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Monday, January 28, 2002

At last check yesterday, long after his worst professional nightmare had come true, big Wayne Gandy was in full uniform in a far corner of the Steelers' locker room. Who knows? He still might be sitting there.

It's not as if Gandy didn't have the energy to take off his pads one final time after the Steelers' 24-17 collapse against the New England Patriots at Heinz Field.

He didn't have the heart.

"I'm like, 'What am I supposed to do now?'" Gandy said, his words barely audible.

"It's a very empty feeling. To get to this point, then go out like this? It's a very, very lonely feeling."

The Steelers should be used to it.

Yes, they had a marvelous season. No one expected them to go 13-3, have the best record in the AFC and thump the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens in their first playoff game. No one expected such stunning comebacks by Bill Cowher and Kordell Stewart after three consecutive lousy seasons.

But all of that doesn't change the fact that, in the biggest game of the year, with everything at stake, with a frenzied home crowd behind them and an inferior opponent against them, they failed miserably.

That's three times in four AFC title games at home in the past eight seasons.

You could hear the gagging all the way to New Orleans, where the Patriots are headed today to play the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

"I'm just sick, man ... sick ... sick to death," Lee Flowers said.

It's easy to blame the nameless, faceless special teams, as just about everyone in that deathly quiet locker room did. "They suck," was the indelicate way Flowers put it.

Yes, they do.

Their blunders led to 14 Patriots points. The Steelers thought they had the Patriots pinned deep after a 64-yard punt late in the first quarter, but wingman Troy Edwards made the stupid mistake of running out of bounds as he covered the kick. That 5-yard penalty forced Josh Miller to punt again. The Patriots' Troy Brown returned that one 55 yards for a touchdown, stepping out of a weak tackle try by John Fiala along the way.

In the third quarter, the Patriots blocked Kris Brown's 34-yard field-goal attempt and returned it for a touchdown and a 21-3 lead. It's always something with that unit, isn't it? If Brown doesn't miss, Miller, the holder, fumbles the snap. It's been like that all year. But this fiasco was the worst.

Special teams coach Jay Hayes could end up taking the fall, but Cowher is to blame. One, he's the boss. Two, his background is in special teams. And three, he has always made them his baby.

The Steelers' special teams stunk all year, yet Cowher never could get the problems solved.

Firing poor Hayes won't change that or ease the sting of this loss.

The Steelers' offense couldn't overcome the 14 points. It was just as bad as the special teams. Hines Ward dropped a pass on their third play. He never does that. Stewart fumbled two snaps, one when pulling guard Rich Tylski knocked the ball out of his hands. He hasn't done that since training camp. In the fourth quarter, after the Steelers closed to 24-17, Stewart threw two interceptions on badly overthrown balls. You couldn't help but think Same Old Kordell. He hasn't thrown such critical interceptions since the '97 AFC championship game against the Denver Broncos.

Worst of all, the Steelers couldn't run the ball. The NFL's No. 1 rushing team managed just 58 yards -- 24 if you throw out a 34-yard scramble by Stewart. Jerome Bettis, playing for the first time in eight weeks, had nine carries for 8 yards.

"There was nowhere to run," Bettis said. "They beat us at our own game. They out-toughed us. They just beat us up up front."

The Steelers talked bravely of working harder, coming back next season and taking that final step to the Super Bowl. But they know the hard truth. "These opportunities just don't come along every year," Flowers said.

That loss to the Broncos started them on their three-year funk. Those Stewart interceptions started him down a road that nearly ruined him as a quarterback.

"1997 was 1997," Stewart said. "In no way, shape or form am I going to say anything negative about anything. We had a great season."

Maybe if Stewart keeps telling himself that, he'll really believe it by the time he sits down Sunday night to watch the Patriots and Rams.

Or maybe not.

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