'Guarantee' turns from confident to laughable

Monday, December 10, 2007
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



FOXBORO, MA - DECEMBER 9: Randy Moss #81 of the New England Patriots reacts as he walks by Anthony Smith #27 of the Pittsburgh Steelers after a penalty was called in the third quarter at Gillette Stadium December 9, 2007 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The Patriots won 34-13. (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- It would be completely inaccurate to say the Steelers' secondary didn't have a prayer against Tom Brady, Randy Moss and the New England Patriots yesterday.

Right after Moss made toast of cornerback Ike Taylor and safety Anthony Smith to pull in a 63-yard touchdown pass from Brady in the second quarter and only a moment or two after Brady got in Smith's face to remind him that you have to be awfully young and awfully dumb to wave a red cape in front of a proud and ultra-talented opponent, the Steelers' defensive backs got down on their hands and knees in a circle on the sideline, asking for a little divine intervention.

Obviously, it didn't work.

Hence the chants of "Guarantee!" in the final moments from a thrilled Gillette Stadium crowd that watched their unbeaten heroes take another step toward NFL history with a ridiculously easy 34-13 victory against the Steelers to go to 13-0. They were directed, of course, at Smith, the second-year safety who was all over the national sports news last week with his silly, sorry guarantee that the Steelers would win.

"If you talk that [stuff], you've got to back it up," Steelers linebacker James Farrior said.

Smith didn't.

The Patriots were only too glad to remind him of it during and after the game.

There was the great Brady, taking time out from making another statement that he's the best quarterback of all time, searching out Smith on the field after Smith and Taylor bit on a play fake and allowed Moss to streak by for the long touchdown that gave the Patriots a 14-3 lead. Asked what he said to Smith, Brady laughed and said, "I don't care to repeat it, especially if my mother reads it. She wouldn't be very happy with what I said."

Teammate James Harrison rushed to Smith's defense, giving Brady a little love tap to get him away from Smith. But there was no saving Smith from ridicule in the Patriots' locker room after the game.

Even New England's staid coach, Bill Belichick, couldn't help getting in on the fun at Smith's expense. "We've played against a lot better safeties than him, I'll tell you." Ouch.

But there was more from Belichick when he was asked about a 56-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jabar Gaffney in the third quarter. On the play, Brady lateraled to Moss, who threw back across the field to Brady, who found Gaffney all alone behind, yep, you know who.

"Well, again, the safety play at that position was pretty inviting," Belichick said.

Talk about piling on.

Smith had it coming, the Patriots said.

"There's nothing wrong with confidence, don't get me wrong," cornerback Ellis Hobbs said. "You have to have a swagger out on the field. But there's a fine line and he definitely crossed it. He was definitely knocked down when he crossed it today."

Smith, for his part, tried to shrug off the abuse, expressing regret only for making mistakes and giving up the two big plays. He even talked bravely of getting another shot at the Patriots next month. "If we do what we're supposed to do, we're going to be back."

If the Steelers do get to face the Patriots in the AFC playoffs, it's fair to assume coach Mike Tomlin will put a muzzle on Smith before the game. Tomlin clearly was irritated about that guarantee foolishness. He also couldn't have liked that Smith didn't stop there. Smith said the Cincinnati Bengals' receivers were better than the Brady Bunch -- Moss, Gaffney, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth.

"He basically called us out," Gaffney said.

Moss had seven catches for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Gaffney had seven for 122 and a score. Welker had nine for 78 yards and a touchdown.

"He's young. He'll learn," Gaffney said of Smith.

This loss wasn't all on Smith, of course. The Steelers' defense as a whole didn't show up. Brady wasn't sacked and threw for 399 yards and the four touchdowns, prompting his Steelers' counterpart, Ben Roethlisberger, to gush, "It truly is an honor to watch such a great quarterback play the game."

Here's the really frightening part about this game, especially if you dare to look ahead to a January rematch: The Steelers came in with a plan to take away the Brady-to-Moss connection by matching Taylor -- "our biggest guy, our fastest guy," Tomlin said -- against Moss all over the field.

That didn't work out too well.

"He's a freak of nature," Taylor said of Moss. "Once every blue moon [a player] comes out like him. His ball skills are just unbelievable, the way he locates the ball. His speed, too. They can say he's getting old, but there's nothing slow about Moss."

It was Moss who took the final shot at Smith.

Just say it was appropriate.

"They did their talking throughout the week. We did our talking on the field today."

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.
First published on December 10, 2007 at 12:00 am

Western Canadians went 'crazy' on Sidney Crosby's first visit last week

Some even compared it to Beatlemania

Monday, December 10, 2007
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Vancouver Canucks' Sami Salo, right, of Finland, chases down Pittsburg Penguins' Sidney Crosby during second period of NHL hockey action at GM Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia: Yes, things are nuts when Sidney Crosby and the Penguins go to Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa and were especially so during his first trip to those cities as a rookie in 2005-06.

Even so, those in Pittsburgh and across the United States might not fully grasp the scope of Crosby's hold on Canada.

Let his first jaunt through the three Western Canadian stops on the NHL circuit serve as an indication. Because of the NHL's unbalanced schedule, people in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver had to wait until Crosby's third season to get a live glimpse, after he had won a scoring title and MVP award and, apparently, the hearts of all in his native Canada.

"In Canada, it's different," Penguins coach Michel Therrien said.

In Canada, where they loyally sing along with their national anthem, obey crossing signals and refrain from littering, they take their sports stars seriously.

TSN, a Canadian sports cable network, likened Crosby's five days in Alberta and British Columbia last week to Beatlemania. Other media outlets said he was making the most famous westward trek since Lewis and Clark.

Crosby was reluctant to go out to eat or be seen in public, used side doors, was followed by cameras and reporters and was inundated by autograph seekers.

There was at least one crowded news conference with Crosby every day of the trip, often two.

Videographers scrambled to record his every move -- his first time entering each venue, his first time walking out of each locker room for practice, his first spins around each rink. At one point, a Penguins executive had to ask a group of cameramen circled around Crosby in the Calgary locker room to please stop filming when Crosby was ready to take off his hockey pants.

Through it all, Crosby was the calm at the center of the storm.

"I try to manage it the best I can and try not to let anything interfere with what I need to do," he said after one of the several times he was asked about the demands on his time and patience.

If he was jaded by the attention, he didn't show it.

If he was jumpy about constantly being encircled, he didn't show it.

If he was jolted by the news that his father, Troy, was in a cab that slid off an icy road after his flight to Edmonton Tuesday night was delayed until after midnight, he didn't show it.

Crosby sets things in motion on the ice, but he has learned to go with the flow off the ice.

"He's used to those things," Therrien said. "And it's demanding for him. But when it comes to game time, he prepares himself really well. He's such a great athlete. He's strong physically and mentally. He's able to handle those situations at such a young age. It's amazing."

Although the Penguins swept the three games, Crosby's best show came Wednesday in Edmonton, where his three third-period assists helped produce a 4-2 win. He had no points in a 3-2 shootout win Thursday in Calgary or a 2-1 shootout win Saturday against the Canucks.

His teammates seemed to take the attention on Crosby in stride while admiring his ability to deal with it.

Opposing players had various views.

"I think it's a little crazy," Flames defenseman Cory Sarich told the Calgary Herald. "You're seeing car bombings somewhere else and it's not even a blurb on the news these days because of Sidney Crosby."

Flames captain Jarome Iginla, considered an elite player, had a different take.

"It's nice to see the fans get extra excited," Iginla said. "It's well deserved. It's a lot of hype, there's no question about that. But at the same time, you look at what he's accomplished already -- the youngest ever of all the great players who played to score 200 points and win the scoring title last year. It's deserved hype, and I think it's good for hockey."

Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo, another upper-echelon player, wasn't surprised by the hype.

"He only comes here once every three years, so I think it's a bit normal that things are a bit more than what he's used to and it's going to be a bit more high-volume," Luongo said.

