Post by TheShadow on Dec 6, 2003 15:22:36 GMT -5
www.sfgate.com
4-8 Pittsburgh comes up short
By Nancy G a y
Pittsburgh -- Bill Cowher surveys the stunning quantity of high-profile debris littering the NFL landscape these days and takes solace in the fact his wheezing 4-8 Steelers team isn't alone in its misery.
Who's headed for the postseason? More shockingly, who isn't? Both participants in Super Bowl XXXVII, for starters. Cowher's underachieving Pittsburgh squad -- the defending AFC North champs -- are, for all practical purposes, done for after falling three games behind division co- leaders Cincinnati and Baltimore (7-5) with a last-minute 24-20 home loss last Sunday to the surging Bengals.
The 3-9 Raiders, the AFC West champions the past three years, come into Pittsburgh with a similar sad tale to tell. The 2003 season, if nothing else, has been a testament to NFL parity. And to the importance of not letting up until the final gun sounds.
"I am probably not the one that should be passing judgment on other teams, '' the Steelers' coach said this week, looking ahead to Sunday's 10 a.m. battle of the also-rans at Heinz Field. "It has been that type of year.
"I look at our last seven games, and five of those seven games we have been winning or tied midway through the third quarter. We just have not been able to finish games.''
And how. The lesson was pounded home -- an unfriendly place where the Steelers have dropped four of six games this season -- last week at Heinz Field when quarterback Tommy Maddox appeared to have secured a victory with his 16-yard scoring pass to Hines Ward with 1:05 remaining.
That is, until Cincinnati's Jon Kitna, a likely MVP contender, began chucking the ball downfield, through gaping holes in the Pittsburgh secondary, before hitting tight end Matt Schobel with the game winning 18-yard touchdown strike with 13 seconds remaining.
Four plays, 52 yards surrendered in 52 devastating seconds. "In some crazy kind of way,'' running back Jerome Bettis said after the game, "it's a reflection of the season we're having. We're that close, but we're that far away.
"We do some good things, but we take two steps back and that was the case today.''
Said Maddox, "One minute, you're on top of the world thinking you just put together a drive that could win the game and 45 seconds later you feel as bad as we did. It's kind of typical of the way the season has gone.
"We've played well enough to win games. We just haven't won them in the fourth quarter and I think that's the biggest thing.''
Cowher sees that as the common denominator linking preseason AFC favorites Oakland and Pittsburgh, and why both have sustained such astonishing falls from grace.
"You look at the Raiders, they were playing Denver last week and the score was 14-8 through most of that game,'' Cowher said. "They were one play away from taking the lead. Denver scored a late touchdown with about two minutes to go. But (the Raiders) were right there.''
There are tangible explanations. The Raiders, for example, have sent nine players to injured reserve this season and have seen 11 starters go down to injuries at various times. In Pittsburgh, injuries along their offensive line help explain why the Steelers have gotten almost nothing out of their once mighty rushing attack, with neither Bettis nor Amos Zereoue managing a 100- yard rushing game this season.
But the Steelers also have displayed an inability to win those cozy home AFC North games that once seemed so automatic.
"We were the defending champions the last two years,'' said Ward, speaking of the now respectable Bengals, the new class of the AFC North, "and in order for them to be champion, they had to come through Pittsburgh.
"They did what they had to do. I can't put a finger on a reason why, but nothing is going right for us out here.''
Briefly: Raiders coach Bill Callahan said Friday that S Derrick Gibson, who missed the Denver game after sustaining a neck injury in the Nov. 23 loss at Kansas City, will play Sunday. That leaves the status of defensive back Nnamdi Asomugha in question. The first-round pick started at SS for Gibson vs. the Broncos but coaches haven't decided whether he'll continue in that No. 1 role Sunday vs. the Steelers. "He will be in sub packages as a corner in nickel and dime (formations),'' Callahan said. ... No Raider has been the target of the racially motivated hate mail that has been sent to African American players in the NFL, Callahan said Friday.
Sunday's game
Who: Raiders vs. Steelers
When: 10 a.m.
