A short but wild end to Wild Card Weekend
Many observers didn’t give the (8-8) Denver Broncos much of a chance against the (12-4) Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2011 AFC Wild Card Game this past weekend. The Broncos, however, jumped out to a 20-6 halftime lead as a result of the big plays made by Denver’s QB Tim Tebow, who on the day completed 10-21 passes for 316 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The Steelers fought back with 17 points in the second half and tied the game at 23-23 on a Ben Roethlisberger to Jerricho Cotchery 31-yard TD pass with 3:48 left to play. Neither team sealed the victory in regulation and the game went to overtime marking the first time that the NFL’s new overtime rules for the postseason were put into effect.
Denver won the coin toss and elected to receive the football. Tebow then connected with wide receiver Demaryius Thomas on an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the period, and the Broncos stunned the Steelers 29-23. The 11 seconds it took for Thomas to run 80 yards for the score was the quickest ending to any overtime, regular season or playoffs, in NFL history.