PRO FOOTBALL : Elway Shakes Off Interception, Steelers, 31-23

John Elway continues to come of age as the Pittsburgh Steelers continue to come apart.

Elway shook off a near-disastrous interception and the Denver Broncos scored two touchdowns in 21 seconds Sunday to escape with a 31-23 victory.

Returning to the site of his dreadful 1983 pro football debut, Elway completed 24 of 40 passes for 238 yards, threw a 24-yard touchdown pass to Clint Sampson and drove the Broncos to Steve Sewell’s game-winning, two-yard scoring run.

Denver (9-4) remains tied for first place in the AFC West with the Raiders, whom they play next Sunday at Mile High Stadium. The Steelers (6-7) fell one game behind Cleveland in the AFC Central.

“This was a big step in the development of John Elway,” Denver Coach Dan Reeves said. “John is getting better and better. This was Elway’s finest hour.”

Elway, who completed only one of eight passes in his debut two years ago, this time hit Steve Watson for 19 yards, Steve Sewell for 6 and Clarence Kay for 27 on consecutive downs on a game-winning, 58-yard scoring drive ended by Sewell’s two-yard run with 1:45 to play.

The Broncos, who intercepted four passes by David Woodley and sacked him five times, added an insurance score when Mike Harden returned an interception 42 yards for a touchdown just 21 seconds after Sewell’s scoring run.

Pittsburgh had taken a 31-23 lead on Mike Merriweather’s 35-yard interception return touchdown with 5:02 to play.

“After the interception, I told John to forget it,” Reeves said. “We still had plenty of time to score. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. We were aggressive considering we were playing the No. 1 defense in the league.

“Our defense was tenacious and really got after it. We used a few different schemes to confuse the Steelers and they were successful.”

Added Elway: “After the interception, I just wanted to come back and play well. So much was riding on this game and everything seemed to be against us. I think this was a giant step for me in my development and I just hope there’ll be more giant steps.”

The Broncos’ back-to-back touchdowns capped a wild, 35-point fourth quarter, in which the Steelers came back from a 17-9 deficit to take a 23-17 lead on Merriweather’s return.

“Nobody said it would be easy,” Steeler Coach Chuck Noll said. “Obviously it was the game of the big play and they made more big plays than we did. It was a disappointing loss for us, no doubt. We may have been celebrating a little bit too soon (after Merriweather’s touchdown).”

Pittsburgh trailed 10-6 at halftime and 10-9 after three periods, but scored on Louis Lipps’ 31-yard pass from David Woodley with 6:32 left to pull within 17-16 minutes after Sewell’s 12-yard scoring run.

Denver scored in the second quarter on Elway’s 24-yard pass to Clint Sampson and a 42-yard field goal by Rich Karlis.

Pittsburgh got its first nine points on Gary Anderson field goals of 25 and 34 yards in the second quarter and 24 yards in the third.

“I was very, very disappointed,” Steeler center Mike Webster said. “When you play a good opponent, you have to make fewer mistakes than they do. We didn’t.”