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Tuesday, October 03, 2000

Wide receiver Troy Edwards lost his starting job over an injury.

Defensive end Chris Sullivan lost his starting job over an injury.

What makes Kent Graham so doggone special that he gets to keep his starting position despite his bad hip, 0-3 record and all?

"You'd have to ask Coach," Graham said with a grin Monday, the day after his backup guided the Steelers to a 24-13 thumping of generous host Jacksonville and got the news from Bill Cowher that it was back to backup for him.

Just goes to show, Kordell Stewart cannot even win for winning.

In a Steelers constellation that left him star-crossed basically since Jan. 11, 1998, when he threw three interceptions in an AFC championship game loss, Stewart helps to steer his parched club to a road victory Sunday -- then gets shown his way back to the sideline.

Sure, he expected it. It's the life of a No. 2 quarterback. Yet he doesn't deserve it. Hasn't deserved this treatment.

You pay a young quarterback NFL starter's money, you start him. You stick with him. Even if he tries to fight fans, media and his own front office like Ryan Leaf in San Diego. Even if he runs around too much and incompletes too many passes like Steve McNair for a Tennessee time and Stewart for too long. Same went for Drew Bledsoe in New England and Peyton Manning in Indianapolis. Same goes for Charlie Batch in Detroit, Shaun King in Tampa Bay, Cade McNown in Chicago, Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia. Some succeed, some fail, but you stay the course with the kid quarterback -- and Stewart has started but 44 NFL games.

Go ahead and maintain that the Steelers gave Stewart two full seasons to restore himself to his 1997 level. True, but the Steelers didn't give him a full opportunity in '98 and '99. What they awarded him was one new offensive coordinator and then another, a patchwork offensive line with three new starters each season, a raw receiving corps first minus his most trustworthy receiver, Yancey Thigpen, and then minus his second-most trustworthy receiver, Charles Johnson. Finally, when he was pelted with boos and beer and blows to his confidence, perhaps the most indispensable quarterback component, the $8 million bonus baby was yanked and returned to the Slash duty he so desperately came to revile.

Funny, but since that AFC championship game, the club has gone 12-15 with him as its starter and 1-7 without. So he was the problem?

This is not to say that Stewart will ever be worthy of a Hall of Fame bust, which he once claimed as a career ambition.

This is not to say that Stewart will ever arise from his status as an $8 million bust.

Yet it was proven Sunday that, surrounded by a competent offense and a fair astrological shake, he can lead these Steelers to victory.

He can pass efficiently.

He can run.

He can win.

He deserved another chance to start. He might receive that opportunity if Graham's bursa sac remains swollen and painful enough to preclude Graham from playing next weekend at the New York Jets. But, for his psyche's sake, Stewart should have been anointed the starting quarterback moments after the road romp, instead of Cowher anointing the ailing Graham. Stewart should have been allowed the mere chance -- albeit a couple of Jets series or quarters -- to try to maintain this little roll he began in Jacksonville, this little sense of self he rediscovered in a place where the Steelers never won before in this six-year series.

More than ending the club's four-game losing streak, its eight-game AFC Central losing streak, its streak of losing 18 of its past 24 games, the artist formerly known as Slash brought the Steelers back to place they hadn't been in so long:

Kordell Stewart, circa 1997.

Receiver Courtney Hawkins hadn't seen such a Stewart performance since "the year we went to the AFC championship game," he said Monday.

"He was making plays outside the pocket. Ten of 16 passing the ball. Made some good decisions. Basically, was a field general. That's the Kordell that we're all used to. It was the same type of feeling on offense, that we basically could overcome any situation."

It seemed Sunday that Stewart finally learned his legs were of no use to his team while planted in the pocket. He finally learned that McNair runs and makes big plays and completes the passes when necessary, and so could he. He finally learned a measure of success, so what if it took a slight shove from four Jacksonville penalties for first downs and a tipped pass from tight end Corey Geason to Hines Ward and a stalwart line performance against a squidgy Jaguars defense?

The coaches put him in the shotgun, put him in a position to use his legs and arm, and Stewart rewarded them. He completed four of five attempts for 44 yards on first downs that so squelched his talents heretofore, nailing his feet into a pocket. He completed three of four attempts for 48 yards on third-and-long situations -- and would have added another dozen yards plus a fourth third-down conversion had not Jacksonville pried away a pass to Plaxico Burress for the quarterback's lone interception of the day. He completed eight of his final 11 attempts for 122 yards on any down.

Why, this was what the old Kordell looked like.

"Oh, no question," Jerome Bettis said. "We had everything going. We were able to get him running. He was a triple threat. You know, that's what you want from a guy with his talents.

"He was prepared for this opportunity. And he took advantage of it. That's a beautiful thing."

The ugliness of it all is, the Steelers should take advantage and hand him the ball until he drops it again.

Ward remains the starter even after Edwards returned from injury. Aaron Smith remains the starter even after Sullivan returned from injury. What would it hurt to give Stewart one more chance, just when he's going good?

You can reach Chuck Finder at cfinder@post-gazette.com