Penguins winger Petr Sykora, a Czech, said recently that former Penguins winger Jaromir Jagr, now the New York Rangers' captain, is the most popular person -- not just the most popular athlete -- in the Czech Republic.

Crosby just might have the same status in Canada.

In each of the three cities, there was an angle to cover.

In Edmonton, there were the constant comparisons with Wayne Gretzky.

In Calgary, there were the questions about Crosby's physical play against defenseman Dion Phaneuf, even when they were Team Canada junior squad teammates.

In Vancouver -- on the opposite coast from Crosby's hometown of Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia -- everyone wanted to revisit 2005, when Crosby skipped a Top Prospects game and a draft evaluation camp here.

Crosby will get back to Western Canada a bit more often, usually every other season, when the NHL's revamped scheduling takes effect next season.

He was asked during one news conference about the prospect of getting back to Western Canada more often under the NHL's new, more balanced schedule starting next season.

"If it's like this, I don't know," Crosby said.

Don't worry, Canada. He was smiling when he said it.


Shelly Anderson can be reached at shanderson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1721.
First published on December 10, 2007 at 12:00 am

In this case, the cheaters prospered

Sunday, December 09, 2007
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Bill Belichick and Eric Mangini (2006)

Final exams aren't until January, obviously, but the test that will be administered today to the Steelers' defense might never be duplicated in either severity or intensity.

It's not so much that this particular band of New England Patriots has either tied or broken 19 NFL records in three months, it's that they're potentially at the launch point of a violent rebound from consecutive games in which they assumed the guise of diffident men with median talent.

I'm guessing Tom Brady might be a little dangerous by late this afternoon in his first appearance since getting out-pitched by the likes of A.J. Feeley and Kyle Boller during unseemly struggles with the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens.

Which Brady won anyway.

On top of all that, they cheat. Or was that quarter million-dollar fine and the stripping away of a first-round draft pick just the league's way of saying spygate was no big deal?

"Coach [Bill] Belichick got fined; that's all over, and they're still winnin'," said Steelers corner Ike Taylor on the topic the other day. "You can wash all that down the drain."

Funny, that's essentially what the league office did when the Pats turned over all video and written intelligence from defensive signals illegally videotaped by Belichick staffers over an extended period -- washed it all down the drain for reasons never quite made clear.

Asked this week if he or his team were hacked off enough over it to draw motivation across an entire autumn, Belichick said only, "We don't talk about it."

In any case, most members of the unit that happens to be playing the best defense anywhere said they've got enough to think about without considering whether the Patriots know a little more about what the Steelers will be doing today than might be, you know, legal.

"We're not worried about it; it wouldn't matter if they did know our calls," said Deshea Townsend, who's coming off a six-tackle performance against Cincinnati. "When you have players who can make plays, they're going to make them. And they have some good players."

Maybe you've heard of some of these guys. Randy Moss, Donte' Stallworth and Wes Welker are catching 16 balls a game in this pass-primary offense, which generally results in 304 air yards per show, and at one point Brady had thrown three or more touchdown passes in 10 consecutive games, one of the aforementioned 19 NFL records.

"There's no doubt they've got a full metal jacket," is the way Mike Tomlin put it this week. "Stallworth can take the top off the coverage. He's got vertical speed."

Straight up, like Superman?

The top of that coverage looks again as though it will be Tyrone Carter at safety instead of injured Troy Polamalu, with Carter joining Anthony Smith, or, if you prefer, "Mr. Bull's-eye." Smith's mindless mid-week guarantee of a Steelers victory won't make things any easier.

Carter says he's not even wondering if New England's coaching staff knows more than it should.

"We've changed our signals," Carter said. "That was blown out of proportion anyway. It's like people say about watching film, when you look at the quarterback and he does his checks, if you think, 'when he does this, then he's going to do that,' it's not right because he changes them anyway.

"We just gotta go out and play."

The Steelers, no matter how few outside their locker room believe this, actually are hopeful that this defense is fully capable of going anywhere and beating anybody. They've allowed only 155 points, 104 fewer than the league average and 32 fewer than the next best figure, Tampa Bay's 187.

Hours after last week's suffocation of Carson Palmer and the Bengals, the one glittery aspect of his team that jumped off the video at Tomlin was his top-rated and still perhaps underrated defense.

"It's pretty uncommon, I guess, when you lose a turnover battle the way we did in that football game, 4-1, and still get a victory; it speaks to the mettle of our defense," Tomlin said. "We put them out there in some tough situations and they responded. I like the direction we're moving in."

Of course, Belichick might like it too. He might like it that, as Carter says, if they do this, it must mean they're going to do that.

"I don't feel like we're close to running the same defense as the last time we played them [September '05]," said defensive end Brett Keisel. "I'm up and moving around now and it's an entire different scheme of blitz packages. They play a 3-4, too, so they're working the same kinds of things, but I don't feel like they're in our heads or anything like that."

To whatever extent Belichick and the Patriots are in people's heads, it is dwarfed by the frequency with which they're in people's end zones. And still, the Steelers can derail New England's unbeaten express this afternoon, but only if certain unlikely prerequisites are met. They must maintain their league-best time of possession average at more than 34 minutes, and they must prevent New England from scoring in any manner not generated directly by Brady. Nothing of any length in the running game. Nothing of any consequence in the always fraught with peril special teams funhouse.

Should he be able to shut up long enough, an interception from Anthony Smith wouldn't hurt either.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.
First published on December 9, 2007 at 12:00 am

Edmonton welcomes Crosby

By Ross McKeon, Yahoo! Sports
December 5, 2007



EDMONTON, CANADA - DECEMBER 05: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates vs Edmonton Oilers during third period action at Rexall Place on November 05, 2007 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The Penguins scored 4 unanswered goals in the third to win 4-2. Crosby had three assists in the game. (Photo by Dale MacMillan/Getty Images)


EDMONTON, Alberta – Sidney Crosby came calling Wednesday night to the heartland of hockey, where pursuit of the puck is as much ingrained in the fabric of Canadian life as the petroleum products that make this city the oil capital of the country.

They braved the frigid temperatures to fill one of the league's oldest barns, and for the first time they witnessed the NHL's newest big star.

And, boy, did he give them a third period to remember.

Crosby set up the game-tying and winning goals, then added a helper on the insurance tally late to help his Pittsburgh Penguins overcome a 2-0 deficit after two periods en route to a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

"It was execution," Crosby said of the third-period turnaround. "We had a long flight (Tuesday); it took us a while to get our legs under us. Once we got our forecheck going we made some great plays and took advantage of them."

The sellout crowd of 16,839 cheered Crosby when he hit the ice in warmups and again when he was shown briefly on the video board during the U.S. anthem, but they left no doubt about their true allegiance. One fan held up a homemade placard early in the third period that read: "Sidney, welcome to the house Wayne built."

In the end, Crosby showed his appreciation for the respect the crowd showed him by waving to the fans after taking a quick spin on the ice for having been named the No. 1 star.

"When you're on a stage like this you always want to do well," Crosby said. "I try not to go into any building on the road expecting too much, but it's nice to get a welcoming like that. It's definitely a nice gesture and I appreciate it."

Outside the building is a statue of Edmonton's favorite son, Wayne Gretzky, who holds 61 league records, a record in itself. Maybe some day there will be a statue in front of the new building in Pittsburgh. But right now that building is just a blueprint, much like Crosby's career is in its infancy.

"I don't think anyone is Gretzky," Crosby said after his first visit to Edmonton, which will be followed Thursday by his initial stop in Calgary. "A lot of things he did, he was the first one to do it."

Fair or not, the comparisons started when Crosby put up eye-popping numbers in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League at age 16 and 17 with Rimouski – 135 points in 59 games his first season and 168 in 62 the next. Gretzky scored 182 points in 64 games with Sault Ste. Marie in his final season of junior hockey, 27 years before Crosby capped his amateur career.

It was a different era, a different game. That won't stop the comparisons from being made now, however.

"If Gretz had three goals or three points, he was always trying to get the fourth one. Crosby is the same way," said Oilers coach Craig MacTavish, a three-year teammate of Gretzky's in Edmonton and briefly again for a handful of games in St. Louis. "Crosby has the same sense of destiny that Wayne had since he was 12 years old."

Crosby displayed exactly that in the final period. His best play of the night helped to set up Colby Armstrong's go-ahead goal at 10:57. Crosby was last to arrive behind the Edmonton net in a battle for a loose puck, but he beat Oilers Jarret Stoll and Ladislav Smid for possession. He zipped a pass to the opposite point to Mark Eaton, whose drive was tipped by Armstrong in front for the eventual game-winner.

"I wasn't creating a lot as far as getting shots on net," Crosby said of the opening 40 minutes. "Sometimes the little things, the battles, little chips here and there – those are details that sometimes go unnoticed – but I think as a team you realize what your teammates are going to do for you. No one guy is going to carry a team, especially now."

Gretzky was the youngest player to win the Hart Trophy as league MVP (19 years, five months), and Crosby became the second youngest to turn the trick last season at 19 years and 10 months.

MacTavish tells a great story that illustrates Gretzky's relentless desire. He describes video of a game in Toronto when Gretzky loses his stick in the attacking zone. Gretzky continues after the puck, fending off defenders while kicking it back to the spot where he can retrieve his stick and retain possession.

MacTavish sees the same kind of fire in Crosby.

"You feel, ultimately, a Crosby-led team will at some point win the Stanley Cup," he said.

Crosby cringes with a smidge of jealousy when he sees the wide-open nature of hockey played during Gretzky's prime, and he acknowledges yet also deflects both the individual and team-wide comparisons. It's all a little too much to take in when he and his Penguins still have so much to prove.

"The comparisons are a compliment for the most part," said Crosby, held scoreless in only two of 27 games this season. "That's the way I look at it. I try to be myself. Sure, you try to learn from the great players, but to try to be just like another player I think puts too much pressure on yourself."

If Crosby tires of the constant hounding by media and adoring fans, he doesn't show it. When he came off the ice following the morning skate Wednesday he was asked to sign a couple of autographs and pose for a picture. He cooperated, held a short conversation with the admirers and squatted while in full gear to make the Kodak moment picture perfect.

After that, it was straight to a press conference down the hall. No time to change, no time to unwind, no time to exchange playful barbs in the locker room with teammates.

"You're not envious of him on some days," Pittsburgh's Gary Roberts said.

The veteran forward said he had time to take a two-hour nap during a recent game day only to find when he returned to the rink that Crosby never left and still was in gear to facilitate a number of photo shoots and the making of a commercial.

"The commitment he makes to the game for fans is really impressive for a young man," Roberts said. "It's probably more so now than when Wayne was 20 because there's more media attention.

"For me, I focus on one thing, and that's playing hockey," he added. "I couldn't imagine what he has to go through."


Ross McKeon is the NHL editor for Yahoo! Sports. Send Ross a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast

A century later, Pirates' legendary owner makes Hall

Dreyfuss, architect of great teams, World Series and Forbes Field, inducted

Tuesday, December 04, 2007
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Courtesy of Pittsburgh Pirates
Barney Dreyfuss, principal owner of the Pirates franchise until 1932, also is credited with building Forbes Field. A ticket stub from the 1903 World Series at the old Exposition Park between the Pirates and Boston Americans. Boston won the series, five games to three.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It took more than a century, but the bold entrepreneur who guided the Pirates to their earliest glory finally was recognized with immortality.

Barney Dreyfuss, the franchise's owner from 1900 to 1932 and the man credited with creating Major League Baseball's World Series, was elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday by the Hall's Veterans Committee. He needed nine of 12 votes to gain election into the executives/pioneers category, and he received 10.

Former Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh, also on the Veterans Committee ballot, fell short. He needed 12 of 16 votes in the managers category and received six.

Committee voter Hal McCoy, longtime Cincinnati Reds beat writer for the Dayton Daily News, credited the Hall's research staff for Dreyfuss' selection.

"I can honestly tell you that, even as old as a lot of us are, hardly any of us in that room knew who Barney Dreyfuss was," Mr. McCoy said of the Sunday voting session at the Opryland Hotel. "But when we saw the bio they prepared for us ... every member was astounded by it. We'd all heard the name, but we didn't know how much he meant to the game."

Born in Germany in 1865, Mr. Dreyfuss left his homeland and family for the United States as a 19-year-old and settled in Kentucky in 1885, with no more than a fistful of dollars in his wallet. He worked six days a week at a distillery and began organizing baseball games there.

Believing he could make money off baseball, he joined other distillers in investing in the Louisville Colonels of the American Association, and by 1899 became their principal owner. That year, with the team in danger of folding because of changes in baseball's leagues, he instigated a merger with the Pirates. He became principal owner of the 14-year-old Pittsburgh franchise the next year.

Among the players Mr. Dreyfuss brought from Louisville to Pittsburgh as part of a complicated player-and-cash transaction was legendary shortstop Honus Wagner.

In 1903, a year in which the Pirates went 91-49 to win the National League title, Mr. Dreyfuss challenged the Boston Americans, champions of the American League, to a best-of-nine duel. Boston won, five games to three, and the World Series was born.

"To me, Mr. Dreyfuss' role in the World Series was enough right there," Mr. McCoy said. "But his whole body of work, if you take the time to go back that far, is amazing."

Mr. Dreyfuss was so taken by his players' efforts in that inaugural World Series that he gave them his portion of the gate proceeds, ensuring they would be paid more than the Boston players.

The Pirates won World Series championships in 1909 and 1925 under Mr. Dreyfuss, along with six league pennants. He remained owner and team president until his death Feb. 5, 1932, in New York. He is buried in West View Cemetery.

Mr. Dreyfuss is credited with the building of Forbes Field, which opened in 1909 at a cost of $2 million. Many at the time criticized the Pirates' move from 17,000-seat Exposition Park, close to the site of their current home, because it was too far from Downtown and because it was doubted that the sport could attract the nearly 40,000 fans that Forbes Field could hold. But Mr. Dreyfuss, still confident that money could be made from baseball and weary of Allegheny River floods, pressed ahead with the privately funded venture and immediately succeeded.

Mr. Dreyfuss also was seen as having a keen eye for baseball talent, unusual for owners in any sport in any era. John Heydler, a National League president in Mr. Dreyfuss' time, once said that Mr. Dreyfuss "discovered more great players than any man in the game, and his advice and counsel always were sought by his associates."

The other 12 Pirates in the Hall are Mr. Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Paul and Lloyd Waner, Max Carey, Bill Mazeroski, Arky Vaughan, Pie Traynor, Ralph Kiner, Kiki Cuyler and Fred Clarke.

"The Pirates are extremely thrilled that Barney Dreyfuss was elected to the Hall," current team president Frank Coonelly said. "Mr. Dreyfuss was a dynamic, innovative and extraordinarily competitive owner who built the Pirates into the dominant National League club at the turn of the century."

Mr. Coonelly added that the team had been hoping for two elections.

"We are deeply disappointed that Danny Murtaugh was not elected. Danny was one of the most successful managers in major-league history, and we continue to believe that he ultimately will be recognized as such by the Hall of Fame."

Election to the Hall of Fame can come two ways. The most common is by a vote from the Baseball Writers Association of America. The other is through the Veterans Committee, a collection of Hall of Famers, veteran writers, executives and historians. That group is charged with reviewing the candidacies of anyone who might have slipped through the process, particularly in the distant past. The first Hall of Fame class was inducted in 1936.

Former MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley also were chosen in the executives/pioneers category. Dick Williams and Billy Southworth were chosen in the managers category. Manager Whitey Herzog and umpire Doug Harvey each missed by one vote.

Of the five inductees announced yesterday, only Mr. Williams is alive.

All will be inducted July 27 at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com.
First published on December 4, 2007 at 12:00 am

Game follows same old script

By Lonnie Wheeler
The Cincinnati Post
December 3, 2007



KEITH SRAKOCIC/Associated Press
Bengals receiver Chad Johnson closes his eyes on the sideline in the fourth quarter of Pittsburgh's 24-10 victory over the Bengals on Sunday.


