Correction/Clarification: (Published Dec. 12, 2000) Despite their loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, the Steelers still could qualify for the National Football League playoffs. An article in Sports on Monday stated incorrectly that the team had been eliminated.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Steelers began the season having problems throwing the fade, but they showed again yesterday they are familiar with that pattern as a team by the end of the year.
The New York Giants ended any further playoff talk by the Steelers when they trounced them, 30-10, at Giants Stadium.
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Hines Ward loses control of the ball as Giants cornerback Jason Sehorn defends yesterday. Sehorn was called for pass interference on the play. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) |
"It was our worst effort of the season," Coach Bill Cowher said.
There will be no Mario Lemieux-like resurrections to help this team.
The loss, their fourth in the past six games, left the Steelers 7-7 with two games to go, and they were eliminated from the playoffs for the third year in a row when the New York Jets lost to the Oakland Raiders, 31-7, last night.
The victory put the Giants (10-4) on the brink of a playoff berth.
Elimination, which came later this season than it did in the previous two, follows a three-year pattern in which the Steelers faded in the second half of the season. They have had a 5-3 record in each of the past three seasons. They finished 6-10 in 1998 and 7-9 in '99.
"It's almost the same old story for the last two years this time of year," safety Lee Flowers said. "Either we can fold right now and start feeling sorry for ourselves like we've been doing for the last couple years or we can go out fighting."
Yet, with their playoff chances still alive, they did not come out that way yesterday.
The Steelers played poorly on special teams, Kris Brown missed two field goals for the first time in a pro game, they could not run, they could not throw and they could not catch.
They stopped the Giants from running but they could not stop quarterback Kerry Collins. A former Penn State star, Collins completed 24 of 35 passes for 333 yards and touchdowns of 9 yards to Ike Hilliard and 2 yards to Amani Toomer in the second half.
"He is a big-time quarterback who can play in big-time games," Giants Coach Jim Fassel said. "He showed that today."
The Steelers did not score a touchdown until the game was gone. Then Bobby Shaw caught a 5-yard pass from Kordell Stewart with 1:04 left.
Stewart also threw an interception in the end zone to squander one of many scoring opportunities. He completed 20 of 34 passes for 224 yards, his first game with more than 200 yards in 14 months, but it was a most unimpressive one.
Shaw dropped two of his passes in scoring territory, and the offense also got little help on the run. Jerome Bettis ran 17 times for only 39 yards, and Stewart had the rest, 8 yards on three carries.
After winning the previous two games to give themselves one last run at the playoffs, the Steelers were blown out for only the second time this season. They lost to Baltimore, 16-0, in the opener back when they were still trying -- and failing -- to throw fade patterns in the end zone to rookie receiver Plaxico Burress.
"Every year it gets harder," said defensive end Kevin Henry, whose 15-yard facemask penalty away from the ball in the second quarter helped the Giants to their first touchdown.
"This ain't going to be no exception. You just have to know that one day this thing has to turn around, whether it's personnel, I don't care. We just have to get it turned around."
Henry turned around guard Glenn Parker so obviously when he grabbed his facemask that he was charged with a 15-yard penalty to start a New York drive in the second quarter. The Giants were leading 6-0 because, despite mistakes by the Steelers that gave them opportunities, they were only able to score on Brad Daluiso field goals of 38 and 40 yards.
But Henry's penalty, on an incomplete pass, kick-started New York's first touchdown drive. Collins completed five of his next six passes to put the Giants at the 3, and then Tiki Barber ran into the end zone standing up to give them a 13-0 lead.
Cowher was so incensed by Henry's penalty that he pulled him out of the game for two plays and chewed him out.
Two things then happened to the Steelers on their next two drives that doomed them for the rest of the game.
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Giants defensive tackle Keith Hamilton drags down Jerome Bettis, who was held to 39 yards. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) |
Thanks to a 41-yard pass interference penalty against Jason Sehorn on Hines Ward, the Steelers threatened to make it close at halftime. But, on second-and-3 at the 13, Bettis gained a yard and then lost 2. Brown came on to kick a 32-yard field goal for their first points and a halftime score of 13-3.
Stewart hit Shaw with a third-down pass that carried 43 yards on the first drive of the second half, and the Steelers were back in business, thinking about the 10-point halftime deficit they overcame against the Raiders the previous week.
But that drive bogged down and then Brown missed a 36-yard field goal wide to the right.
The Giants came right down and scored a touchdown when Collins hit Hilliard and safeties Ainsley Battles and Brent Alexander bounced off him at the 3 for a 20-3 lead. Suddenly the rout was on. Brown sent a 44-yard field-goal attempt way to the right on his next try to end any thoughts of a comeback.
Brown took blame for the loss.
"I can't describe how I feel right now because I feel like I just let everybody in this room down," he said, refusing to blame the subpar grass conditions for his misses. "I'm not going to make any excuses, I just flat-out missed the kicks."
Daluiso made all three of his tries, including a 21-yarder in the fourth quarter for a 23-3 Giants lead. That became 30-3 when Collins hit Toomer for his short touchdown pass with 2:34 left as the game got away from the Steelers.
The one thing they did right yesterday was stop the Giants running game of Barber (12 for 22) and Ron Dayne (11 for 20). But Barber had six receptions for 75 yards and Toomer had 136 yards receiving.
The Steelers now want to avoid the kind of total collapse they experienced in the previous two seasons when they lost seven of eight in '98 and their final five in '99.
"I still think this team has a lot of potential," cornerback Dewayne Washington said. "I'm thinking of next year. I don't think we'll get into the playoffs at 9-7, but if we can end 9-7 it would be a positive from the last two years.
"The way we finished down the stretch the last four, five games of the last two years wasn't good."
Linebacker Levon Kirkland, whose rookie season in '92 marked the beginning of a six-year playoff run, could only hope that the losing will not continue.
"It's tough, but you just have to keep playing. It's not going to always be like this. It's not going to always rain on us."
'Worst effort of the season' eliminates Steelers from the playoffs again 
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