Woodley, Harrison seal the deal

By Gene Collier
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/steelers/
Tuesday, September 30, 2008


Peter Diana / Post-Gazette

The Steelers' LaMarr Woodley picks up fumble and scores.

The record must show that in this particular edition of Monday Night Into Tuesday Morning Football, Jeff Reed ended it mercifully, which means before anybody got killed.

All you need to know might be that Reed ended it at a quarter past midnight with a 46-yard field goal that beat Baltimore and hoisted the Steelers back to the top of the AFC North, but the larger perspective must include what was essentially just another long night of gratuitous violence on the North Shore.

Steelers-Ravens prime time was four seconds old when somebody left on a cart. That was reliable special teams agent Andre Frazier, who injured his spine covering the opening kickoff that Lawrence Timmons punctuated with the kind of bone-rattling tackle that would typify the totality of these 66 NFL minutes.

Before LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison made just enough dominating defensive plays to overcome a still-skittish Steelers offense, Rashard Mendenhall and Kendall Simmons sustained season-ending injuries. Carey Davis, the backup to the backup running back, wound up on crutches, and starting running back Willis McGahee went doubled over to the sideline among several staggered Ravens.

"It was brutal out there," said Steelers linebacker Larry Foote, "a lot of injuries, a lot of injury time outs. We're always trying to create a turnover, but tonight especially, especially the way the offense was struggling. We needed something big just to get some field position."

The open week couldn't come at a better time for these Steelers; unfortunately, this isn't it.

No, this is instead a desperately short week with Jacksonville lurking at its far end in still another prime time appointment in which the Steelers will foist their version of offense on an unsuspecting nation.

Can the Steelers become the first prime-time show to be cancelled this fall?

I mean if not due to its weak narrative, just for the shrinking cast of starters.


Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

James Farrior takes down Ravens Le'Ron McClain.

Hines Ward spend part of the week explaining that the offense's startling failure last week in Philadelphia was not the physical mismatch the Eagles had made it appear, but rather a breakdown in communication.

But last night, Roethlisberger was communicating with perfect, high-decibel clarity. He way saying, "AAAAAAHHHHH!"

That's the general auditory response of a human dancing in traffic, scrambling for his life, wondering if the best option regarding the football is to whip it, eat it or roll over and wait for the nightmare to end.

All that saved the Steelers in this increasingly vicious AFC North tangle with the was that the relentless pressure on Roethlisberger was matched by their own front seven, which tortured a third-quarter lead away from rookie Joe Flacco by attacking him from every angle available, including from behind.

That's where Harrison arrived from, completing a typically menacing loop just as the moment Flacco was winding up for something hard down the middle. The Harrison collision knocked the ball free and off the leg of Woodley, approaching from the front, of all directions.

The next handful of seconds constituted the single most necessary, most combustible element in the curious formula that somehow put the Steelers back in charge of the AFC North: a score from someone not associated with Bruce Arians' embattled offense.

Woodley watched the football roll down his left leg, kicked it toward the open lawn at the open end of Heinz Field, flopped on it, rolled with it, got to his feet and turned into a touchdown.

"Give James all the credit on that one," said Woodley, who with Harrison accounted for four of the Steelers' five sacks. "I mean that guy works so hard, every play; it's that kind of hustle that eventually breaks a big play. He gave us the opportunity we needed right there."

But it was Woodley whose constant pressure turned things inalterably the Steelers' way in the overtime. Woodley forced Ravens running back Le'Ron McClain into a desperate chop block on the first possession of sudden death. The flag put the Ravens back at their 8. One play later, Timmons, with the evening's fifth Pittsburgh sack, gave the Steelers only offensive opportunity they'd need in the overtime. Busting through on Flacco on third-and-10 from the 15, last year's top draft pick showed again he's more than ready to play like it.


Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

Hines Ward runs to set up a touchdown against the Ravens in the fourth quarter.

"It's always our mentality that we have to come up with some big plays on defense," said Bryant McFadden, who played a third consecutive superb game at the left corner. "We're always pressing for a sack or a turnover or a score. That's what made Woodley's the big play. We got all those things on one play."

What they got as well is a better sense of what it's going to take to win this division. The Ravens are a much more painful proposition that they might have seemed a few weeks back, and the Steelers grow more depleted with every quarter.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.
First published on September 30, 2008 at 2:34 am