PITTSBURGH - Refresh my memory, if you would. Why is it that they play the games?

The Bengals really need to come up with a reason. At this point, which is 4-8, which is the 16th non-winning season in the last 17, they sorely need to give their loyal constituency a little something different to latch onto. They deeply need to demonstrate that any given Sunday can distinguish itself, somehow, from the bad one before.

Well, yeah, there was the licking last week of Tennessee, which was surprising and swell and, apparently, of no particular significance. Sunday night, it was back to the same old.

Sunday was Steelers night, and you know what that means. It was Ben Roethlisberger shaking off tackles. It was Hines Ward making third-down catches and touchdown catches whenever necessary. It was Pittsburgh 24, Cincinnati 10.

Five weeks ago, when the uneven rivals played at Paul Brown Stadium, it was 24-13. And the Bengals, as in previous years, couldn't bring down Roethlisberger when they had to. That day, Ward scored two touchdowns among his eight catches for 88 yards. Sunday night, he scored two touchdowns among his 11 catches for 90 yards. Same old.

"Whatever it is that they're doing to beat us," said offensive tackle Levi Jones, "we're definitely tired of it. Me, personally, I'm sick of things not coming out in our favor when we play them."

There's much to be sick of, actually, whether it involves the Steelers or not. Losing is, of course, a distasteful thing in its own right. Losing the same way, over and over, is disgraceful to those responsible and dispiriting to those who remarkably still care, in spite of it all.



The Enquirer / Jeff Swinger
Carson Palmer argues with T.J. Houshmandzadeh after the receiver missed a third-quarter pass.

As a case in point, take the end of the first half.

Sunday night, the Bengals scored on their initial possession, looking sharp, and dominated field position for the entire first quarter. But they failed to take further advantage of that, which, for them, is a very ominous thing. Because, for them, the first half always winds down in wicked ways.

On this occasion, the Steelers scored a touchdown with 10 seconds remaining before the break - a little pass to Ward did the deed - to pull ahead 17-7. You think it was a coincidence?

In 12 games this season, the Bengals have given up five touchdowns and five field goals in the last two minutes of the first half. That's 50 points in 24 minutes. (And it's not counting the TD the Seahawks scored at 2:06 of the second quarter.)

They've scored only 13 points themselves in that time. The touchdown came on a kickoff return.

It has all become quite monotonous and annoyingly predictable. Like the Cincinnati running game.

Week upon week, the Bengals persist in handing the ball to Rudi Johnson. This was a good strategy three years ago, and two years ago, and even last year. Not in 2007. Not at all in 2007.

In 2007, Rudi, a valiant guy with an improving hamstring, has run 140 times for 389 yards, a mere 2.8 a pop. His backups, Kenny Watson and DeDe Dorsey, have run 130 times - 10 carries fewer - for 604 yards, an average of 4.6.

Sunday, while Watson was five for 23 and Dorsey one for 15, Johnson got the call 14 times for 34 mostly insignificant yards.

Why?

When Rudi isn't making plays, the other Johnson has to. Sunday night, wet and desperate, Carson Palmer threw and threw in Chad's general direction. He buzzed the ball over his star receiver's head quite a few times, because Palmer's feet weren't getting properly planted on the sloppy sod. He also led Johnson too far a few times, because Ocho Cinco couldn't get to passes he'd normally devour.

"I failed to make the adjustments of putting more air under the ball and realizing that every route is a little slower," the quarterback said. "That hurt us on some critical third downs."



The Enquirer / Jeff Swinger
T.J. Houshmandzadeh sits out the Bengals' last drive of the game.

As the evening schlepped ahead and the field gurgled increasingly, Palmer's accuracy slipped under the surface. After completing six of seven passes on Cincinnati's first drive, he succeeded on only 11 of the next 37.

Roethlisberger did a bit better, and he also tied the score in the second quarter, peeling away from Justin Smith, evading Jonathan Fanene and hurdling Leon Hall at the goal line. It was the very sort of thing that Marvin Lewis lectures about every time his team plays Pittsburgh.

And yet, the Bengals never sacked the indomitable Miami grad. Once, they appeared to. Early in the fourth quarter, Robert Geathers dumped him hard in the end zone for what looked very much like a safety. But a flag dropped upfield, where Hall had stuck out a hand as a receiver raced by, with no chance of receiving a pass from his fallen quarterback. The Cincinnati rookie was called for defensive holding.

New players, old stuff.

Of that, sadly, the memory needs no refreshing.

Contact Lonnie Wheeler at lwheeler@cincypost.com.

Two touchdown catches move Ward past Stallworth on team's all-time list

Monday, December 03, 2007
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Hines Ward smiles as he crosses the goal line after scoring his second touchdown in the third quarter, breaking John Stallworth's team record of 63 career touchdown catches. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

In an attempt to prepare his team for the giant waterslide known as Heinz Field, Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis had extra water pumped on his team's practice field last week -- the better to get his players accustomed to a wet, slick surface.

Instead, it looked as if his offense learned only how to get stuck in the muck.

Maybe the Bengals should take some pointers from Hines Ward. Either he has Gore-Tex hands that repel moisture or he practices catching the ball in the shower.

"Unbelievable," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said.

"Concentration," Ward said.

Ward's performance the past two games at Heinz Field has been as uncanny as it has been improbable, given the elements under which he was playing. Six days after he caught nine passes for 88 yards on a horrid field in driving rain, Ward came back last night and caught 11 more passes in a steady downpour, including seven in the first half when the Steelers built a 17-7 lead.

In the process, he also caught two touchdowns, giving him 64 in his career and breaking Hall of Fame receiver John Stallworth's franchise record for touchdown receptions.

Like the rain, Ward never stopped until the Steelers had posted a 24-10 victory against the Bengals, a game that gave them a two-game lead in the AFC North and a 5-0 record against division teams.

"That's just the type of player he is," tight end Heath Miller said. "He's going to get the job done, no matter the situation, no matter the conditions."



Hines Ward celebrates with Willie Colon after scoring his second touchdown of the night in the third quarter, breaking John Stallworth's team career touchdown receptions record. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

Ward's performance against the Bengals -- 11 catches for 90 yards -- was two shy of his career-high of 13 catches against the Bengals in 2003.

But, in the past two games, Ward has 20 catches and 178 yards, his best two-game total since he had 21 catches in back-to-back games against Atlanta and Tennessee in 2002.

That he did it in conditions that were less than ideal made his two-game totals all the more amazing.

"That's being on the same page with a guy like that who's so talented," Roethlisberger said. "I put it anywhere close to him, he's going to make plays."

"Any game you can get the ball to Hines, he's going to make plays," said injured receiver Santonio Holmes, who missed his second game in a row and had to admire Ward's showing from the sideline. "He's been our leader for 10 years. When we need big plays to be made, he's going to make them."

Ward caught two touchdowns to surpass Stallworth -- a 2-yarder near the end of the first half that gave the Steelers a 17-7 lead and an 8-yard touchdown in the third quarter that boosted the advantage to 24-10.

That drive, though, was punctuated with a signature Ward catch -- a 14-yarder over the middle in which he held on to the ball despite a vicious hit by safety Madieu Williams.

"That was classic No. 86 right there," said Miller, who had four catches for 30 yards. "He's going to make plays and get the job done. He's going to lead the team and we're going to follow him."

"He's a tough guy," coach Mike Tomlin said. "He's a football player first, a wide receiver second."



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Wide receiver Hines Ward pulls in a pass as he's taken down by Bengals free safety Madieu Williams. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

It didn't even matter that the Steelers were playing for the second game in a row without Holmes, their big-play receiver who has been out with a high-ankle sprain. Holmes, though, said he will play when the Steelers play the unbeaten New England Patriots Sunday in Foxborough, Mass.

"I heard them saying, 'Watch Hines on this, watch Hines on that,' " Roethlisberger said. "I don't think he gets enough credit for the way he played tonight."

