocking Harris, pushing him back into the end zone. Roethlisberger never saw him and Harris reached up with a paw and grabbed the pass.
"For me, one thing is if we get beat tremendously, I'll take that," Roethlisberger said. "I'll take that to heart that we lost because they were the better team. But for myself, I thought we beat ourselves. The Broncos, they're a great team, offense, defense, special teams. But for us, to be right there, going up and down the field on them and not put points on the board because of major turnovers, man it hurts a lot."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE GAME BALLS
My top three performers:
1. Phillip Lindsay
Broncos running back
Lindsay became the first player to rush for 100 yards against the Steelers this season, going for 110 on just 14 carries. He also scored the game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter.
2. JuJu Smith-Schuster
Steelers wide receiver
Smith-Schuster matched his career-high with 13 receptions for 189 yards and a touchdown on a 97-yard catch-and-run in the third quarter.
3. Will Parks
Denver safety
Parks' forced fumble at the goal line on Grimble kept the Steelers out of the end zone and set the tone by forcing the first of four turnovers.
THE GOOD
Smith-Schuster was once again a major focal point of the offense and benefited heavily from the Broncos doubling Brown at every move.
As a result, the second-year receiver caught 13 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown, this 97-yard catch-and-run on a bomb from the Steelers' end zone.
As you can see, Stewart (26) shaded over to Brown's side of the field, leaving Smith-Schuster one-on-one with Roby. That was no contest.
"He is reliable, dependable and trustworthy," Roethlisberger said. "I know he is going to be in the right spot. On that long touchdown, it was single-high and you just kind of pick a side. they got pressure pretty quick. I saw JuJu went inside and I just let it go. You never really think it's going to be a touchdown, just a completion for a big chunk."
Smith-Schuster now has 77 receptions for 1,055 yards and four touchdowns.
THE BAD
After not allowing a running back to top 100 yards rushing in a single game this season, the Steelers gave up 110 on just 14 carries to the speedy Lindsay, all 5-foot-8, 190 pounds of him.
"He was faster than he looked on tape," admitted Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree. "They did a good job with the zone reads, and he did a nice job of hitting the seam quickly."
Like he did on this 32-yard run in the second quarter that set up Denver's first touchdown, a 10-yard pass to backup tight end Matt LaCosse.
The 32-yard run was the longest allowed by the Steelers this season. Not bad for an undrafted rookie.
"They popped some runs and we've got to clean that up," Cam Heyward said. "We've got to be more accountable and be in our gaps and get off blocks. I'm not worried about one guy doing it, but he did it."
As a whole, the defense allowed more than 21 points for the first time in since a Week 4 loss to Baltimore, while permitting an opponent to go over 300 total yards (308) for the first time in six games.
"They got us a couple of times," said cornerback Mike Hilton. "Give them credit, they had a good game plan and they executed it. We've got to get back and look at what we did and make the necessary corrections."
THE PLAY
A week after leading the Steelers back from the brink of a loss to score the game-winning touchdown in a victory at Jacksonville, it looked like Roethlisberger might have a little more magic up his sleeve.
But the last of his 56 passes in the game led to this miscue.
Though both Conner and Roethlisberger denied running into each other in the backfield, it obviously happened. That and a low snap seemed to throw the timing of the play off.
"Once you are late to the handoff, you don't want to force the play," Roethlisberger said. "Bad things can happen. I never would have thought in a million years that a defensive lineman would get blocked off the ball that far, right into an interception. Good play by him. AB was coming. I just never would have thought that guy would make that play."
It's also questionable whether the ball ever would have gotten to Brown. Harris seemed to be well underneath him and in position to at least break up the pass.
But we'll never know.
"We didn't do a good job of taking care of the football and didn't do a good job of getting the football," Mike Tomlin said.
THE CALL
Lost in the defeat was a trick play the Steelers had been repping in practice for a while now that had offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva going out for a pass -- while working on the field goal team.
The Steelers chose to run it late in the first half, trailing 10-3. After a third-down pass to Smith-Schuster was stopped short of the goal, Tomlin allowed the clock to run down to three seconds before calling timeout.
Then, this happened:
Boswell took a direct snap and threw a nice soft pass up high to Villanueva, who was Army's leading receiver his senior season as a wide receiver.
Touchdown.
"I’m NFL open," Villanueva said. "I’m 6-10. Just throw it up in the air. I could have been the next (Rob) Gronkowski, but I ended up playing tackle. I think that was one of those plays where you rehearse and you call it because it shows the kicker and everyone can perform a fake field goal. It takes some of the pressure off from the outside maybe moving forward. We’ll see."
THE OTHER SIDE
The victory, Denver's second in a row over an AFC contender, put the Broncos firmly back in the mix in the AFC Wildcard race at 5-6, one-game out of a potential playoff spot.
"You've got to just keep battling," said former Steelers and current Broncos receiver Emmanuel Sanders, who had seven receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown.
"We've got a good football team. We've got great players. ... I feel like we're headed in the right direction where we need to go to get the job done."
THE INJURY UPDATE
• T.J. Watt, outside linebacker, left the game in the second half with a wrist injury but later returned with his right wrist heavily taped.
• Bud Dupree, outside linebacker, left the game in the second half with a pectoral muscle injury but returned.
• Vance McDonald, tight end, suffered a hip injury but returned to the game later, albeit sparingly.
• Marcus Gilbert, right tackle, missed his fifth consecutive game with a knee injury.
• Stephon Tuitt, defensive lineman, missed his second consecutive game with a hyperextended right elbow.
• Matt Feiler, offensive lineman, did not play in the game despite being active. Is dealing with a pectoral injury.
THE SCHEDULE
The Steelers will have an open locker room at 1:15 p.m. Monday before their team meeting to go over this loss. Since I'll still be traveling, John Perrotto will have the coverage as the Steelers prepare to host the Chargers next Sunday night.
THE COVERAGE
Visit our Steelers team page for everything from this game.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers at Broncos, Denver, Nov. 25, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS