It All Came Down to: ‘Go Get Open’

John Elway staggered through the icy wind, into the huddle, third-down-and-career, screaming.

“All pivot, all pivot!”

Shannon Sharpe, stunned, screamed back.

“ ‘All pivot?’ That’s not a play!”

Elway screamed again.

“Go get open!”

Sharpe screamed back again.

“ ‘Go get open?’ That’s not a play either!”

When the Denver Broncos walked into a hostile roar for the most important moment of their season Sunday, the star receiver and star quarterback were not communicating.

Yet they understood each other exactly.

Sharpe ran 10 yards. He turned. Whaddaya know. The ball was there.

“I thought, ‘After all this, I better catch it,’ ” Sharpe said.

He did, cradling it, squeezing it, giving the Broncos a first down that clinched the AFC championship in their 24-21 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium.

“Biggest play of the game, and we don’t even call a play,” Sharpe said.

Such is the magic of this team. Such is the wonder of their Super Bowl sprint.

Playoff victories at the homes of the conference’s two best teams.

A quarterback who “is just a freak, like he has ESP or something,” said Bronco defensive lineman Neil Smith.

A running back who “has just been burying people out there,” according to Sharpe.

A veteran defense that looked at the clock with 8:25 remaining, with its team leading by 10, and made a decision.

“We said, ‘You know, the Steelers are young guys, they will have a chance to come back here . . . but we ain’t gonna have that opportunity,’ ” related Smith. “We know this is our one chance. We aren’t going to blow it.”

Experienced, loaded and hotter than that food those San Diegans will soon be pushing at them.

This is what makes the Broncos different. This is what will separate them from those last 13 AFC bums that have jumped train at the Super Bowl.

This is why, even against the mighty Green Bay Packers in two weeks, the Broncos will have a mighty decent chance.

“We are the best team out of the AFC in a long time,” tackle Tony Jones said.

These are not last year’s New England Patriots and their kid quarterback, or the 1995 Pittsburgh Steelers and their bad one.

This is not a wide-eyed team from Cincinnati, or weak-kneed one from Buffalo.

This team doesn’t bear any similarities to three Denver versions that have been part of the losing streak.

Those Broncos had running backs like Sammy Winder, Steve Sewell, and the infamous Bobby Humphrey.

These Broncos have Terrell Davis, who gained 139 yards Sunday against the league’s best rushing defense.

Those Broncos had an offensive line that turned Elway into a science experiment.

These Broncos have an offensive line that gave Elway time to do everything but put up his feet and pop open an Iron City--he was not touched by a defensive lineman or outside linebacker, and didn’t throw an interception after the game’s first 20 seconds.

Those Broncos won all but one of six conference playoff games at home.

These Broncos have won amid ice and racial slurs in Kansas City, and winds and deafening boos in Pittsburgh.

“In the past, we’ve usually gone to the Super Bowl with home-field advantage, and that gives you a false sense of security,” said cornerback Tyrone Braxton, one of three remaining Broncos from their last Super Bowl team. “This year, we have overcome adversity to get here. We think we can win anywhere.”

Of course, after they won the 1986 season championship game in Cleveland with Elway’s legendary last-minute drive, they also thought they could win anywhere. Then they traveled to the Rose Bowl and were pounded by the New York Giants.

But this points to the final and most notable difference.

That was Elway’s first Super Bowl.

This will be his last.

A person can learn a lot in 11 years.

“You can look at the fire in his eyes and tell how bad he wants it,” Sharpe said.

You can listen to him and tell how much he understands it.

“I’m not just happy to be back there, I want to win,” Elway said. “Before, I was thinking about all the Super Bowl hoopla. Now, I’m thinking about nothing but the game.

“As soon as this one ended, I was thinking about the game.”

Doesn’t Tina Lowe know it.

The middle-aged woman, up from Virginia to watch her beloved Broncos, wore an Elway jersey amid a sea of angry black and yellow.

Afterward, while walking off the field with the ball, Elway spotted her cheering for him behind the end zone.

He had never seen her before. But he had never really seen anything like this before, either.

He threw her the ball.

“Anybody who would wear an orange No. 7 in this stadium deserves a game ball,” he said.

Elway, he wants the one from Jan. 25.

“We got a nice trophy today,” he said. “But we want the other trophy.”

The Broncos still nearly blew it Sunday, allowing the Steelers to score late against a soft zone, asking Elway to keep the Steeler offense off the field during the final 2:45.

The crowd was so loud, the Broncos couldn’t hear Elway’s signals.

The crowd was so loud, the star quarterback and star receiver had no idea what the other was doing.

The magic was so apparent, it didn’t matter.

It was third and six. The pass to Sharpe went for 18 yards.

Said Elway: “That one was harder than ‘The Drive.’ ”

Said Sharpe: “You’ve heard of the ‘Immaculate Reception’ and ‘The Catch?’ Now you’ve got, ‘Go Get Open.’ ”