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Monday, November 27, 2000

CINCINNATI--Leave it to Kordell Stewart to mess things up. He was dead as the Steelers' quarterback. Dead and buried. There was no way the team was going to bring him back next season. No way it could.

Then he went out and played like Terry Bradshaw yesterday.

Well, maybe he wasn't as good as Bradshaw, but he was plenty good enough to beat a lot of NFL teams on a lot of Sundays.

"I don't think there's any question this was Kordell's best game of the season," Bill Cowher said after the Steelers' 48-28 win against the Cincinnati Bengals.

It was frustrating to watch in a sense. Why can't Stewart play that well -- or even close to that well -- more often? It also was confusing. Is it all a big tease? Or is Stewart, finally, ready to step up and be a big-league quarterback?

It sure gives a little extra meaning to the final four games, doesn't it?

It might not be saying much, but Stewart is playing better than he has since 1997. He played well enough to beat Philadelphia two weeks ago only to see the defense collapse at the end. He played well enough to beat Jacksonville last week only to be victimized by one dropped pass after another.

"How can you judge him when we play like that? We didn't give him any help," Hines Ward said yesterday.

The receivers showed up against the Bengals. Cowher wisely didn't bother rotating high-priced No. 1 picks Troy Edwards and Plaxico Burress into the mix and stuck with his most dependable guys -- Ward, Courtney Hawkins and Bobby Shaw. Ward had four catches for 70 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown. Shaw had two catches for 66 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown. Mark Bruener caught an 11-yard touchdown pass.

You added the numbers correctly.

Stewart threw for three touchdowns for the first time since the Denver game late in the '97 season.

At least on this day, he did what good quarterbacks do. He made plays. He stepped up in the pocket to give the receivers time to get open. "We made a conscious effort all week to do that." He read the coverages superbly, "read everything all day," is the way Ward put it. He threw the ball deep. And he threw it accurately.

"You can just see his confidence growing every week," Shaw said.

Stewart's touchdown pass to Ward was a dart between cornerback Rodney Heath and safety Darryl Williams. The one to Shaw also was a great throw. "Now that was a great read by Kordell," Ward said. "He checked off me in the middle when he saw the safety going with me. He knew Bobby was one-on-one on the outside. That was just a great play on his part."

Stewart might have shown his most poise when he found tight end Matt Cushing in the right flat for a 5-yard gain in the first quarter. Defensive end Michael Bankston was clawing at his ankles at the time.

On those rare occasions when Stewart did get pressure -- his offensive line also played a terrific game -- he did what he has always been able to do as well as any quarterback. He tucked the ball and ran, six times for 31 yards. He set up a second-quarter field goal with an 11-yard scramble. Three plays before his touchdown pass to Shaw in the third quarter, he converted a third-and-10 with a 12-yard run.

This is the most telling statistic about Stewart's effectiveness: The Steelers converted nine of 15 third downs.

"The one thing I like is that we're growing offensively," Cowher said, sounding very much as if he believes this Stewart performance was more than a tease.

Ward was even more effusive.

"This offense can be explosive. When we're playing like that, we can move the ball and score points with the best of them."

Stewart said it was "a gratifying feeling" to play well after so much criticism has been aimed at him, the receivers and the offense. As for his job security, if he's worried about it, he didn't show it.

"I did the things I love to do in this game. Threw for some touchdowns. Ran some. Handed the ball off to Jerome [Bettis]. Didn't try to be the hero. Just tried to be a guy who is part of a victory."

Stewart was the biggest part of this win.

But that shouldn't change the bottom line for the Steelers, not after he has played so poorly for most of the past three seasons.

He has to do more to keep his job next season. He has to play like this again and again.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.