For as bad as it looked most of the game, the reality is that the Pittsburgh Steelers were in control late, multiple times, and they squandered multiple opportunities to play the role of closer. After tying the Los Angeles Chargers at 37-37 with 4:23 to play, they got a turnover on downs at the 34, but could not capitalize. They did get the go-ahead field goal, but that was the bare minimum objective, only advancing the ball seven yards and using just seconds of clock.
“Obviously, we’d like to finish the game off. We’d like to stay on the field, score a touchdown”, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said about that penultimate sequence, which culminated in an attempted deep pass to Diontae Johnson that was initially going to draw a flag before the officials ruled that the pass was uncatchable.