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Monday, September 10, 2001

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- It's only one game. Keep telling yourself that. It doesn't count as three or four losses. It only counts as one.

Now you know what the Steelers were saying yesterday after their loss yesterday.

"Thank God we still have 15 games left," Jon Witman said.

Is he a masochist or what?

He has the courage to ask for 15 more games after the Steelers were inexcusable no-shows at Alltel Stadium?

But, hey, that's missing Witman's point. What he meant was that the next 15 games will be better.

They can't possibly be worse.

The Jacksonville Jaguars -- a mediocre team at best -- didn't just beat the Steelers offensively, defensively, on special teams and, of course, on the scoreboard, 21-3. They beat them up. This was a licking, so thorough and so nasty that Jaguars Coach Tom Coughlin gloated -- "There was no question who won the physical battle" -- while the Steelers mumbled about the football gods picking on them.

"This place is jinxed, man," Lee Flowers said. "It seems like every time we come down here, we lose three or four guys."

The Steelers would have been happy to go home with three or four injuries. It's almost easier to list their healthy players than their hurt ones.

It started when Kimo von Oelhoffen went down and left on the second play with, if the whispers of his teammates are to be believed, the dreaded high ankle sprain. Kendrell Bell also went out early with an ankle injury. Later, Will Blackwell was lost with a serious knee injury and Plaxico Burress a separated shoulder.

Even Josh Miller was hurt. It's a really rotten day when your punter goes down. Miller was rocked after Witman missed a block in the second quarter, allowing Donovin Darius to roar in and get a piece of the ball. Miller was done for the day with a thigh contusion.

Darius probably offended his teammates by going back on the field to check on Miller as Steelers medical people attended to him. The Jaguars clearly were interested in not just winning, but putting a hurt on the Steelers. Tight end Damon Jones had a chance to score a second-quarter touchdown by diving for the end zone but chose instead to run over Brent Alexander.

"I just wanted to punish that DB," Jones said. "He was a little dizzy. I'm happy with that."

That's the way you're supposed to play the game. It's exactly the way the Steelers didn't play.

The offense was bad again, failing to score a touchdown. Kordell Stewart was under pressure most of the day. In the fourth quarter, defensive end Paul Spicer blew through Wayne Gandy and Alan Faneca to get the Jaguars' third sack. And although Mike Mularkey's new offense played to rave reviews during the exhibition season, it looked a lot like Kevin Gilbride's and Ray Sherman's once the Steelers fell behind. Would you believe a 3-yard pass to Mark Bruener on third-and-5, an 8-yard pass to Bobby Shaw on third-and-10 and a 1-yard pass to Bruener on third-and-2?

The defense also was bad. Dewayne Washington, who did a marvelous job on wide receiver Jimmy Smith last season at Alltel Stadium, was embarrassed as Smith had eight catches for 126 yards, including an easy 34-yard touchdown. But don't be too hard on Washington and the secondary. The pass rush got no pressure on quarterback Mark Brunell.

But the Jaguars' physical dominance was most distressing. They played with passion, played to win. The Steelers played to collect their checks, played to get home safely.

"We came down here knowing it was going to be a war, "but we're weren't able to match that intensity," Jerome Bettis said.

It really is inexcusable, especially for a team that wanted to get off quickly after an 0-3 start last year sabotaged its season.

"It's disappointing, but there's no reason it should burst our bubble," Flowers said. "I've been around this league a long time. I've seen good teams and bad teams. This is a good team."

Flowers believes that, believes every word. But he also believes this:

"You hate to start out like this and have to say, 'It's a long season. We'll get it together.' We've said that a lot in the past around here, and the next thing we knew, the season was over and we were nowhere. Shame on us if we do it again."

Shame on them, indeed.

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