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Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said he suffered “a little setback” in his recovery from an ankle injury when he played against Cleveland on Sunday.

"I had a little setback early in the third quarter," Roethlisberger told reporters in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. "We’re working really hard with the trainers and doctors to get back to even where we were before the Cleveland game. I felt pretty good going in and moved a little bit at the beginning of that game. It’s a little setback but we’ll get moving."

Roethlisberger and the Steelers play at Denver in a wild-card game Sunday. The 12-4 Steelers are heavy favorites against the 8-8 Broncos, who have lost three straight games. Yet, the Steelers are already playing without running back Rashard Mendenhall and safety Ryan Clark. With Roethlisberger still gimpy, perhaps the home team has some hope.

There’s no doubt Roethlisberger's play has been affected by the injury. Since the injury he has completed 56 of 96 passes (58.3 percent) for 729 yards. He has thrown one touchdown and four interceptions for a 68.4 passer rating.

In other AFC West news:

• Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs takes some shots at Denver quarterback Tim Tebow and the Raiders.
• ESPN’s John Clayton looks at the potential quarterback options for Denver in 2012 if the team moves away from the struggling Tebow after the playoffs.
• There wasn’t a big AFC West representation on Clayton’s All-Pro team.
• ESPN columnist Ashley Fox looks at the Chargers’ decision to keep Norv Turner as coach.
• Denver linebacker Von Miller has dropped on ESPN.com’s rookie watch. Miller has been essentially playing with one arm because he is wearing a cast after undergoing thumb surgery in late November.

When the Pittsburgh Steelers held safety Ryan Clark out of a game at Denver in 2009, there was some talk if the Steelers ever came to Denver for a playoff game, a different decision may be made.

No, it wasn’t.

Taking a firm hand and quickly ending any speculation, Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin announced Tuesday that Clark will not play in Denver during the Steelers-Broncos AFC wild-card game Sunday.

Clark has sickle cell trait; a condition that can trigger serious medical complications in high altitudes. In a 2007 game there, Clark became violently ill and lost his spleen and gall bladder because of deprivation of oxygen to his major organs.

Really, Tomlin had no choice but to make this call. The Steelers will also be without running back Rashard Mendenhall because of a serious knee injury, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is not 100 percent because of an ankle injury. Still, the visiting Steelers are heavily favored over the Broncos, who backed into the playoffs with three straight defeats.

In other Steelers-Broncos nuggets::

ESPN.com’s playoff predictor , an Insider piece, doesn’t like the Broncos’ Super Bowl chances. I don’t blame it.

In an Insider piece, the Football Outsiders show some alarming results of Tim Tebow's recent performances. He is not throwing or running the ball well and the result, according to this article, is the Broncos have little chance of beating the Steelers.

Three things to know about next week's Pittsburgh Steelers-Denver Broncos wild-card game:

1. Backing in: The Broncos aren’t exactly storming into the playoffs after a six-year break. Denver has lost three straight games after turning around its season with a six-game winning streak. The Broncos are the seventh team in NFL history to make the playoffs on the heels of a three-game skid to end the season. Denver made the playoffs because the San Diego Chargers beat the Oakland Raiders on the road. Denver, Oakland and San Diego all finished 8-8. The Broncos advance to the postseason against the 12-4 Steelers on the merits of a tiebreaker. Unless Denver’s offense and beleaguered quarterback Tim Tebow get out of its doldrums, it will be short postseason ride in the Rockies.

2. Steelers are banged up: The best thing Denver, who lost standout guard Chris Kuper to a potentially bad lower-leg injury Sunday, has going for it is the Steelers are hurting, too. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is not completely healed from an ankle injury. Running back Rashard Mendenhall injured his knee Sunday and will miss the playoff game. Pittsburgh may also be without safety Ryan Clark, who has a rare sickle-cell trait that is affected by high altitudes. He missed a game in Denver in 2009 because he became violently ill during a game against the Broncos in 2007.

3. Bad playoff memories: The last time Denver played in the playoffs was a home loss to the Steelers in the 2005 AFC championship game. The Steelers ran away from Denver early and the game was never close. The Broncos have long rued that blown opportunity to go to the Super Bowl at home. Now, they will try to rekindle their playoff dreams against the same team.

	Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
	Quarterback Kyle Orton looked uncomfortable and made uncharacteristic mistakes Monday night against the Steelers, throwing three interceptions.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Bill Williamson

DENVER -- The Denver Broncos are suddenly no longer the charming story of the NFL and by no means have firm control of the AFC West.

