It was Arians who called the plays, as he said, on the length-of-the-field drive in the final minutes of the Super Bowl four years ago, including the pass play into the corner of the end zone for Santonio Holmes that won it. Too close, some in the organization thought, and after last year the Steelers decided to make a change - to get a fresh offensive voice and approach for the league's 12th-rated offense, and to challenge Roethlisberger too. For eight years he coached Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense, getting very close to Roethlisberger. The Steelers let him walk last year, and Arians was bitter about it. And we're in the playoffs.''Īrians was the perfect junkyard dog for one of the most difficult coaching assignments in NFL history. Remember when the NFL champion used to play the college all-stars in the preseason every year? That's who we are - the College All-Stars. I called the plays in a two-minute drive to win the Super Bowl, but this beats that. "This is the greatest moment of my coaching career. "Mission accomplished,'' a totally spent Arians, 60, said from the bus, on the way to the airport. Somehow, 352 Chief rushing yards later, it worked, and the Indianapolis Colts, 2-14 a year ago, won their 10th game of 2012, clinching a playoff spot. A week or so ago, Arians didn't know the name of the seventh nose tackle the Colts had employed this year, undrafted 355-pound plugger Kellen Heard, picked up from the Rams and activated earlier this month, but now he was trying to stone Peyton Hillis and Charles, and somehow it worked. "Hang in there,'' Arians kept telling his waiver wonders. So trying to somehow plug the leak were four Colts who'd been plucked off the street, off waivers from the Packers, Jets, Cowboys and Rams during this season. Indy already had four defensive tackles on injured reserve, the nominal starter at the nose, Antonio Johnson, was inactive with an ankle injury, and two other defensive linemen went down during the game. On defense, well, he wasn't quite sure what he saw.
On offense, on the 73-yard game-winning fourth-quarter touchdown drive, he counted seven first-year players. At one point in the fourth quarter at Arrowhead Stadium, interim coach Bruce Arians looked out onto the field and surveyed just who was playing for him.