Gene Collier: Steelers' defense gets little attention

In Super Bowl wake, Steelers' defense gets little attention -- an injustice for all

Thursday, February 09, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As this essay's deadline approached, Jerome Bettis was due in Leno's green room.

Ben Roethlisberger had been on Letterman; Hines Ward had been to Disney World; Willie Parker had gone live with the cast of The Stupidest Damn Sports Show Period.

But where was Ike Taylor?

Ben was on QVC, hawking helmets dipped in pewter for roughly $2,300. Plus shipping.

But where was Kimo von Oelhoffen?

For all I know, Antwaan Randle El was ready to anchor the weekend edition of the "CBS Evening News," Heath Miller was co-hosting "Regis and Kelly Lee", and Alan Faneca was readying for a bit part as a strip-club bouncer on the next "Law & Order."

But where was James Farrior?

All the national face time in the wake of the Steelers' first Super Bowl championship in 26 years appears to have gone to offensive players, but Chris Hope, Troy Polamalu, Deshea Townsend, Larry Foote, Clark Haggans, Joey Porter, Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, and the other regal Knights of the LeBeau Order, what were they, the cast of "Lost"?

Not that it so much matters or that anyone should be hacked off about it, not even the players themselves, but it would be different if the Steelers had beaten the Seattle Seahawks, 42-38, the other night, if Roethlisberger had thrown five touchdown passes, Parker had run for 171 yards, and Ward and Randle El and Bettis had scored two touchdowns apiece. If all of that had somehow enabled victory on a night when Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck had thrown five touchdown passes and Shaun Alexander had rumbled for 209 yards, you could easily understand the national glamour machine's interest in the Steelers' offensive weaponry.

But wasn't it very much the opposite?

Two days after Bill Cowher had warned his last formal news conference that the Steelers would have to bring their 'A' game in all three phrases (you'd hope as much, what with the NFL charging A+ prices), the Steelers' offense brought its C- game, misled by No. 7, Captain Jitters.

Mick Jagger was prying open his ancient voice box and preparing to wake up Keith Richards for the halftime show before the Steelers even managed a first down.

Despite opulent offensive flashes of the previously demonstrated brilliance, the Steelers' defense won Super Bowl XL, and it's just a little irritating that even the national football press pretty much failed to notice it, making Ward the game's MVP instead of Taylor. Taylor's virtually seamless play on the left corner unplugged Seattle's game plan, and his fourth-quarter interception at the Steelers' 5 effectively ended Seattle's first Super Bowl season.

"Everyone played well," defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau virtually whispered in a subterranean corridor of Detroit's Ford Field. "They went after both corners, but didn't have much success on either side."

Townsend, the opposite corner, made a jarring tackle on Seattle fullback Mack Strong to shut down the Seahawks' possession that preceded the Steelers' first touchdown, then sacked Hasselbeck to end another Seattle possession in the fourth quarter.

Safety Chris Hope drew the offensive interference penalty from Darrell Jackson that negated a Seattle touchdown, and separated tight end Jerramy Stevens from a third-down pass that might have sent the Seahawks winging toward a 10-0 lead.

"I believe we deserved it because we were a team; there were no individuals -- we were a team and we played that way," said Troy Polamalu. "I wish everybody could experience this truly. It's great to be the best team in the world. We are so blessed."

To be the best, you have to beat the best, but despite two full weeks of Super Bowl hype, it remains somehow lost on people what a ferocious Seattle offense these Steelers dismantled Sunday.

The Seahawks scored 57 touchdowns in the regular season, more than any team in the NFL. They scored 40 points three times. They scored on drives of 80 yards or more a league-high 24 times. They had become the fifth team since 1948 to win by 38 points in back-to-back weeks (42-0 at Philadelphia Dec. 5 and 41-3 against San Francisco Dec. 12).

Sunday night, thanks mostly to a Steelers offense that couldn't stay on the field, they ran a staggering 77 plays and possessed the ball for more than 33 minutes.

For all that, they scored one touchdown, and that only because the long return of a Ben Roethlisberger interception set them up at the Steelers' 20.

"I'm just proud of all of these guys," said von Oelhoffen, whose trench work helped keep Alexander from attaining any rhythm for the Seattle ground game. "They are the best in the world right now. They gave it everything they had since April. They deserve it."

Kimo was speaking broadly, from one end of this championship roster to the other, and he was certainly right. They all deserved this.

When it was all over though, some just got a lot less coast-to-coast love than they should have.

Can't we even have Joey Porter screaming at Larry King?

Oh, I would tape that.

(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette or 412-263-1283.)