That, of course, has been something of a trademark of Ward's career. He was a third-round draft choice in 1998 who has risen to become the team's all-time leader in receptions and touchdown catches, not to mention a Super Bowl MVP.

"This should satisfy all the naysayers, the people who doubted me, who still doubt me," Ward said. "Nothing was ever given to me. There are a lot of guys I caught touchdowns from. I got to give credit to those guys and to Ben. He said let's go out there tonight and get the record."

And he did, rain or no rain.

Gerry Dulac can be reached at gdulac@post-gazette.com.
First published on December 3, 2007 at 1:52 am

After a 6-for-7 start, Palmer lost elite touch

Monday, December 03, 2007
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Bengals' quarterback Carson Palmer fumbles. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

When quarterback Carson Palmer finally got around to throwing something that at least might have been mistaken as a touchdown pass last night, somewhere near the upswing of midnight, T.J. Houshmandzadeh juggled it just as Larry Foote arrived with a bear hug.

Incomplete.

There were, umm, 27 of those.

Mostly though, Palmer's receivers didn't have to go to all the trouble of dropping them. It was essentially a matter of watching them sail off into the dank atmosphere in perhaps the most stunningly unaccomplished performance of this Bengals quarterback's decorated career.

"We had some balls that were thrown a little high," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said after first citing three to five other possible explanations for the Steelers' 24-10 victory at Heinz Field. "We ran our offense, but I really can't explain why we didn't execute at times."

But he could explain it, however reluctantly. And he did.

"We missed some throws, and as I said, that wound up somewhat being the difference."

It's considered poor form to criticize Palmer, a concession to his general excellence, but there's nothing wrong with pointing out some negatives in light of his 17-for-44 performance.

But that's as far as Lewis would go. It's bad enough this back-sliding franchise sank to 4-8 last night without taking the invitation to slap at the franchise quarterback. Lewis, and most everyone else, more typically talks about Palmer like this:

"Carson is so down to earth, you used to think it was almost an act. And he's never changed. He is what he is. That's his makeup, and it probably always has been. He's so unflappable. He can focus in and see right through the eye of that storm, and that may be his greatest quality he has.

"I think everyone around him feels the confidence that kind of oozes out of him, and it makes them feel good about things."



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Bengals' wide receiver Chris Henry can't come up with the pass as he's defended by cornerback Bryant McFadden. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

Uh-huh. All true. But I don't know what that was oozing out of him last night after the first possession. Palmer completed 11 of his final 37 passes in a game the Steelers practically begged to get beat. The Bengals came up with four turnovers, three of them in the second half, but no amount of opportunism could straighten out Palmer's trajectory.

Even more curiously, Palmer's opening statement in the downpour was precisely the kind of elegant, reliable delivery that has lifted him among the game's elite passers.

He went 6 for 7 on Cincinnati's first possession, finding four different receivers at different addresses in an initially hesitant Steelers defense, went 3 for 3 on third down, and accounting for 57 of the 75 yards that comprised the exquisite drive to a 7-0 advantage for the visitors.

Looking perfectly comfortable in the North Side confines where they had won in consecutive visits and in three of the past four, the Bengals looked perfectly capable of something like 56-0 at that moment.

Considering that Palmer converted 14 consecutive third-down opportunities in a 35-6 pasting of Tennessee only a week previous, and that in his previous three games against the Steelers he was 61 for 95 for 649 yards and seven touchdowns, you could have guessed the Bengals had the kind of momentum at work behind No. 9 to be seriously problematic.

Then Palmer went 2 for 9.

Just like that.

Starting flinging soggy passes high and wide, low and away, all the way to halftime. In short, the Bengals wasted all kinds of superior field position over the next 23 minutes and found themselves down, 17-7, at intermission.

And after Palmer went 2 for 9, he went 9-for-the-next-28.

He missed Houshmandzadeh on a slant early in the third quarter that would have sliced the Steelers' lead to three points, firing wide and behind his top touchdown maker two plays after the first of Willie Parker's two second-half fumbles.

He missed Chad Johnson badly on the next possession. Just about the only positive was that for a guy throwing that often that badly, he somehow was not intercepted. Palmer was probably glad Houshmandzadeh did him the favor of dropping that one in the end zone, because he likely didn't want to get into the 100 career touchdown club. Stuck on 99 touchdown passes, Palmer will be the fifth fastest to 100 when he gets there, taking longer (58 career games) than only Dan Marino (44), Kurt Warner (50), Johnny Unitas (53), and Peyton Manning (56).

The Steelers brought plenty of personnel capable of beating the Bengals last night. It didn't hurt that Carson Palmer was among them.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.
First published on December 3, 2007 at 1:28 am

Bengals' fire doused after initial drive

Monday, December 03, 2007
By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Steelers fans show their love for Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

There was no denying the Cincinnati Bengals came to play last night at Heinz Field. With seven losses in the first 11 games, the Bengals' season effectively was over, but you wouldn't know that from the way they took the game to the Steelers. The Bengals were on fire: precision passing, timely running, excellent pass protection and superb receiving.

For one series.

Then they were finished. Then they were the Bungals.

Then the Steelers snapped out of their two-game lethargy -- in which they lost to the weak New York Jets and almost lost to the winless Miami Dolphins -- and came from a seven-point deficit to a 24-10 win.

A season threatening to go awry had been righted. The Steelers might not be ready to handle the New England Patriots next week, but at least they go into the game with a nice dose of momentum. They also have what amounts to a three-game lead, with four games remaining, over the second-place Cleveland Browns in the AFC North Division.

The gaudiest numbers of the night belonged to wide receiver Hines Ward, who caught 11 passes, but this was a victory forged by the defense.

The chances of that happening looked slim after the way the Bengals dominated the first time they had the ball. They moved 75 yards in 12 plays to take a 7-0 lead. Quarterback Carson Palmer was superb on that drive, completing six of seven for 57 yards.

But the Bengals did almost nothing offensively the remainder of the night.

"Defensively, our guys did not blink," coach Mike Tomlin said. "They got better and better as the night went along."



Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Running back Willie Parker picks up yardage. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

This was no ordinary offense the Steelers shut down. Palmer is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. In league-wide offensive rankings, the Bengals were fifth, behind only the teams considered to be the best: New England, Dallas, Green Bay and Indianapolis.

After the first drive, the defense refocused -- despite often being put in poor field position -- and held the Bengals to one more score, a third-quarter field goal.

"We got off to a slow start," safety Anthony Smith said, "but we were fired up after that."

To say the least. After the touchdown, the Bengals' next four possessions went like this:

• After an 18-yard pass from Palmer to Chad Johnson moved the ball to their 45, the Bengals went three and out.

• Starting on their own 47, they gained 7 yards on three plays.

• Starting on the Steelers' 28, after a poor punt by Daniel Sepulveda, they got 8 yards on three plays, then missed a field goal.

• Beginning on their 31, they netted 3 yards on five plays.

The offense that had ground out 75 yards on its first possession could manage only 39 the remainder of the half. The quarterback who had picked the Steelers apart on the first possession completed only two of nine passes the remainder of the first half.

"On that first drive, there were a couple of blown assignments," inside linebacker Larry Foote said. "[Palmer] was reading our defense and guessing right. After that, we started hiding our coverages. We were taking things away.

"He calls a lot of plays on the line of scrimmage, so we were showing him something and doing something else."



Carson Palmer releases a pass to DeDe Dorsey on the final drive just as he is hit by Pittsburgh's James Farrior.
The Cincinnati Enquirer / Jeff Swinger


The defense's finest moment came in the fourth quarter when the Cincinnati cornerback Johnathan Joseph returned a Ben Roethlisberger interception to the Steelers' 17. The Bengals ran seven plays, got one first down and 14 yards. Palmer completed one of five passes on the possession as the Bengals turned the ball over on downs.

What made the defensive showing all the more remarkable is that Palmer came in on a roll. In his two previous games -- against Tennessee and Arizona -- he threw for 612 yards. Last night, he threw for 183, completing 17 of 44. His passer rating was a miserable 51.6.