Where: Heinz Field, Pittsburgh
TV: Channel: 5 Channel: 13 Channel: 46
Radio: KTCT (1050 AM), KHTK (1140 AM), KSAN (107.7 FM); Spanish broadcast on KAZA (1290 AM)
4-8 Pittsburgh comes up short
By Nancy G a y
Pittsburgh -- Bill Cowher surveys the stunning quantity of high-profile debris littering the NFL landscape these days and takes solace in the fact his wheezing 4-8 Steelers team isn't alone in its misery.
Who's headed for the postseason? More shockingly, who isn't? Both participants in Super Bowl XXXVII, for starters. Cowher's underachieving Pittsburgh squad -- the defending AFC North champs -- are, for all practical purposes, done for after falling three games behind division co- leaders Cincinnati and Baltimore (7-5) with a last-minute 24-20 home loss last Sunday to the surging Bengals.
The 3-9 Raiders, the AFC West champions the past three years, come into Pittsburgh with a similar sad tale to tell. The 2003 season, if nothing else, has been a testament to NFL parity. And to the importance of not letting up until the final gun sounds.
"I am probably not the one that should be passing judgment on other teams, '' the Steelers' coach said this week, looking ahead to Sunday's 10 a.m. battle of the also-rans at Heinz Field. "It has been that type of year.
"I look at our last seven games, and five of those seven games we have been winning or tied midway through the third quarter. We just have not been able to finish games.''
And how. The lesson was pounded home -- an unfriendly place where the Steelers have dropped four of six games this season -- last week at Heinz Field when quarterback Tommy Maddox appeared to have secured a victory with his 16-yard scoring pass to Hines Ward with 1:05 remaining.
That is, until Cincinnati's Jon Kitna, a likely MVP contender, began chucking the ball downfield, through gaping holes in the Pittsburgh secondary, before hitting tight end Matt Schobel with the game winning 18-yard touchdown strike with 13 seconds remaining.
Four plays, 52 yards surrendered in 52 devastating seconds. "In some crazy kind of way,'' running back Jerome Bettis said after the game, "it's a reflection of the season we're having. We're that close, but we're that far away.
"We do some good things, but we take two steps back and that was the case today.''
Said Maddox, "One minute, you're on top of the world thinking you just put together a drive that could win the game and 45 seconds later you feel as bad as we did. It's kind of typical of the way the season has gone.
"We've played well enough to win games. We just haven't won them in the fourth quarter and I think that's the biggest thing.''
Cowher sees that as the common denominator linking preseason AFC favorites Oakland and Pittsburgh, and why both have sustained such astonishing falls from grace.
"You look at the Raiders, they were playing Denver last week and the score was 14-8 through most of that game,'' Cowher said. "They were one play away from taking the lead. Denver scored a late touchdown with about two minutes to go. But (the Raiders) were right there.''
There are tangible explanations. The Raiders, for example, have sent nine players to injured reserve this season and have seen 11 starters go down to injuries at various times. In Pittsburgh, injuries along their offensive line help explain why the Steelers have gotten almost nothing out of their once mighty rushing attack, with neither Bettis nor Amos Zereoue managing a 100- yard rushing game this season.
But the Steelers also have displayed an inability to win those cozy home AFC North games that once seemed so automatic.
"We were the defending champions the last two years,'' said Ward, speaking of the now respectable Bengals, the new class of the AFC North, "and in order for them to be champion, they had to come through Pittsburgh.
"They did what they had to do. I can't put a finger on a reason why, but nothing is going right for us out here.''
Briefly: Raiders coach Bill Callahan said Friday that S Derrick Gibson, who missed the Denver game after sustaining a neck injury in the Nov. 23 loss at Kansas City, will play Sunday. That leaves the status of defensive back Nnamdi Asomugha in question. The first-round pick started at SS for Gibson vs. the Broncos but coaches haven't decided whether he'll continue in that No. 1 role Sunday vs. the Steelers. "He will be in sub packages as a corner in nickel and dime (formations),'' Callahan said. ... No Raider has been the target of the racially motivated hate mail that has been sent to African American players in the NFL, Callahan said Friday.
Sunday's game
Who: Raiders vs. Steelers
When: 10 a.m.
Where: Heinz Field, Pittsburgh
TV: Channel: 5 Channel: 13 Channel: 46
Radio: KTCT (1050 AM), KHTK (1140 AM), KSAN (107.7 FM); Spanish broadcast on KAZA (1290 AM)