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Monday, November 05, 2001

There was a mild difference of opinion between two Steelers concerning the reason for the team's loss to the Baltimore Ravens.

Safety Lee Flowers stood amongst a thick corps of media members in the middle of the locker room and pronounced the team's proud defense as the villain in this 13-10 defeat at Heinz Field.

"If you want to blame someone, blame it on the defense," Flowers proclaimed. "We should have played better."

Across the expansive locker room, kicker Kris Brown was pinned against his locker by an even larger contingent of reporters.

Brown was equally emphatic.

"I'm the reason we lost the game," he said. "I didn't do my job."

Nothing personal toward Flowers, but he was wrong -- dead wrong.

The defense might have wilted late in the game and allowed a Ravens drive that produced what turned out to be a winning field goal. But the role of the defense in this defeat yesterday was insignificant compared to Brown's.

It would not have taken even a normal performance from Brown to have won this game. He could have had a bad day and still contributed to a victory. But he ended up having a game he will never likely duplicate in the NFL.

Normally a kicker of admirable accuracy, Brown missed four of five field-goal attempts. Only one of them could be considered long. The other three were eminently makeable.

Going into the game, Brown had made 85 percent of his field-goal attempts. If he had made only 40 percent of his kicks, the game would have gone to overtime. If he had made 60 percent of his kicks -- well below his average -- the Steelers would have won.

Instead, he made 20 percent. Still, the Steelers held onto first place in the AFC Central Division after the Cleveland Browns lost in overtime, 27-21, to the Chicago Bears yesterday.

After making a 38-yard field goal in the first quarter, Brown missed from 41, 33, 48 and 35 yards. The second miss was tipped and short. The other three were wide right.

It was such an awful showing, it brought to mind the performance in the World Series of Arizona relief pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim. If Brown had been on a similar stage, he would be as infamous today as Kim.

There was no warning. If Brown hadn't been "Mr. Automatic," he was the next best thing.

Worst of all was that he missed from 35 yards with eight seconds remaining after the Steelers had moved 45 yards in 95 seconds to set up what they assumed would be a tying field goal.

And why not? Brown had an 87 percent success rate when kicking from between 30 and 39 yards.

The numbers screamed for success. Brown didn't respond. The man who had never missed more than two field goals in one game -- and that only once -- had missed his fourth.

There aren't many more mentally difficult jobs in team sports than that of a field-goal kicker. Sure, there's a snapper and a holder involved, but it's a solitary profession. It's a lonely job where mistakes of such magnitude can end a career.

The Steelers seemed aware of the consequences of such a performance and rallied around Brown.

"I have not lost any confidence in him," Coach Bill Cowher said. "He had one of those days. If anybody is strong-minded enough to come out of this it's Kris Brown."

Flowers said, "I promise you this: If it came down to a 48-yard field goal next week, Coach Cowher and the rest of the team have confidence that Kris can come in and kick it."

Brown was a stand-up guy. He offered no excuses, only the promise of hard work in the future.

"Obviously, I'm upset," he said. "But I'm going to overcome this. This is not going to end my confidence and certainly not going to end me being able to go out there and make kicks.

"I'm going to go home with my wife, have dinner, think about it, be upset about it. Then I'm going to see what I did wrong and come out [to practice] and work as hard as I can. That's all I can possibly do."

As Cowher suggested, Brown has the mental makeup to overcome this. But no one will know that for certain until he comes back. What does he do if he's standing over a 40-yard game-winner against the Browns?

His mental toughness is not in question. Just his ability to successfully continue his NFL career.

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