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Monday, September 20, 1999 By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
BALTIMORE -- It is about 150 miles from the practice field in Frostburg, Md., to the football stadium that sits next to the Inner Harbor. But, to rookie kicker Kris Brown, it seems light years away.
The last time he was in Maryland, Brown put on such a woeful performance in a training-camp scrimmage against the Washington Redskins that when his coach was asked to comment on the kicking game, Bill Cowher responded, "What kicking game?"
Yesterday, that same coach handed Brown a game ball after his 36-yard field goal with no time remaining gave the Steelers a 23-20 victory against the Baltimore Ravens in PSINet Stadium.
"Six weeks ago he was hitting our linemen in the back of the head with balls at Frostburg," Cowher said. "I was really happy for Kris Brown."
Brown's winning kick -- his first since his junior year in high school -- came after the Steelers drove 32 yards in four plays following Will Blackwell's 37-yard kickoff return.
But it also came just one week after Cowher was worried that Brown's kicks were getting too low again after a blocked extra-point in Cleveland.
The only thing low about Brown's game-winner yesterday was how it made the Ravens feel. They are 0-2 under their new coach, Brian Billick, and are 1-6 against the Steelers since the franchise moved from Cleveland to Baltimore.
"It's an indescribable feeling," Brown said. "To go out and win a game, to win a game for the team, is the most important thing. For my teammates to pick me up and congratulate me, that means the world to me."
But the kick was significant for another reason. It signified how far Brown has come since his training-camp debut at Frostburg, where he missed three field goals, all from 43 yards.
Brown has been near-flawless since that fiasco. He missed his first attempt in the preseason, converted the next five and finished 7 of 10. Now, he hasn't missed in six attempts during the regular season. He had field goals of 32, 28 and 36 yards against the Ravens to go with the three he had last week against the Browns.
Brown did have a 30-yarder hit the upright in Cleveland, but the attempt was negated by a holding penalty against the Browns. However, he did have an extra-point attempt blocked because he kicked the ball too low.
"A lot of it is mental, more than anything," Brown said. "In Cleveland, I hit a couple low balls [because] I had trouble with the footing. I've really been working this week on making sure I get the ball up. I was able to do that. We had a practice indoors at Pitt on Thursday that helped me out. I could hit the ball off the turf and get my confidence up."
Brown set an NCAA record for extra points at Nebraska, but he never had the occasion to attempt a game-winning field goal. The last time he did, Brown was a junior at Carroll High School in Southlake, Texas, and he was trying to keep alive the school's winning streak, which had reached 60-plus games.
Brown converted that one, and he connected again yesterday, six years later, in the same state where his professional career got off on the, uh, wrong foot.
"As a kicker you got to look forward to those opportunities, you can't shy away from them," Brown said. "All I was thinking was, 'Go for the ball, treat it like an extra point.' I tried not to do anything differently. Fortunately, I went out there pretty relaxed."
Maybe it was the calming advice he received from his pal, punter Josh Miller, before he trotted out on the field.
"I told him, remember, we're going to Don Pablo's tomorrow," Miller said.
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