Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Monday, September 08, 2008
Willie Parker celebrates after scoring his first touchdown.
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Doubting Willie Parker remains a cultural entertainment fixture no matter what happens, like "Saving Private Ryan," "Desperately Seeking Susan," and "Waking Ned Devine." You can always access Doubting Willie Parker, and usually you don't even have to download it; you just throw the door open and you'll hear the moaning mixed into the standard Steelers' cacophony.
For reasons clear only to the noisemakers, it seems to make no difference that Willie Everette Parker owns the franchise's single-game rushing record (223 yards), the record for longest run from scrimmage in the history of the Super Bowl (75 yards), two Pro Bowl appointments, or an NFL-best eight 100-yard games only last fall.
They doubted he could make the club in 2004, doubted he could supplant Jerome Bettis as the main horse in 2005, doubted he could rehabilitate himself to 100 percent of the back who was leading the league in rushing when he broke his leg in December, doubted he could hold off first-round pick Rashard Mendenhall for the lion's share of the workload, and most of all and always and forever, doubted he could be an effective weapon deep in the red zone.
"I told my teammates I was willing to do whatever it takes to be the goal-line back," Parker said in the minutes after the Steelers swamped Houston in the Heinz Field opener. "That's what I tried to show today."
What Parker showed was another soaring 100-plus cadenza on opening day, 138 yards on 25 carries this time, much like his 109 last year at Cleveland, much like his 115 the year before against Miami, much like his 161 the year before that against Tennessee. More pointedly, he scored on runs of 7, 13 and 4 yards, which was not only the first three-touchdown game of his career, but left him with more touchdowns in yesterday's first three quarters than he had in all of 2007.
Matt Freed/Post-GazetteWillie Parker works around Mario Williams and DeMeco Ryans in the first quarter Sunday afternoon.
Head coaches will insist beyond all credulity that it doesn't matter who scores the touchdown so long as they get scored, but when Willie Parker's on pace for 48 of 'em, the Steelers have to look awfully dangerous.
"I'm ecstatic for him," said Hines Ward, who scored the other two touchdowns as the offense went 5 for 5 inside the 20. "I'm ecstatic for the offensive line, too. When Willie's getting to the end zone, that helps everything. I mean we're still a running, play-action team. We've been that all 11 years I've been here except for one when we were slingin' it around in the Tommy Gun."
Yeah, Slinging Tommy Gun didn't exactly break the box office around here as viable long-term entertainment, but very few times in recent history has a Steelers team looked so defiant in terms of its running game as it did at the start of yesterday's second half.
The Steelers had gone to the intermission locker room up, 21-3, with the Texans showing no pulse whatsoever until Mario Williams stripped Ben Roethlisberger of the ball and DeMeco Ryans ran 59 yards with it to set up a Kris Brown field goal, puncturing what had been a 21-0 Steelers lead. In fact, despite a 32-yard run on what would be his final carry, the longest Parker ran yesterday was chasing Ryans.
"I was almost done for the rest of the game after chasing DeMeco Ryans," Parker joked.
But he wasn't even close to done.
On their first possession after halftime, the Steelers rolled 71 yards on 10 plays, nine of them on the ground. Parker got the call on the first four, spinning for 12, 9, 8 and 3 yards.
"Our defense is always telling me I got no moves," Parker said. "The defense told me they don't like backs who are spinning all the time, so I decided I'd put that in my repertoire."
Peter Diana/Post-Gazette
Willie Parker celebrates after scoring his second touchdown.
He didn't need much of a spin on the 4-yard touchdown run that made it 28-3, especially when all he had to do was cut upfield from the spot where left tackle Marvel Smith had just buried Houston corner Fred Bennett. Roethlisberger went 1 for 1 on that drive, a little misdirection swing pass to Carey Davis that got 10 yards to the Texans' 6. Otherwise it was a hammering metronome that went, again, Parker for 12, Parker for 9, Parker for 8, Parker for 3, Mendenhall for 6, Mendenhall for 9, Parker for 3, Parker for 2, Parker for 4 and the score.
Willie said he could remember similar offensive statements, but not this early.
"Not this early in the season, probably not," Parker said. "We've probably never developed the momentum in the running game like that until the middle of the season. I'm just happy to touch the end zone three times; it's something I always wanted to do. Being a goal-line back is just part of being a running back."
And somehow, part of being this particular brilliant, gifted running back is hearing the same sorry soundtrack from the public orchestra of the underwhelmed.
"Willie Parker looked like we expected him to look," said coach Mike Tomlin. "He's a very good back and a great competitor. I'm glad he's a Steeler."
Some in the larger audience might want to look elsewhere for entertainment. Doubting Willie Parker is getting awfully tiresome.
Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1283. More articles by this author
First published on September 8, 2008 at 12:00 am
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