SAN DIEGO -- Truth be told, the play didn't work.
Certainly not as it had been drawn up.
"I went out, got to the line, looked at how they were, and it was just like practice," Le'Veon Bell was telling me after the Steelers' 24-20 upending of the Chargers in the final second Monday night at Qualcomm Stadium. "So I thought, good, I know how it's going to go."
The kid shook his head.
"But man, they really played it well."
San Diego's defense, he meant.
Stop for a moment and look at that photograph up there. If pictures tell 1,000 words, then 999 from this one would suggest anything but success. The ball was at the 1, only five seconds remained, and Bell, taking the snap from the wildcat, moved to his left only to find the Chargers making ominous penetration. You see Roosevelt Nix dutifully burying the blitzing corner Jason Verrett, but no fewer than three linebackers -- Manti Te'o, Denzel Perryman and Donald Butler -- almost instantly are in position to shut it all down.
And yet, somehow, this was the finish:
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