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Monday, January 21, 2002

Poor Edwin Mulitalo. He's the Baltimore Ravens' left guard. A nice man, by all accounts. Kept his mouth shut last week as the Lee Flowers and Jamie Sharpers talked their trash. And he still ended up providing inspiration for the Steelers in their 27-10, turn-out-the-lights-on-the-Ravens'-championship-reign annihilation.

"I told Kimo [von Oelhoffen] I saw on Mulitalo's Web site that he called him a decent run-stopper but not much of a pass-rusher," Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis said. "Kimo took it to heart. From what I could see, he ran through Mulitalo the whole game. He was in the backfield an awful lot."

Mulitalo doesn't have a Web site.

"And your point is?" Lewis asked, grinning.

Hey, everything is fair in love, war and the playoffs.

Lewis swears he found a Sharper Web site for real. He claims Sharper, a Ravens linebacker, was asked if the Steelers' defense is as good as Baltimore's.

"No, not by far," Sharper replied.

"Yeah, I called that to the guys' attention," Lewis said.

It's amazing where pros can find a little added motivation.

Ravens running back Terry Allen provided plenty last week by predicting the Ravens would run against the Steelers after rushing for more than 200 yards in wins against the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings the previous two weeks. "We're not Miami and we're not Minnesota," Bill Cowher said.

Before the game, Ravens defensive tackle Sam Adams provided a lot more by walking across the 50 in warm-ups and promising to do unmentionable things to the Steelers. Picture Matthew Barnaby in a football uniform. Anyway, Joey Porter took offense. He got in Adams' face and the two had to be separated.

"They try to bully people," Porter said. "I wanted to let him know right from the start that we weren't going to back down from anybody. There are no punks in here."

Do you think the Steelers' defense was ready to play?

On the game's first play, Allen ran for 3 yards. On second down, Jason Brookins ran for 1. On third down, Porter got up after being sent flying by a Moe Williams cut block and clobbered quarterback Elvis Grbac as he threw. Grbac's wobbly pass was intercepted by Chad Scott.

What the Steelers got from that play was worth much more than their subsequent 3-0 lead.

"Grbac already had an interception problem," Flowers said. "To throw one that early was a bad way to start. It let him know right off the bat it was going to be a long day."

And it was.

On the Ravens' next possession, Mike Jones sacked Grbac on a third-and-1 play. That helped set up an Amos Zereoue touchdown.

Later in the first quarter, with the Ravens at the Steelers' 11, threatening to cut into the 10-0 deficit, Kendrell Bell smacked Grbac as he threw, setting up Brent Alexander for an easy interception in the end zone.

"You could see the frustration in their eyes," Flowers said. "They couldn't figure out to who to pick up on the blitz. You could hear them arguing, 'Who's got this guy? Who's got that guy?'"

And the Steelers didn't even blitz that much.

"We didn't have to," Lewis said. "We felt like the guys up front" -- Aaron Smith, Casey Hampton and the agitated von Oelhoffen -- "could dominate the game. That's exactly what happened."

The domination was thorough by the entire defense. The Ravens didn't get a first down for the first 27 minutes and finished with just seven, one shy of the NFL postseason record for fewest in a game. They were 1 for 12 on third-down conversions. They ran for only 22 yards -- you have to go back to Super Bowl IX against the Minnesota Vikings to find the only time in Steelers postseason history that they allowed fewer -- and finished with 150 total yards. Grbac threw three interceptions and was sacked three times.

"Are there any more questions as to who the No. 1 defense in the NFL is?" von Oelhoffen asked.

Put that on your Web site, Jamie Sharper!

Not even Lewis, who is tough to please, could argue with Flowers' assessment that "this was, by far, our most dominant performance."

"It doesn't get any better than that in a playoff game," Lewis said, heading off into the night, presumably to hunker down with his computer.

And you thought coaching was complicated?

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