On a night when sax master Clarence Clemons and local rocker Donnie Iris spent time on the playing surface at Heinz Field, the sweetest music heard in the Monday night showcase between the Steelers and Tennessee Titans was the sound of an official’s whistle.
Never mind the one-handed interception by Steelers safety Brent Alexander, the quarterback of the defense, that set up what turned out to be the winning touchdown.
Or even the play by quarterback Kordell Stewart, when he rolled right and, with linebacker Randall Godfrey pulling him to the ground, threw a 3-yard touchdown to Hines Ward.
Why, even the pitch from holder Josh Miller to kicker Kris Brown on the fake 47-yard field goal attempt was nothing compared to what happened earlier in the second quarter. Turns out, it was just another maneuver by Coach Bill Cowher to use the national spotlight to show his coaching peers what he has up his sleeve.
In the end, long before Plaxico Burress made one of those highlight-reel catches in which he outdueled Pro Bowl cornerback Samari Rolle to deftly tip the ball to himself, the Steelers had their 34-7 victory against the Titans shaped by a play in which Amos Zereoue took a screen pass from Stewart, turned upfield ... and gained nothing.
A game that included a direct snap to wide receiver Hines Ward and a foiled reverse pass from Ward to Stewart had, as its most significant moment, a play that would never find its way on to a coaches instructional film.
“That was big,” said wide receiver Bobby Shaw, the man behind the penalty. “It put us up, gave us a cushion.”
It occurred in the second quarter, with the score tied, 7-7, and it wasn’t so much what happened on the play as what happened after the play that turned the game around.
What happened on the play is that Zereoue, on third-and-9 at the Titans’ 35, was stopped by four Tennessee defenders before he could get past the line of scrimmage. Cowher said he was considering a 53-yard field goal attempt on fourth down. But, after what transpired, he didn’t have to make a decision.
Titans safety Perry Phenix, who has bounced between National Football League teams like a pingpong ball, was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Ward at least 15 yards away from the play. The infraction gave the Steelers a first down at the Titans’ 20.
If you thought the giant 35-foot ketchup bottles turned the scoreboard red, you should have seen the look on the face of Titans Coach Jeff Fisher.
Iris’ mouth didn’t open as wide when he sang the national anthem.
Fisher was so angry with Phenix, a backup safety who was playing for injured Blaine Bishop, that he likely wished he had never re-signed Phenix 12 days ago after trading him in the preseason.
“I knew their coaching staff was ticked,” Ward said. “He was frustrated. He made a terrible play.”
Four plays later, after Stewart converted a third-and-12 with a 19-yard pass to Shaw, the Steelers made the score 14-7 on Stewart’s 3-yard scoring pass to Ward. Stewart made the play despite Godfrey grabbing him by the leg like a cowboy trying to rope a steer.
“It was a stupid move on his part,” Ward said. “It wasn’t very smart. He put his team in not a good position.”
Actually, Phenix picked on the wrong person to vent his frustration. He was knocked to the ground on the play by Shaw, who was blocking downfield. When Phenix got up, the first player he saw was Ward, who, admittedly, was doing some trash-talking.
“In the heat of battle, you got to learn to compose yourself,” Ward said. “He shot me one in the mouth. He didn’t the know the official was behind him.”
From there, the Steelers never looked back. They kept making big plays, kept coming up with prime-time performances, but nothing that could compare to Phenix’s ill-timed gaffe.
Sure, the Steelers made the score 17-7 after Brown, a former high-school quarterback and baseball pitcher, showed off his 4.5 seconds 40-yard dash speed on a fake field-goal attempt with a 6-yard run to the Titans’ 23.
And, yeah, Jerome Bettis, who had his consecutive string of 100-yard rushing performances stopped at four, scored the second of his two touchdowns with a 7-yard run in the third quarter to pad the Steelers’ lead to 24-7.
But, when the Titans look back for reasons the Steelers won their fifth in a row to protect their AFC Central lead, a foiled third-down screen pass to Zereoue will ultimately be the decisive moment.
“It kept the drive alive,” said tight end Mark Bruener. “They went down the field, rather effectively, against us the series before and the momentum went in their favor. They took the momentum we gained. That allowed us to get it back.”
Play of the Game: Phenix's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty 
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