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Monday, September 25, 2000

Upon further review, would you rather have watched the Cleveland-Oakland start after all?

CBS pulled the plug on the Tennessee-Steelers game at 4:10 p.m. yesterday, just when the visiting Titans scored the go-ahead touchdown. It goes to show how little faith the network holds in this club: More than a minute and a half remained, but the television people figured they could punt the rest of this AFC Central broadcast, everybody knew the outcome. And you thought we were only pessimistically prescient in Pittsburgh.

So Jim Nantz came on your screen and announced the network was switching you to the second game of their doubleheader. Believe me, we're more than delighted to have more (and better) football to watch. Were it the Jets-Bucaneers trash-talk bowl starring Keyshawn Johnson, I might not gripe. But Cleveland-Oakland? Yech.

The next thing viewers on KDKA and WTRF in Wheeling saw, Don Criqui and Steve Tasker were warming up that fray by The Bay. CBS caught its error in just two minutes' time. After missing the Tennessee kickoff and the Steelers' offensive play on which Kent Graham was injured, it switched back to Three Rivers Stadium on Pittsburgh-area affiliates.

"We apologize," said network spokesperson Leslie Ann Wade. "It was a technical error."

So snarled up were the button-pushers in the network's New York headquarters, they switched at game's end to the Denver-Kansas City contest briefly before correcting themselves again.

I'm still waiting for Jets-Buccaneers, but we were never scheduled for that one.

While CBS was airing Titans-Steelers, it put on a pretty good broadcast. Like the Steelers, the show started off slow before catching its legs. Ian Eagle opened the telecast remarking as how this was "the Titans' last game in Three Rivers Stadium." That should've sounded funny, because the team has been Titans only two years. The team has been Tennessee only since 1997.

Eagle rebounded a few minutes later with this interesting perspective on Steelers Coach Bill Cowher: "It's funny how much can change in two years. He was thought of as the player's coach, the great motivator. ... Things have certainly taken a turn."

The star, for the second consecutive CBS week, was the network color commentator. Last time, it was onetime Steelers draftee Brent Jones criticizing the Steelers' clock management and lack of throws to Plaxico Burress. This time, it was former Pitt offensive tackle Mark May criticizing ... the lack of throws to Plaxico Burress.

It's one thing for an old tight end to rail about a passing attack, but an old tackle?

May noted that Burress could've performed better himself, once straying offside -- "He's got to watch the [snap], not the defender" -- and failing to grasp catchable passes. Yet he uttered no fewer than five times that the Steelers should throw high and let the 6-foot-6 Burress play jump ball with smaller defensive backs.

May made several statements yesterday, many insightful, some insipid.

May: "I don't understand why they're booing Neil O'Donnell." C'mon, you're a smart guy, Mark. Two interceptions to blow any Super Bowl XXX chance? Saying it wasn't about the bank, but then taking the money and running to Noo Yawk? Leading the Bungles past the Steelers in what was Defeat No. 4 amid this club's current 18-of-24 losing skid? For this fandom, any one of those is reason enough to boo.

May: "Why throw the ball low to [Burress]? Throw it high. Nobody else is going to catch it."

May: If Cowher were stock, you would've wanted to "dump him in '97."

May: Graham isn't a third- and fourth-read quarterback.

May: On his Pitt recruiting trip in 1977, he came through "the Pitt tunnels" and saw "Triangle Park."

May: "How do you leave a tight end that wide open," he asked, referring to Erron Kinney's winning touchdown catch, "even with a blitz?"

CBS was wrong in that late-game graphic and file footage: This club wasn't Houston, it was in its first year as Tennessee when the Steelers last beat Bud Adams' bunch, Sept. 28, 1997.

Say this for Eagle: He uttered before and after halftime, "Sometimes you have to keep the Big Picture in mind. And the Big Picture is ... "

Thankful for the free pub.

You can reach Chuck Finder at cfinder@post-gazette.com