Palmer's favorite targets, Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, were stifled by the Steelers' secondary, although Palmer, usually very accurate, had something to do with that. Johnson, who had caught 20 passes for 191 yards in the two previous games, caught six for 86 yards. Houshmandzadeh, who had caught 15 passes for 153 yards in the two previous games, caught five for 42 yards.

Tomlin was pleased but, as he often does, acknowledged that "we fell a little short of perfection."

True, but on the defensive side of the ball, not by much.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.
First published on December 3, 2007 at 1:27 am

Benching Big Ben for slow start bad idea

Monday, December 03, 2007
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Ben Roethlisberger tries to get away from Bengals Justin Smith. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

You want to know why former Steelers coach Bill Cowher had such a hard time even thinking about benching Ben Roethlisberger last season when Big Ben often struggled?

Last night was why.

Roethlisberger got off to a horrible start against the Cincinnati Bengals in a game the Steelers needed for some breathing room in the AFC North Division race. Three of his first six passes were overthrown. The team's first three drives went Big Ben interception, three-and-out and three-and-out. You almost could hear the Heinz Field crowd -- wet and probably a bit irritable on yet another dreary night at the ball yard -- begin to murmur. Roethlisberger was 2 of 6 for 18 yards with an interception. The Bengals led, 7-0.

Then Roethlisberger took over the game and turned it into a 24-10 victory that gave the Steelers (9-3) a two-game lead over the Cleveland Browns (7-5) in the division hair-pull, a much-needed cushion as they head to New England Sunday.

It's why you never bench the great ones.

The Steelers' three possessions in the second quarter ended in a touchdown, a field goal and a touchdown. Roethlisberger was 14 for 18 for 113 yards and a touchdown in the quarter, one of his incompletions when he spiked the ball. At one point in that stretch, he completed eight consecutive throws. Maybe it wasn't as impressive as the 15 in a row he completed in the muck against the Miami Dolphins a week ago. But it was impressive nonetheless considering the steady rain and sandy field conditions.

Roethlisberger and wide receiver Hines Ward had a nice little game of pitch-and-catch going all night. They connected five times in that second quarter for 33 yards and the 2-yard touchdown pass that gave the Steelers a 17-7 halftime lead. They picked right up in the third quarter, teaming three times for gains of 14, 10 and 8 yards on a scoring drive, the final pass a touchdown toss that bumped the lead to 24-10 and put Ward at the top of another category in the Steelers' record book. It was his 64th career touchdown reception, breaking Hall of Famer John Stallworth's franchise record.



Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Hines Ward is greeted by Ben Roethlisberger after catching his first touchdown of the game. (vs. Bengals 12/02/2007)

It's easy to think Roethlisberger and Ward wished the conditions were sloppy every game. Last night and against the Dolphins, Big Ben found Ward a total of 20 times for 178 yards. Their good pal, Jerome Bettis, wasn't that good in the mud.

"If I put it close to him, he'll make the plays. That's Hines Ward," Roethlisberger said. "I'm incredibly proud and honored to get him that record."

As accurate as Roethlisberger was throwing the football after that rough start, he made the play of the game with his toughness. It was a second-and-goal play at the Bengals 6 midway through the second quarter. Roethlisberger avoided defensive end Justin Smith as he started to scramble around left end, skipping away from defensive end Johnathan Fanene along the way. By now, it was clear Big Ben had the end zone on his mind. Near the goal-line he gave up his body and dived over cornerback Leon Hall at the same time he took a violent hit from linebacker Landon Johnson. It wasn't so shocking that Roethlisberger scored, but it was surprising that he got up so easily and finished a 21-for-32, 184-yard, two-touchdown, two-interception night.

Is this a tough guy or what?

"I don't think. I'm just trying to score," Roethlisberger said.

"[Teammate] Larry Foote told me I don't know when to slide. I told him, 'You've got to know when to slide and when not to.' I thought I could get in."

Said Steelers coach Mike Tomlin: "Ben is a tremendous competitor. He gets that wild look in his eye. You love that about him. His teammates love that about him. They rally around that. They know this guy is going do whatever it takes to lead us to a victory."



Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger (7) dives for a second-quarter touchdown.
The Associated Press / Gene J. Puskar


All of it brought back memories of a Roethlisberger performance in Cleveland last season and something former Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt said afterward. Like Cowher, Whisenhunt cringed at the idea of benching his quarterback, even after Big Ben was 7 for 16 for 48 yards with three interceptions in the first three quarters against the Browns. In the fourth quarter, Roethlisberger led three touchdown drives, completing 18 of 29 passes for 224 yards and a couple of scores. The Steelers won, 24-20.

"He's so good that he's capable of doing that at any time in any game," Whisenhunt said.

That's why Roethlisberger is a franchise quarterback.

That's why you stick with him.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.
First published on December 3, 2007 at 12:25 am

Quit cryin’ about Heinz Field

By Joe Starkey
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, November 28, 2007



Steelers receiver Hines Ward gets a face full of mud, as he eludes Miami's Cameron Worrell (44) and Jason Taylor during the second quarter Monday night at Heinz Field.
Christopher Horner/TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Someday, if the Field Grinches get their way, every pro football game will be played under a dome, on a freshly vacuumed carpet, with the thermostat adjusted to 68.5.
Lambeau Field will be rendered lame, Soldier Field the same.

No mud.

No snow.

No rain.

Mother Nature will be benched, relegated to the sidelines with a clipboard and a ball cap.

Sadly, this already has occurred in places such as Minnesota, where indoor football should be illegal. The Vikings built a proud tradition -- and embodied the rugged personality of their state -- at icy Metropolitan Stadium.

They now play in an oversize family room called the Metrodome.

Which brings us to the Steelers' 3-0 victory over the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Swampball, a game that has people ripping the Rooneys and decrying the conditions at Heinz Field.

An embarrassment, they're calling it. A blight on the organization.

ESPN's Sal Paolantonio went so far as to ask analysts Steve Young and Emmitt Smith, "Should this game have been played on that field?"

Let me answer that.

Should they have played the Ice Bowl at Lambeau in 1967?

Should they have played the 1982 AFC Championship Game in Cincinnati in a minus-59 wind chill?

Should they have played the Fog Bowl at Soldier Field in 1988?

Should they have played that picturesque, snow-and-mud fest between the Steelers and Bears two years ago at Heinz Field?

Should they have played the 1979 AFC title game at Three Rivers Stadium, the one commemorated with a Sports Illustrated cover shot of Terry Bradshaw sliding along the flooded field, under the headline, "SPLASHDOWN TO THE SUPER BOWL"?

Obviously, there was more at stake in some of those legendary games than there was Monday, but bad weather and horrendous fields - to this observer, anyway - make for fascinating theater.

And help to explain why so many of us are addicted to NFL Films.

Those who cited concerns about player safety should consider that the field Monday was nothing compared to the artificial concrete, er, turf, they used to play on at Three Rivers.

Bad-weather games might not make for the best test of skill, but they are a supreme test of will. Think of Hines Ward on the winning drive.

Think of tackle football in the mud and snow when you were young. We used to call it "slip-slidy football" back in Buffalo. We'd play two-on-two in the blizzard-battered streets, where onside kicks off the snow banks were perfectly legal and highly encouraged.

Even if your fantasy team suffered Monday, you must have found the man-versus-nature battle somewhat riveting. The hydroplaning. The quick-sand effect. The lack of on-field markings. The near-uselessness of kickers. All good stuff.

And when's the last time you saw a punt stick in the ground like a javelin?

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin had a great answer Tuesday when pressed about the field conditions.

"It's football, man," he said. "It's an outdoor game that's played as you move into December. Everybody loved playing dirty football when you were a kid. What else is new? Guys had a great time. It created some adversity, we overcame it, and we found a way to win the game."

Monday's conditions were a fluke, by the way, caused by the confluence of five games in two days, a new layer of sod and a relentless rain. The Steelers do the right thing by allowing high-school teams to use their field. They tried to do the right thing by resodding it for Monday's game.

