It's hunting season, and the Steelers' defense has that deer-in-the-headlights look again.
Running backs have driven through them like the Fort Pitt Tunnel the past two weeks, shredding what had been the fifth-best defense against the run in the league.
And on Sunday, they must try to stop the best running team in the NFL, the Oakland Raiders.
Coach Bill Cowher yesterday tried to explain what happened to his proud run defense against Jacksonville and Cincinnati by using words such as "technique, scheme and over-compensation."
Whatever it is, it's been a dramatic difference compared to how they played in the first 10 games, and it's following a pattern they set last season.
Through 10 games, the Steelers had allowed an average of just 96.4 yards rushing a game. Over the past two, they've yielded an average of 224.5 yards a game.
They permitted just one rushing touchdown in their first 10 games and six in the past two. Five of the seven longest runs against them this season have occurred in the past two games
Perhaps it's just one of those things and the Steelers will learn from it and revert to form over the final one-fourth of the season.
"Two weeks doesn't make you a bad defense," linebacker Levon Kirkland said. "We were playing our best for 10 weeks, and you can't look at it and say, well all of a sudden we're terrible. It's not like that. It's just probably some technique things you have to get corrected. Teams are doing a better job as far as scheming.
"You have to understand what teams are doing, you have to be more poised, you have to understand that big runs, big plays may happen but you just have to keep playing for the 60 minutes and see what the outcome is after that."
It's possible Jacksonville's Fred Taylor, who ran for a franchise-record 234 yards against them, and Cincinnati's Corey Dillon, who ran for 128 yards, just had good days. But the Steelers stopped both backs cold in their first meetings of the season and other good backs, such as Tennessee's Eddie George and Baltimore's Jamal Lewis, couldn't crack 100.
Maybe they're just worn out, which is what happened last season. Through the first 10 games of 1999, the Steelers held the opposition to 99.9 yards rushing a game. Over the final six games, opposing teams averaged 160 yards rushing a game.
"For us, you dominate, you dominate and you dominate," Kirkland said, "and someone gets a big run and you get flustered, and that's the one thing we can't do. We have to understand that's bound to happen. You're going to get gassed some time. It's no fault of anybody, but they do a good job too."
Like Brandon Bennett, Dillon's backup. He ripped off a 37-yard touchdown run in the first quarter against the Steelers without a hand touching him.
"We were in a defense that we really never played before," Kirkland said. "That was a play that just got us; basically, a good call on their part. Sometimes, it happens, no matter what you do. It's almost like black jack, the odds just get you."
Unlike the game against Jacksonville, where the Steelers' run defense collapsed in the third quarter, they held firmer in the second half at Cincinnati. The Bengals had 128 yards on 16 carries in the first half, an 8-yard average; in the second, they ran 25 times for just 81 yards, a 3.2-yard average.
"Watching on film," Kirkland said, "it wasn't as bad as we probably thought leaving that game. In the second half, we played a lot better."
Kirkland acknowledged that Jacksonville took advantage of the Steelers' "aggressive" play on defense and that Cincinnati may have as well. Aggressive, in this sense, might also be described as too active, or not playing with more discipline, not staying in assigned spots so a cutback runner -- such as Taylor -- took advantage.
"There was never a lack of effort," Cowher said. "If anything, at times, that may have gotten us in trouble."
But Kirkland promised the Steelers won't abandon the type of play they used through the first 10 games of the season.
"I still think you have to play aggressively and let it hang out and make teams beat you. Don't go thinking, "Well, they cut back a lot.' You can't play like that. You just have to play forward and, if they cut back, react to it.
"Sometimes, you have to make a play, sometimes you have to overcome coaches, sometimes you have to trust what you see, too. You're the one out there, you're playing on ground level; sometimes you see a lot better. After that, if you do something wrong, just get it corrected, like Earl. Don't worry about it. Go out there and play ball."
Fellow inside linebacker Earl Holmes was pulled from the game Sunday for one play while Coach Bill Cowher dressed him down along the sideline.
Asked how Holmes reacted to his meeting, Cowher said, "Very well."
They won't be able to recover against an easy touch this week. The Raiders average a league-high 147.3 yards a game. Raiders Tyrone Wheatley (686 yards, 4.4 per carry), Napoleon Kaufman (455, 5.4) and quarterback Rich Gannon (404, 5.9) are among the top 15 rushers in the league.
"The stuff that happened the last couple weeks is very correctable," Kirkland said. "It's not like the guys are not talented enough to do it or guys don't want to do it."
And it's not like they haven't done it. Just not in the past two games.
Steelers try to regroup on defense 
E-mail this story 
