The Denver Broncos would not have won Sunday’s wild-card matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers if injuries had not wreaked such a terrible toll on the Black and Gold.

But even with the long injured-and-unable-to-play roster, the Steelers should have defeated Denver, if not for the poor coaching that marked the contest.

The Steelers entered the game with the same predictable offense — and over-dependence on defense — that they exhibited all season.

There was poor play-calling by the coaches and poor defensive strategy, especially on Denver’s first offensive play of overtime, when the coaching staff left the secondary virtually uncovered as the Steelers anticipated a running play.

Meanwhile, the coaching staff apparently didn’t come to the game armed with a menu of unconventional plays to keep the Broncos off balance — except for one, when receiver Mike Wallace scored on a running play from the half-yard line.

Otherwise, the Steelers displayed no unconventional imagination — a kind of imagination that even could have helped them defeat the Green Bay Packers in last year’s Super Bowl.

Turn the clock back to Super Bowl XL, when wide receiver Antwaan Randle El tossed a 43-yard touchdown strike to fellow wide receiver Hines Ward against the Seattle Seahawks.

The need for some unconventional strategies — also known as trick plays — was obvious Sunday, to compensate for the fact that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was playing with a painful ankle injury. Despite the injury, the coaching staff again put the bulk of the pressure on Big Ben to engineer a miracle, and he almost succeeded — but almost doesn’t count.

Predictability was the order of the day from the coaching staff. In fact, predictability by way of an over-reliance on Roethlisberger has been a mark of the Steelers all season — as it was during last year’s Super Bowl. The Baltimore Ravens capitalized on that predictability during the teams’ two games this season.

The Steelers cannot consistently put so much pressure on the defense.

Those who think Sunday’s Steeler loss was due to an aging defensive corps are wrong.

With the loss, the Steelers have been relegated to prematurely concentrate on the upcoming draft. About the draft:

It’s time in Roethlisberger’s career for the Steelers to draft his successor. That successor currently is not on the team’s roster.

Green Bay had a high-caliber signal caller — Aaron Rodgers — prepared when quarterback Brett Favre decided to retire. Rodgers, selected in the first round of the 2005 NFL draft, didn’t become the Packers’ first-string signal caller until 2008.

Roethlisberger’s late-season injury provided an opportunity to test a new, young quarterback — just like Roethlisberger was tested, excelled and became the Steelers’ number one signal caller in 2004 after then-number one quarterback Tommy Maddox went down with an injury.

Considering that Roethlisberger undoubtedly is in the last half of his playing career, the process of grooming his successor should begin with this spring’s draft.

Also, the Steelers need a powerful, punishing, durable running back to take the place of Rashard Mendenhall, who, despite some impressive statistics, is not a Franco Harris or Jerome Bettis.

The Steelers wouldn’t be wrong to offer Mendenhall as trade bait in an effort to gain a high first-round draft pick.

The time has arrived for the Steelers to make a big push on behalf of their offense. But members of the coaching staff also need to sit down for some soul-searching on why they went to Denver so seemingly unprepared.

The game was the most monumental embarrassment in the Steelers’ proud playoff history. It’s the Broncos — an 8-8 team in the regular season, not the 12-4 Steelers — who should be watching next weekend’s New England game on television.