Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Denver Broncos: 3 Ways to Cut Down Steel Curtain

The Denver Broncos are going have their work cut out for them in Sunday's wild-card tilt with the Pittsburgh Steelers. We can talk all we want about all things being equal once the postseason begins, but the Steelers are a much, much better team than the Broncos.

The oddsmakers have taken note. Even despite the fact they're the road team, the Steelers are favored over the Broncos by nine points, according to Bovada.

Make no mistake, the Broncos really are that outmatched.

But hey, where there's a will, there's a way. They may be underdogs, but the Broncos can win this game and move on to the divisional round.

All they have to do is abide by these three very simple guidelines.

Test Big Ben's Ankle

With Rashard Mendenhall out with a torn ACL, the Steelers are going to need Ben Roethlisberger to carry their offense on Sunday.

The good news for the Broncos is that Big Ben is going to be playing at less than 100 percent in this game. Per CBSSports.com, he suffered a setback with his high ankle sprain in Week 17, which of course forced him to miss Pittsburgh's game in Week 16.

The Broncos have to hope that Big Ben will be as limited against them as he was against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 15. He had no mobility whatsoever, and the 49ers took advantage of that. They pressured him constantly, forcing him to throw three picks.

The Broncos will have to do the same, and that means they're going to need their disappearing-reappearing pass rush to show up. They can't let Big Ben get too comfortable in the pocket. If they do, he's going to complete passes downfield and easily put the Broncos in an early hole. It it gets to that, the Broncos will be doomed.

If the Broncos pressure him, however, it's going to hard for Big Ben to get anything done. Pittsburgh's offense will stall, and the door will be open for Denver's own offense to win the game.

But that notion comes with a couple caveats.

Sustain Drives

This is something that is going to be much easier said than done. The reality of the situation is that Denver's mediocre offense will be going up against an elite defense.

We can rest assured that the Broncos will look to conduct the bulk of their offensive business on the ground. They had the No. 1 rushing offense in the league during the regular season, and the reason they were able to do that is because they rarely passed the ball after Tim Tebow took over.

The Broncos may as well stick with what got them to the playoffs, but they're going to be pushing their luck if they start racking up the three-and-outs, and that's a legit danger for two reasons. The first is because Pittsburgh's defense is so good, and the second is because the Broncos have not handled third downs well at all in recent games.

That can't continue. Plain and simple. The Broncos must find a way to keep drives alive in this game, lest they risk giving Big Ben and Pittsburgh's offense extra chances to break through.

To keep drives alive, the Broncos are going to need a certain somebody to step up.

Complete Passes

Tim Tebow had a nice run for a while there, but it's no accident that the Broncos lost three straight games with him at the controls to finish the season.

In the first loss, Tebow completed 50 percent of his passes. In the second loss, he completed 44.8 percent of his passes. In the third loss, he completed 27.3 percent of his passes.

Basically, what Tebow did was prove his critics right. He managed to get by for a while, but his inability to anticipate routes and to accurately deliver the football became painfully obvious.

Things could be even worse against the Steelers. They have the NFL's No. 1 pass defense, and Tebow will have to worry about avoiding James Harrison and not completing passes to Troy Polamalu.

I don't know how he's going to do it, but Tebow has to complete passes. If he doesn't, the Broncos have no chance of winning this game.

I repeat, no chance.