Reeves still cannot win the biggest one

The Associated Press MIAMI -- Caution screamed, ''Try something else.'' Dan Reeves kept rolling the dice. Come from where he was six weeks ago, on an operating-room table with a failing heart, and there is no such thing as a long shot. Fourth-and-one early in the game? Go for it. Keep sending eight defenders to the line of scrimmage, and keep challenging the kid quarterback he taught to be a man to prove he still had one great game left? Absolutely. ''I thought John Elway was a great quarterback when he lost three Super Bowls,'' Reeves said after Elway, no longer a kid at 38, came back to haunt his old coach. ''I'm sure this one put a smile on his face.'' Reeves ended up on the wrong side of 34-19 last night, on the wrong side of the Super Bowl in his fourth try as a head coach. As the last few seconds ticked off the clock, he folded his arms across his chest, not to stop the hurt in his heart, but to remind himself that it was still beating. There is no easy way to say how much this one took out of Reeves. He had quadruple-bypass heart surgery in the middle of December. He barely slowed his stride. He was back on the sideline before almost anyone noticed he was gone. After all, Reeves had the Atlanta Falcons on a roll, had the job he first interviewed for 20 years ago, and maybe most important of all, he still had something to prove. A half-dozen years ago, after he'd put in 12 seasons in Denver practically raising Elway, Broncos owner Pat Bowlen handed Reeves his walking papers. Yesterday was supposed to be payback. It was, just not for him. ''They all hurt when you come in and lose. I guess I'm just fortunate to be here. You go through that,'' Reeves paused, but did not have to elaborate, ''and you get here, well, who knows what your chances are?'' His musing came out as a question, but the truth is that he probably knew the answer going in. His chances were not good when he brought the Falcons to Miami last week, but they got much worse Saturday night. Safety Eugene Robinson, a veteran who was supposed to exert the kind of leadership and steadying influence that Reeves is all about, got arrested on a downtown street and charged with solicitation. Over and over, Reeves was asked how it affected his team. Over and over, he kept defending Robinson. ''I don't know anybody that hasn't made any mistakes in his life. Our concern all along was for Eugene Robinson.'' The next time the question came up, Reeves smacked the table on the podium in front of him. ''This is the last time I'm going to answer that one,'' he said finally. He talked to the team late Saturday night, then again before they took the field. ''Coach told us that if we lost this game, it would be the ultimate loss,'' linebacker Jesse Tuggle said. ''We worked so hard to get to this point. We just didn't respond.'' There was a moment in the second quarter when it was still possible, when Denver's lead was just 10-3. Then Falcons kicker Morten Andersen missed a 26-yard field goal . The Broncos got the ball and Elway threw an 80-yard bomb to Rod Smith on the next play to make it 17-3. And the Dirty Birds were no more.