Since coming out of their bye week at 6-0, the Broncos have transformed into the lackluster team they were expected to be prior to the season. Although the entire Denver team is reeling, the problems start with the offense and quarterback Kyle Orton.

Orton, acquired in the Jay Cutler trade with Chicago, is suddenly not the cool customer he was when he led Denver to a 6-0 start.

Steelers-Broncos Coverage • Walker: Seven observations for Steelers • Monday Night Football HQ • Blog coverage • Video: Ben Roethlisberger on win • Video: Trent Dilfer's analysis

Orton followed up a poor outing against Baltimore with his sloppiest game of the season as Denver lost to Pittsburgh 28-10 on Monday night. Orton couldn't get Denver into a rhythm and was forced into mistakes he wasn’t making during the early part of the season.

Orton looked uncomfortable and was unable to lead his team for the second straight week. Denver was beaten 30-7 at Baltimore in Week 8.

For his part, Orton kept his poise after the game.

“We lost to two good football teams,” Orton said. “We will try to come back and play better at Washington [on Sunday] … It’s a team game and the offense didn’t play very well.”

Although he deserves points for not panicking, Orton would probably be wise to feel some urgency.

The San Diego Chargers are roaring back into the AFC West race, which looked all but over three weeks ago. The Chargers have won three straight games and are now 5-3. They trail Denver by a game in the division. The two teams play in Denver on Nov. 22.

Orton needs to find his early-season rhythm by that game. Orton was intercepted three times Monday night after throwing just one interception in the first seven games. The first two interceptions (one was returned for a score) Monday led to Pittsburgh points and the final interception ended the game.

Orton had been so patient and instinctive early in the season. Last week and on Monday night, he was throwing into traffic, overthrowing targets and passing off of his back foot. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Orton had a passer rating of zero in the fourth quarter.

Essentially, he looked like the mediocre quarterback he was with the Bears, not the early-season MVP candidate he had been this season.

Denver never had a trip into the red zone against Pittsburgh. Its lone touchdown came on defense. In the past two games, Denver’s offense has scored 10 points. Against Baltimore, Denver entered Ravens territory just three times.

	AP Photo/David Zalubowski
	Correll Buckhalter and Knowshown Moreno (not pictured) couldn't get on track against Pittsburgh, gaining just 27 rushing yards combined.

Making matters worse for Orton was that he had no support from the ground game. Denver mustered just 27 yards on 14 carries on the ground. Pittsburgh was just teeing off on Orton.

“We didn’t execute at all,” Denver receiver Brandon Stokley said. “We didn’t make any plays.”

Denver coach Josh McDaniels came to town with a pedigree of offensive genius. Early in the season, he was working wonders with Orton & Co. McDaniels, the architect of New England’s record-breaking offense in 2007, has to find a way to reconstruct the Kyle Orton of the first six games of the season or this feel-good story could continue to turn for the worse.

Here are other key aspects of Denver’s loss:

• Here come the Chargers: Denver travels to Washington on Sunday and the Chargers host Philadelphia. Denver hosts San Diego in a huge division game Nov. 22. No team has ever had a 3.5 game division lead, like Denver did earlier this season, and not made the playoffs.

Denver handed San Diego the division last season, losing its final three games of the year while the Chargers won their final three, including the season finale over the Broncos. It was the first time in NFL history a team blew a three-game lead in the final three weeks of the season.

Two weeks ago, San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers said it was the team’s goal to play well and hopefully look up in a month and realize that it had caught the Broncos. It could happen.

Still, Denver, with 30 new players from last year’s team, is not ready to worry about a repeat performance.

“We’re 6-2 and we’re still leading the division,” linebacker Andra Davis. “We’re not going to panic.”

• What happened to the second-half magic? In the first six games, Denver outscored its opponents 76-10 in the second half. It had four late comebacks.

However, in the past two weeks, Denver, known early in the season for making great second-half adjustments, has been hammered in the final 30 minutes of games.

Pittsburgh outscored Denver 21-7 in the second half; Baltimore outscored Denver 24-7 in the second half last week. Suddenly, 76-10 has turned into 45-14 -- the wrong way.

Pittsburgh’s offense exploded in the second half as Orton imploded. The Steelers, who were held to 56 yards of offense in the first half, had 321 yards in the second half. Denver had 59 yards in the second half.

Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall had 130 yards rushing in the second half.

“It’s not hard to get back to playing better,” Denver cornerback Andre Goodman said. “Even when we were 6-0 we didn’t think we were playing great football. We have work to do, but we can get there.”

If the Broncos can't return to their early-season dominant form, we may see a second straight Rocky Mountain collapse.