The team and the NFL should work to avoid scheduling games around the high-school finals, but, truthfully, Heinz Field hasn't provided that poor a surface during late-season months.

The New England Patriots seem to play pretty well there in January.

Steelers president Art Rooney II yesterday issued a public apology for the state of the field Monday. He really shouldn't have.

From this vantage point, that game was a thing of beauty.


Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com

It wasn't spectacular, but Parker surpasses 1,000 rushing yards for third year in row

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Running back Willie Parker picks up yardage in the 4th quarter. (vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

It was not the kind of game Willie Parker would imagine he would take another step into Steelers lore.

And it was certainly not the kind of field on which he envisioned coming up with one of his best rushing performances of the season, even though his numbers could not match any of the six 100-yard games he already had compiled this season.

"It was tough, man," Parker said.

In a game in which he went over 1,000 yards rushing for the third consecutive season, Parker did not post the kind of gaudy numbers to which he has been accustomed. It was certainly not the type of statistical gem that will stand out among the series of performances associated with the National Football League's second-leading rusher.

But, when the slop finally settled and newly sodded turf stopped sliding, there was Parker carrying the look of another noted mudder, Jerome Bettis.

It certainly wasn't much, at least, statistically: 81 yards on 24 carries. But, to everyone in the Steelers locker room, it was pretty amazing, considering the circumstances and playing conditions.

"It was pretty unique playing on a field like that," center Sean Mahan said. "It was like playing on sand."

"I feel like I've been running on the beach for three hours," guard Kendall Simmons said. "It took everything we could just to stand up."

"I'm still spitting sand out," said tackle Max Starks, who didn't know he would start for injured left tackle Marvel Smith until he arrived at Heinz Field. "It reminded me of the swamps back in Florida."

In the end, after the Steelers managed to wring out a 3-0 victory against the Miami Dolphins with a 24-yard field goal by Jeff Reed with 17 seconds remaining, it seems improbable that one team would manage to procure any points.



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Willie Parker runs late in the fourth quarter against the Dolphins last night. Parker went over 1,000 yards for the third consecutive season with his 81-yard rushing performance.(vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

And that Parker would come close to another 100-yard performance seems downright remarkable. He had 42 of his 81 yards in the first half, then squeezed out 39 more on 13 carries in the second half.

He would have come closer to his seventh 100-yard game of the season if a holding penalty against tight end Heath Miller didn't wipe out a 9-yard run to the Dolphins' 29 on the winning field-goal drive.

Nonetheless, his ability to gain any amount of yards in a game when the Dolphins managed just 49 yards rushing on 23 carries was testament to his performance.

"He had an exceptional game," Starks said. "He just said forget about it -- he saw the hole and he hit it. You weren't going to get any cutback runs on a field like that."

Indeed, Parker's longest run was 9 yards, not the type of monster runs that have been yielded by the Dolphins defense, which ranked last against the run in the NFL.

Still, when it was over, he had 1,006 yards on the season, only the second NFL back to reach 1,000 yards this season, behind Minnesota Vikings rookie Adrian Peterson. Only two other backs in Steelers history have rushed for 1,000 yards in three consecutive seasons -- Bettis and Franco Harris.

"It was terrible ... terrible," Simmons said, referring to the field conditions. "And the rain didn't help at all. It kept getting worse as the game went on."

"It was tough sledding out there," Mahan said. "There were not a lot of moves being made out there. You just hit it up field as fast as you can. There's not going to be a lot of spin moves out there."

Hines Ward, who had nine catches for 88 yards, compared Parker to another mudder, Bettis, who, at 255 pounds, had the weight to trample through sloppy field conditions. Parker, who weighs 209 pounds, is not that type of back, or so it would seem.

But, he managed to keep his feet well enough to plod into the Steelers record book.

"You can't look at the stats in conditions like that," Ward said. "He did a good job. He didn't turn the ball over. That's one of the things we kept stressing. The weather, the field, it's not going to be perfect."

Gerry Dulac can be reached at gdulac@post-gazette.com.
First published on November 27, 2007 at 1:30 am

Sure, it was ugly, but no one will remember come January

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Jeff Reed kicks the winning 24-yard field goal last night to give the Steelers a 3-0 victory over Miami.

A month from now, when the NFL stamps a team's ticket to the playoffs, no one will care that the Steelers' 3-0 win against the dreadful and still winless Miami Dolphins last night was no Mozart.

An ugly win in the mud on a rainy November night means just as much as one on a sparkling summer day in early September.

"No one is going to put an asterisk on it, that's for sure," Steelers defensive end Aaron Smith said. "They're not going to say it came on a muddy field against a team that hasn't won. No one is going to care."

That was one of the two overriding emotions in the winning locker room late last night. This was the other: "This sure feels better than that game last week," cornerback Deshea Townsend said, grinning as he headed off into the early morning.

That would be the loss to the lowly New York Jets.

The loss that made this game so important to the Steelers.

Nothing less than control of the AFC North Division and maybe even a playoff spot was at stake.

Who says a 3-0 win can't be a Mozart?

"Give it back? I don't think so," Smith said. "In conditions like that, all you want to do is win. You're not going to look pretty doing it."



Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Outside linebacker James Harrison causes Dolphins' quarterback John Beck to fumble in the 4th quarter. (vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

The Steelers knew the deal when they headed out into the slop. They had to regroup after that hurtful loss to the Jets. They needed to do it for their mental well-being, sure. You lose one week to the one-win Jets and lose the next to the no-win Dolphins, it's pretty hard to be confident about your chances of surviving the rest of the season, let alone competing for the Super Bowl. But the Steelers also had to get it together for another, equally important reason. The Cleveland Browns.

You might say the Browns are coming. They've won five of their past six games -- the lone loss to the Steelers -- to make a race of it again in the AFC North. They also have a much easier remaining schedule. They would have been the team to beat down the stretch if the Steelers had lost to the Dolphins.

You better believe the Steelers heard those footsteps and, at the end of a long, dreary night, found a way to take care of some very critical business.

Send your thank-you cards to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Hines Ward. Three times on the winning drive, they combined for pass gains of 21, 6 and 11 yards. The footing was lousy for everyone else, but it seemed just fine for Ward, who finished with nine catches for 88 yards. Big Ben didn't have many problems, either. He finished 18 of 21 for 165 yards.

"In clutch time, Ben kept saying to me, 'Make a play,' " Ward said. "It felt good to contribute."

While you're digging out those thank-you cards, write out another to the Steelers' defense. "They won this game for us," Ward said. "No one can win if you shut 'em out."

Steelers kicker Jeff Reed made sure the game didn't go into overtime and maybe even end 0-0 when he found one of the few pieces of secure turf to boot a 24-yard field goal with 17 seconds left.

Just like that, the Steelers (8-3) still had their one-game lead over the Browns (7-4) plus the tiebreaking edge.



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
WIde receiver Cedrick Wilson catches a pass in front of Dolphins' cornerback Michael Lehan. (vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

Sure, you can argue the home team didn't deserve this one. Its mistakes -- not the relentless rain and rotten condition of the new sod that Steelers management put down Saturday night as a sign of surrender after the four WPIAL championship games and the Pitt-South Florida game earlier in the weekend -- was responsible for the game being scoreless for so long.

There was a Roethlisberger interception deep in Miami territory, to Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter no less. "You know Joey was loving that pick," said Steelers linebacker Larry Foote, still a close friend even though Porter has moved on. "His mouth was moving so fast you couldn't understand him. But you know he was talking trash. He was screaming."

There were five sacks of Roethlisberger, critical penalties on running back Najeh Davenport and tight end Heath Miller, and a missed 44-yard field goal by Reed, although that really could be blamed on the steady rain and the new grass.

The Steelers were fortunate that Reed found better footing at the other end of the big stadium at the very end.

Those sighs of relief you heard early this morning came from their locker room. "It's like coach [Mike] Tomlin always says, 'Style points don't matter,' " Miller said.

And those groans of disappointment?

