Kordell Stewart stayed out of the name-calling that took place last week, preferring instead to maintain his low-key style and not get caught up in the verbal hair-pull between his teammates and the Baltimore Ravens.
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Steelers' quarterback Kordell Stewart completes a third down pass in Sunday's first half under pressure from Baltimore Ravens linebacker Peter Boulware. Stewart passed for 333 yards, ran for 55 yards and threw two touchdown passes as the Steelers defeated Baltimore at PSINet Stadium 26-21. (Peter Diana, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
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But, after the way he performed in the 26-21 victory Sunday night against the Ravens, a game that clinched the Steelers' first AFC Central division title since 1997, people everywhere are beginning to call Stewart a lot of names.
Principally, maybe the National Football League's Most Valuable Player.
That might sound far-fetched, perhaps even blasphemous, on a team that rode Jerome Bettis for the first 11 games of the regular season. But Stewart's stock is on the rise after he beat two of the best teams in the American Football Conference -- the Ravens and New York Jets -- without Bettis.
"He's feeding off his suucess each week and building that confidence level," offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey said yesterday, less than 24 hours after Stewart put on a dominating display in Baltimore that extended the Steelers' winning streak to an AFC-best six games. "He's playing extremely well. I hope that's recognized, what he's gone through, not just his performance on the field but off the field. He's set some standards that I hope will be recognized throughout the league."
Stewart is winning over believers almost as fast as the Steelers (11-2) are beginning to pile up yards with their passing game. And, after his performance against the Ravens, when he completed 20 of 31 passes for 333 yards and two touchdowns, the converts are ready to pile on the wagon and ride it all the way to New Orleans.
"If he's not the Pro Bowl quarterback out of the AFC, I don't know who is," said Ravens tight end Shannon Sharpe. "He was in complete control of the game. He threw the ball flawlessly."
"The guy has stopped throwing interceptions and stopped making mistakes," said Ravens defensive end Rob Burnett. "He gives you big matchup problems on third-and-less-than-5 because you don't know if he's going to run it or throw it."
It's the throwing that has been most impressive. Stewart made a great toss on a 25-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress, throwing a jump ball to his 6-51/2 receiver just as he was about to nailed by blitzing safety Rod Woodson. Later, he completed a 38-yard pass to Burress down the left sideline, deftly putting the ball over the head of cornerback Chris McAlister. And, on the 90-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Shaw that sealed the victory, Stewart threw such a perfect strike that Shaw said, "I almost didn't have to put my hands up for it. If I had Velcro on my chest, it probably would've stuck there."
Stewart is getting so proficient that Mularkey actually is worried that the offense is spending too much time on the field.
The Steelers not only lead the NFL in average time of possession (34:11) -- they held the ball for a season-high 41 minutes, 5 seconds against the Ravens -- but they've been on the field for 149 more plays than the Steelers' defense.
"That's almost two to three more games," Mularkey said. "We've played a lot of football on offense."
Curiously, the Steelers have had their three highest time-of-possession games in the past three weeks -- two of them without Bettis. In the past three games, they've converted 28 of 48 third-down chances (58.3 percent). Most of those are attributable to Stewart's arm ....and feet.
"We want to play a lot more plays than anyone else," Mularkey said. " But you have to understand it's tough to keep those guys at the level they're playing at right now. I saw Ravens defenders asking to be substituted, and our guys aren't blinking. I don't know if it's adrenaline or what. They're on a roll right now."
Nobody more than Stewart.
There appears to be a growing sentiment nationally that Stewart, not Bettis, who was leading the league in rushing before he had to sit out the past two games, is the team's top candidate to win the NFL MVP Award, which is voted on by a panel of pro football writers.
Stewart's case has been enhanced after beating the Jets and Ravens in successive weeks. Also, it has not hurt that his best two games of the season -- against the Ravens and the Oct. 29 victory against the Tennessee Titans, when he threw for 232 yards and three touchdowns -- were each on prime-time national broadcasts.
"You can't believe what that means," said Len Pasquarelli, who covers the NFL for ESPN.com and is one of the voters for the MVP award. "That's huge. For a guy to play that big in prime time has a bearing on how people perceive him.
"I always figured at some point a team would force him to win a game. I was curious to see if he could do it. Now he's done it against one very good team [Ravens] and one pretty good team [Jets]."
"I would vote for Kurt Warner because I think the [St. Louis] Rams are the best team and he's the best quarterback on the best team," said Pete Prisco of CBS Sportsline.com, another past voter. "But you could make a case for Kordell after what he's done with Bettis out. I just think in the last month he's the guy that 's carried them. They're only going to go as far as he carries them."
Of course, the debate over which player is more valuable to the team -- Stewart or Bettis -- could also cause each player to lose votes for the national award.
"That's the only thing I think will hurt him," said Dan Pompei, who covers the NFL for The Sporting News. "Bettis was probably the MVP of that team for so many games. And people might look at his numbers and see they're not real flashy. That might not be fair, though, because they don't reflect how valuable he is to the team."
Stewart has climbed to sixth in the AFC in passer rating (83.6), though he has thrown the fewest touchdowns (8) of any quarterback who has started 13 games. But he has also thrown an NFL-low five interceptions and his third-down passer rating of 98.1 is second only to Warner (103.5) in the NFL.
Also, passer rating does not measure the other intangibles that cause problems for opposing defenses, such as Stewart's running ability. He leads all NFL quarterbacks with 477 yards rushing.
"If they finish this out," said John McClain, who covers the NFL for the Houston Chronicle, "he might be the league's MVP."
Spell it M-V-P: Stewart's performance captures minds of voters for top honor 
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