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Monday, October 08, 2001

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Good thing for the new red sign sitting atop the Carnegie Science Center. It means the Steelers' offense isn't the most ghastly thing spotted along the North Shore.

	Stewart dives in for a touchdown in the second quarter during the first regular season game at Heinz Field against the Cincinnati Bengals. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

Three games have passed, and the Steelers have managed just two offensive touchdowns. At that sluggish pace, they are likely to score their seventh touchdown -- the amount already produced this season by the team they nearly shut out yesterday, the Cincinnati Bengals -- about the time Heinz Field celebrates a one-year anniversary.

To be sure, though, it was almost a breakout day for the Steelers in their 16-7 victory against the Bengals. Four of their first five drives took them inside the Cincinnati 10-yard line, thanks in large part to a running game that produced 274 yards and helped Jerome Bettis become the 14th player in NFL history to reach 10,000 career yards.

Alas, only one of those drives ended in a touchdown -- an 8-yard draw by Kordell Stewart on a designed play that had been in the works since Tuesday, which is when offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey starts devising his game strategy.

The others ended with a failed Bettis attempt on fourth-and-goal at the Cincinnati 1, a fumbled snap at the Cincinnati 8 that was recovered by former Steelers defensive tackle Oliver Gibson and a 26-yard Kris Brown field goal.

All of which makes Stewart's touchdown loom that much larger for the Steelers, who are back in the AFC Central Division hunt despite an offense that produced 412 yards but was limited to only one touchdown for the second week in a row.

"I think we made this game a lot closer than I think it should have been," Coach Bill Cowher said.

It might have different if Stewart did not badly underthrow Plaxico Burress on a fade route from the Cincinnati 5, a pass almost intercepted by cornerback Rodney Heath. Or if his pass intended for slot receiver Bobby Shaw from the Cincinnati 8 was not deflected at the last minute by, uh, teammate Hines Ward. Or even if he didn't fumble one of those slippery commemorative balls at the Cincinnati 8.

As it turns out, Stewart ended up making a difference for the Steelers. But he did it with his feet, which, as Cowher curiously noted, is "what he does best."

"Kordell made a lot of good plays on foot," said Ward.

On a day when Bettis rushed for 153 yards and Amos Zereoue added 60 more on eight carries, Stewart added to the Bengals' misery with 61 yards on nine carries.

That was by design.

"We had more things in there to try to get him going," Cowher said.

So was the 8-yard touchdown run that culminated a series in which Stewart also produced runs of 8, 9 and 11 yards.

"We wanted to get him going," Mularkey said. "But we also saw something in there."

What Mularkey saw was the Bengals' safeties, Cory Hall and Chris Carter, playing high in certain situations in the red zone. What that means is Hall and Carter play deep in the end zone, leaving the middle of the field open.

Mularkey detected this during the week when he watched film of the Bengals' defense. To be prepared, he had Stewart run a two-step quarterback draw several times in practice last week. Then, when he saw the Bengals use the defense when the Steelers got inside the Cincinnati 8 on two earlier possessions, Mularkey knew he might catch the Bengals in just such a defense again.

And he did.

"He knows we're counting people," Mularkey said. "If we have enough [people] to block, the play's on. It's him making a play. You like to think everyody's going to be perfect on the thing, but a lot of times it's him making a play. That was the case right there."

Mularkey ran the play earlier in the first quarter, when he saw the Bengals using the defense. Then, though, he ran it out of a different formation with different personnel.

Now, faced with third-and-4 at the Bengals' 8, Mularkey used four wide receivers with Zereoue as the lone back -- a formation from which the Steelers typically try to throw the ball. When Stewart saw the safeties playing deep, the play was on. He took a two-step drop, started up the middle, then veered to his left. As he got near the goal line, he covered the slippery ball with both hands -- "The first time I've ever done that," Stewart said -- and plowed into the end zone.

"I was trying to make some plays, take advantage of what we have," Stewart said. "Teams are going to have to be alert for it."

Then he added, "I like to get involved. I don't like to be a pretty boy."

It wasn't much. An 8-yard score on a play designed to maximize Stewart's abilities. But, on a day when the offense was scracthing for points, the touchdown stood out like the yellow seats at Heinz Field.

"When he scrambles and takes off, it really puts them in a predicament," said left tackle Wayne Gandy. "It slows up the pass rush. They just can't run in there because he might take off. We're running plays that look like a pass and he takes off. It was real effective, especially down there in the goal line."