They were coming from Cleveland.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.
First published on November 27, 2007 at 12:04 am

Steelers seem vulnerable

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Roethlisberger is sacked by Dolphins' outside linebacker Joey Porter in the second quarter. (vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

The Miami Dolphins, once a premier NFL franchise but now hobbled by injury and ineptitude, staggered into Heinz Field last night without a win and, as a 16-point underdog, little hope of finding one. But as might be expected against the suddenly very vulnerable Steelers, a tightly played football game broke out.

The hapless Dolphins, who have lost their leading rusher and starting quarterback to injury and their best receiver to a trade, battled the Steelers evenly for 59 minutes, 43 seconds only to lose, 3-0 last night, on a 24-yard field goal by Jeff Reed.

Weather conditions were horrible as the new sod put down on Heinz Field became a soggy mess through an all-day rain.

"Worse field I ever played on," Miami safety Cameron Worrell said.

But all the Dolphins were quick to point out the conditions favored neither team.

In view of this performance, there have to be grave doubts about the Steelers the rest of the way. The rosy prediction, here and elsewhere, about the team, look grossly unfounded today. It was one thing to lose eight days earlier to the one-win New York Jets. Those kinds of upsets, particularly on the road, are fairly standard in the NFL. It's quite another to play so poorly at home against a team that has been wrecked by injuries and without a win.

What was especially alarming was the five sacks the Steelers gave up to the Dolphins, a team that had only 12 in its first 10 games. The sacking of Ben Roethlisberger is becoming commonplace and does not bode well for the remainder of the season.

No one was having more fun for most of the game than former Steelers linebacker and defensive captain Joey Porter, who left after last season as a free agent when the Steelers showed no interest in re-signing him.



Matt Freed/Post-Gazette
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger brings down former teammate Joey Porter, now Dolphins' linebacker after he intercepted a pass in the first quarter. (vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

Porter was his typical self -- loud, demonstrative and effective. He had eight tackles and intercepted a Roethlisberger pass on the first possession of the game and returned it 14 yards. When the play was over, Porter strutted and pranced in front of the Steelers' bench while clutching the treasured football. It was an act that might have prompted a taunting penalty, but the officials did not call it.

"I was just trying to have some fun," Porter said.

Porter, always one of the most popular Steelers, mixed amicably with some of his former teammates before the game and exchanged hugs before the coin toss. He maintained coming back to Heinz Field was nothing special.

"It was what I expected. I knew I was coming into a hostile environment. I knew what it was going to be like. I told the guys not to do anything different."

Concerning competing against his former teammates, Porter said, "I saw them before the game. I'm on the other side now. It is what it is."

He was poised to record a sack in the second quarter but before he could, Roethlisberger was brought down from behind by defensive end Quentin Moses.

It was a credit to the Miami defense that it held off the Steelers much of the game. Blessed with superlative field position, mostly the result of Miami being unable to move the ball, the Steelers could not put together a scoring drive until the final minutes.

"Our defense has given us a chance to win every week," coach Cam Cameron said. "We've got to get our offense back to where it was earlier in the season."

After scoring 31 against Cleveland and 28 against New England, the Dolphins have scored only three touchdowns in their past four games.

The Dolphins' best scoring chance came early in the fourth quarter when they moved to the Steelers' 20. Jay Feely's field-goal attempt was blocked, but there was a delay-of-game penalty before the kick. Given the option to try again from where there appeared to be more solid ground but 5 yards farther back, Cameron opted not to.

"We were concerned about the distance and the field," he said. "Considering that and because we thought we had a good play, we decided to go for it."

Rookie quarterback John Beck was sacked and fumbled on the next play.

Feely was lobbying Cameron to kick a second time.

Asked about his chances, he said, "In those conditions, about 50-50, but I wanted to try."

It was a bitter defeat for the Dolphins (0-11), who lost for the fifth time by three points.

"I thought we could shock the world tonight," said Porter. "I really thought we could win."

They came about as close as possible to doing just that.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.
First published on November 27, 2007 at 1:35 am

Ward helps bail out 'Monday Night Mushball'

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Wide receiver Hines Ward makes a catch in the mud in the first half against the Dolphins last night at Heinz Field. (vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

So on a night when no offensive player on either team could make any kind of play, at least any kind of play that could impact a football game that resembled two teams trying to strangle each other in a bathtub, Hines Ward turned in the absolute best version of competence.

To no one's surprise.

On a modest yet decisive drive at the dreary end of a scoreless night, Ward caught three Ben Roethlisberger passes in succession for 38 yards that milked the only real opportunity for points from a balky offense on a near-impossible track.

"The defensive backs were worried about falling down, because one breakdown would win it," Ward said in the minutes after the Steelers slid to 8-3. "I told Willie [Parker], just protect the ball. At that point, for a receiver, it just becomes about route-running and getting some separation.

"That last drive, that's really all you could ask of any offense in these conditions."

The Steelers started the winning drive at the Miami 42, the fifth time they took possession inside Dolphin territory, this one with 4:13 remaining in the game.

On second-and-8 from the 40, Roethlisberger found Ward with perhaps his best separation of the night, floating in the Miami zone. Hines hydroplaned for 21 yards to the Dolphins' 19.

Parker gained 9 yards to the 10 on the first-down play, but Heath Miller got flagged for his second holding penalty of the game, dragging the offense back to the 29. Roethlisberger looked to Ward again, zipping one to him in the right flat for 6 yards to the 23, but it was still second-and-14 on a night when 14 yards equaled one mile.

"Hey Hines," Ward quoted Ben. "Just make a play for me. Make a play."

Ward curled free again in the fast-panicked Miami defense, leaking free for an 11-yard pass that put the ball at the muck of the 12, or its general vicinity.



Peter Diana / Post-Gazette
Wide receiver Hines Ward is slammed to the turf by the Dolphins' cornerback Michael Lehan. (vs. Dolphins 11/26/07)

Mike Tomlin walked up to Jeff Reed on the sideline, revealing a plan that involved, of all people, Willie Reid. Tomlin speaks often of "been there, done that guys," but he was thinking of Reid, the second-year wideout from Florida State, who's more of a "been here, done what?" guy.

"He told me they were going to try something with Willie to get the first down," Reed said, "but that if it didn't work, he was going to me."

On third-and-3 from the 12, Roethlisberger took a no-step drop and whirled to his right, hurling a fastball at Reid parallel to the line of scrimmage. Reid took it in the stomach and lanced 6 yards to the 6.

The Steelers would run three more plays, but there was only 1 yard left in the offense. On fourth-and-goal from the 6, Reed punched home a 24-yard field goal that saved the Steelers several metric tons of national embarrassment.

Don't look now, but the Steelers have suddenly gone 99 minutes and four seconds without scoring a touchdown, the last 60 of which are fresh in the consciousness of anyone who watched Monday Night Mushball against the winless Miami Dolphins.

That Reed somehow launched a winning field goal off a playing surface with the consistency of day-old sponge cake left on the side porch during a cloudburst is not terribly encouraging this morning. On a night perfect for fish, the Dolphins remained so perfectly awful that they still lost to a Steelers team that can't keep its quarterback upright and either can't or won't sustain a ground game.

In other words, nothing that ailed the Steelers in the hours after losing in overtime to the almost equally awful New York Jets a week ago has been cured, no matter how many caveats get offered up over Heinz Field's dubious playing surface.

Held without a touchdown by a Miami team that was fielding its 11th different starting defensive lineup in as many games, the Steelers are now 9-for-their-last-28 on third down, with Roethlisberger getting sacked 12 times in the past two weeks. He went to the floor five more times last night against a team that had only 12 sacks in 10 games at kickoff.

But for all of their evident offensive problems, they still have a wideout who happens to be the only Steelers wideout ever elected to four Pro Bowls, and you don't get that just for your sunny disposition. Although, yeah, he has got that, too.

Ward caught nine passes last night for 88 yards, helped Ben to an improbable 18 for 21, and effectively threw this team whatever kind of life preserver was necessary to avoid a first-place tie with the Cleveland Browns. And you thought that turf was ugly.

Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283.
First published on November 27, 2007 at 1:27 am