Because it was such a huge success and because the Steelers won when I did it, I decided to reprise the Tecmo Super Bowl playoff preview for this weekend’s AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos. But I wanted to do the same old thing: Though the Hillgrove/Tunch/Berman commentary was popular, I thought repeating it would be 1) redundant, 2) not all that fun to do and 3) not really all that funny the second time around. I decided to up the ante a little.

Intending to make the game a little tougher, I headed over to the Tecmo Super Bowl Repository to find a proper opponent: an honest to goodness Broncos fan. And I found one.

Sobhi Youssef (a.k.a. kingsoby1, his online Tecmo handle) isn’t from Denver, but he’s a hardcore Bronco fan. Dude loves John Elway. An aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota, he’s also pretty heady in the online Tecmo community: The king runs his own Tecmo site, PureTecmo.com, an online portal for a number of Tecmo leagues, and he’s been a champion of the World Tecmo League and Tecmo Elite. He runs another league—the World Tecmo League—and has hosted live tournaments in Minnesota. There aren’t any official rankings for online Tecmo players, but the king says he’s “generally considered one of the best players online.”

I knew none of this when he asked me if I wanted him to “go easy” on me. I’ve played a lot of the game, and I mean: It’s got two buttons. How good could someone be?

I had no idea.

For this game, we used a different version of TSB than I did in last week’s preview. It’s got fully updated rosters, so the Steelers have got Willie Parker, Heath Miller, Quincy Morgan—the whole shebang. But to me, this wasn’t even the most impressive part. Check out that Broncos helmet: The guy who updates these games is incredible.

Anyway, the game didn’t start out as I’d planned. I’m usually a wiz on offense, but this guy held me three and out. I had to punt.

I haven’t punted in Tecmo Bowl in 10 years. This was gonna be trouble.

It didn’t get any better when the king went on offense. After a 10-yard run by Tatum Bell, Plummer completed a short pass to Mike Anderson, who slipped by about 50 Steelers on his way to the 8. I held him for a couple plays before Tatum Bell rolled in for a touchdown. 7-0 Broncos.

But the rout wasn’t on just yet. After a sack on first down, the Bus rumbled to the 38 before Willie Parker broke loose, carrying the ball to the 5. Ben rolled in for a score as the first quarter expired, and the Steelers had tied it, 7-7.

It’s tough to keep the BEST TECMO PLAYER IN THE WORLD down, and the Broncos tried to strike back quickly. The Snake hit GirlNameAshley Lelie down the sideline, and it looked bad for the Steelers D with the ball on the Pittsburgh 30. But all was not lost. Dick LeBeau’s “we’re going to guess the play” defense started to click, and a Larry Foote sack brought up a fourth down. Jason Elam—usually good in the clutch—missed the field goal.

Steelers ball!

Pittsburgh couldn’t capitalize, though. Another three and out gave Denver another shot.

And they didn’t squander their shot: The Broncos closed the first half with a field goal. At the halfway point, the Broncos led 10-7.

Even when you’re losing, Tecmo halftime is awesome.

Probably spurred on by the halftime panty sighting, the Steelers came out like werewolves in the second half, smothering the Broncos receiver for an Aaron Smith coverage sack. They looked pretty good in coverage on second down, too, but Tecmo sent Joey Porter into an autodive—the world’s worst fate—as he covered Plummer’s toss to Lelie. Instead of breaking up the play, Ashley escaped down the sideline. The Steelers defense held, but…

…that ain’t gonna keep a world number one from scoring. Field goal good. Broncos 13, Steelers 7. It was starting to look ugly for the black and gold.

I could have laid down and died, but there was something bigger at stake here than just having the Steelers ahead on the big blue screen after the game: This is the site’s playoff preview, and I sort of knew how I wanted it to turn out. So I had to man up.

And it looked like I would. On a third and long, Ben rolled out and completed a long ball to Hines. With the ball in Bronco territory, the Steelers were in business. But on fourth down, they fell short, as Antwaan Randle El dropped a short pass over the middle. It looked like all was lost, until on the next play…

A fumble! The Steelers recover!

(Clearly, this is God’s will.)

The Steelers didn’t waste any time taking advantage. Roethlisberger to Ward…TOUCHDOWN!!!!!! With 4:24 remaining, it’s Steelers 14, Broncos 13.

Unfortunately, I was a bit out of my depth. Soby drove the field with Bell and Anderson, and used Jake to do a little “snaking” inside of Steelers territory to complete a ball on a broken play. All the while, he was running the clock on me. And with 0:42 left,

Tatum Bell scored the final touchdown. There wasn’t enough time for more than a Steelers kick return. Game Over. Broncos win 20-14.

So, um….that wasn’t fun. Sure, kingsoby1 was a nice guy, but…

Ah, that’s better. All Steelers, all the time.

Steelers 67. Broncos 13. THERE’S your prediction.