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| Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Denver Broncos |
For the latest odds on the NFL playoffs to include the NFC Wild card game can be found at Bet Phoenix. The defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers head into the playoffs with Ben Roethlisberger nursing a severely sprained left ankle and Rashard Mendenhall out with a torn ACL. They still might be in better shape than the Denver Broncos, who are also dealing with injuries to key offensive personnel and have been struggling mightily behind Tim Tebow. Making matters worse for the AFC West champs, they also have to contend with the league’s best defense. With the Steelers’ offense banged up, their defense looks to frustrate Tebow and the Broncos, who back into Sunday’s wild-card game in Denver on the heels of three straight losses. Pittsburgh (12-4) lost Mendenhall, the team’s top rusher, late in the first quarter of last Sunday’s 13-9 win over Cleveland. The injury to his right knee leaves third-year running back Isaac Redman and rookie John Clay as the only healthy ball carriers on the roster. Redman ran for 92 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries against the Browns, but also lost two fumbles. Pittsburgh would benefit greatly if Redman can make some plays to take the pressure off Roethlisberger, who hasn’t been as effective since injuring his ankle against Cleveland on Dec. 8. He reaggravated the injury in the regular-season finale after sitting out the previous week, and said Wednesday his ankle felt like a “five” on a scale of one-to-10. In the two games he’s played since initially hurting his ankle, Roethlisberger has thrown for 551 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions for a 62.2 quarterback rating. In his first 13 contests, he had 21 TDs to 11 picks, averaging 1.66 more yards per attempt, for a 95.6 passer rating. While Roethlisberger hasn’t been at his best lately, he’s been considerably better than Tebow. After being the talk of the NFL while engineering amazing comebacks during Denver’s six-game winning streak, Tebow has seemingly lost his magic as his team hasn’t won since. He has four interceptions and two fumbles in the last two games, and is coming off a brutal performance in last Sunday’s 7-3 loss to Kansas City, misfiring on 16 of 22 passes and throwing for 60 yards with a pick for a 20.6 QB rating. The Broncos (8-8) still managed to win the division thanks to Oakland’s loss. Despite sputtering into the playoffs, Tebow isn’t concerning himself with what happened in the final weeks of the regular season. Now he’s got the difficult task of facing a Pittsburgh team that is first in total defense (271.8 yards per game), passing defense (171.9) and points allowed (14.2). The Steelers, who have allowed a league-low three touchdowns in six games since Week 12, will be welcoming back linebacker LaMarr Woodley, who spent the second half of the season dealing with a strained left hamstring. They won’t have safety Ryan Clark available, though, because of a sickle-cell trait that becomes aggravated when playing at higher elevations. Clark also didn’t play in the Steelers’ last game in Denver, a 28-10 win in 2009 in which Roethlisberger threw for 233 yards with three TDs. Ryan Mundy will make his third career start in Clark’s place. Going up against Pittsburgh’s stout defense, John Fox and the Broncos’ offensive staff are likely to be even more cautious to prevent Tebow from making more mistakes. Denver’s offense revolved around a ground game that led the league in rushing and set the franchise single-season mark with 2,632 yards. Willis McGahee ran for 1,199 of those and Tebow finished with 660 on the ground, but continuing that pace could be tough because of a couple injuries. Right guard Chris Kuper, the leader of a young line, broke his left leg against the Chiefs and is done for the season, while fullback Spencer Larsen might miss the game with a sprained MCL in his left knee. Although the odds seem to be stacked against Tebow, Roethlisberger and the Steelers know what the unorthodox quarterback is capable of. Roethlisberger should know. The two-time Super Bowl champion is 10-3 all-time in the playoffs - the third-best record of any QB with at least 10 postseason starts since 1950 - and has won seven consecutive games in January. One of those playoff victories came over the Broncos in the 2006 AFC championship, Denver’s last playoff appearance. These teams have split their six playoff meetings, with the winner advancing to the Super Bowl five times. If the Broncos advance the Tebow fans will only get louder as they believe that their team can win in a big way! 
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The banged up Pittsburgh Steelers will attempt to destroy Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos this Sunday in the NFL Playoffs.
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