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Monday, September 04, 2000

Welcome to Cincinnati Bengals football. Welcome to the hopelessness of a franchise without direction. Welcome to another season of repeated defeat.

To the surprise of almost no one, the Steelers were losers in their season opener to the Baltimore Ravens yesterday, 16-0, at Three Rivers Stadium. No one should have been shocked about the Steelers' inability to score. Any preview of this game -- matching the Steelers' famously impotent attack against the Ravens' well-known defensive excellence -- might have expected as much.

But this isn't about a failure to score points. In fact, nine-year veteran Kent Graham, in his first start game with the Steelers, actually gave the team something it has lacked for most of the past two seasons -- an ability to throw passes down the field with a reasonable chance of completion.

And it's not about a team with no chance of winning future games. The defense acquitted itself reasonably well, allowing only one touchdown, and that on a coverage breakdown on an 53-yard pass.

This is about an organization that seems to have no grip on what it's doing.

The Steelers, widely acknowledged as having no chance to make the playoffs this season, decided to cut young players in favor of veterans with little upside when reducing their roster. But when the time came to play the first game, those veterans were on the inactive roster.

If they're not going to play, why keep them? Why not keep the younger players and hope they'll get better?

Case in point: Kris Farris, a third-round draft choice in 1999 and the winner of the Outland Trophy as the best college lineman, was cut in August, while veterans such as Larry Tharpe, who was out of football last season, and Tom Myslinski, who was injured almost all of training camp, made the team. But neither Tharpe nor Myslinski dressed yesterday.

Danny Farmer, a highly regarded fourth-round draft choice this season, was cut in favor of Courtney Hawkins, a veteran who played for the Steelers last year but who attracted no interest from other teams as a free agent and was still available July 12. Like Tharpe and Myslinski, Hawkins, who the Steelers signed only because of an injury to Will Blackwell, was inactive yesterday.

Coach Bill Cowher, lamenting the pressure put on his defensive unit by the offense's inability to move the ball, said: "Defensively, we were out there a long time. Kendrick Clancy went down early in the game. On a day like today, that put us down to four defensive linemen."

Maybe Cowher should have considered the heat and humidity when he deactivated Jeremy Staat, leaving the Steelers with five defensive linemen to cover three positions. By comparison, he dressed three tight ends. The Steelers might have been better served with Staat, who can play all three defensive line positions, in uniform instead of an extra tight end.

The Steelers have been searching for a quarterback since Neil O'Donnell left the team after the 1995 season. But during that five-year span they have taken only one quarterback in the first five rounds in the draft. If the draft is the lifeblood of the team, why haven't the Steelers used it to develop their most important position?

The one quarterback they did draft was Tee Martin this year. Of the 14 fifth-round picks the Steelers have had since 1990, the only one to make a significant contribution to the team is Lee Flowers.

The Steelers are not only looking at another losing season, they're looking at a future without a viable alternative a quarterback. What kind of planning is that?

As teams have been doing for five years, the Ravens stacked the line to stop the run, and the Steelers, despite using their past two first-round draft choices to select wide receivers, still have no answer.

Jerome Bettis, looking more and more like he's not the answer, carried nine times for 8 yards.

"Obviously, it was a very disappointing performance," Cowher said. "I just thought offensively that we couldn't make a play. We could not convert a third down."

Graham, who completed 17 of 38 passes for 199 yards, said, "I have to get better. I know that. I thought we did some good things. But we're not near the point where we need to be."

The Steelers are off next week and then play the second-year Cleveland Browns -- a team, sad to say, considerably more on their level than the Ravens.

Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.