Home >  Sports >  Steelers

Tuesday, November 28, 2000

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Steelers vs. Oakland Raiders, 1 p.m. Sunday, Three Rivers Stadium. TV, radio: KDKA, WDVE-FM (102.5), WBGG-AM (970).

C Dermontti Dawson plans to practice tomorrow, but he will do it more sensibly than he did last season. Dawson missed the past three games with a hamstring injury. He missed six games last season, tried to return Dec. 12 and played just three snaps before his hamstring popped again, ending his season. "Last year, I pushed it," he said. "I'll go out in pads on Wednesday and see how it feels. It feels pretty good right now. But you never know until you do something full blast." Dawson played the first nine games but was replaced by Roger Duffy in the past three after the hamstring injury he has had since training camp became aggravated.

TE Mark Bruener caught his second touchdown in four games Sunday when he tiptoed down the sideline behind blocks by Bobby Shaw and Hines Ward. That's not especially noteworthy except for this -- Bruener had not caught a touchdown pass in the 29 games before his recent outburst, two of which he did not play. It has prompted Jerome "The Bus" Bettis to call him Mark "Sweet Feet" Bruener. Said Bruener: "He introduced me on ESPN as 'Sweet Feet,' and my mom called me, 'Did you hear what Jerome said? He called you Sweet Feet?' I started laughing." Bruener has lobbied to be a bigger part of the passing game and, while he only has 12 catches for 127 yards, his two touchdown receptions tie Shaw for second on the team behind Ward's four. He had no touchdowns among his 18 receptions last season and two among his 19 in 1998. He scored a personal high of six in 1997.

Jacksonville's Fred Taylor became the fifth back to rush for more than 200 yards against the Steelers when he did it Nov. 19 and not the third, as listed in the team's record book. The Steelers' record book lists only two other backs who eclipsed 200 against them -- Buffalo's O.J. Simpson with 227 in 1975 and the Giants' Joe Morris with 202 in 1985. But the NFL record book lists two more. Philadelphia's Steve Van Buren ran for 205 on Nov. 27, 1949, and John David Crow of the St. Louis Cardinals ran for 203 on Dec. 18, 1960. All are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame except Morris and, of course, Taylor, whose 234 yards are the most rushing against the Steelers.

The Steelers have gotten away from their zone blitz this season because it has become more familiar to other teams. Back in its heyday, the Steelers would blitz inside linebackers and safeties and drop guys such as ends Donald Evans or even NT Joel Steed into short pass coverage to confuse teams. Over the years, however, more teams started using the zone blitz, especially when coaches who used it with the Steelers moved to other teams -- Dom Capers to Carolina, then Jacksonville; Marvin Lewis to Baltimore; Dick LeBeau to Cincinnati and Jim Haslett to New Orleans. As teams used it more, offenses studied it more and found ways to combat it. "At one time, we probably brought it a whole lot," linebacker Levon Kirkland said. "Nobody really knew how to block it or things like that. Now, we have to be a little careful, you have to pick and choose your spots to do it in. People know how to pick it up now. When it first came out, nobody had a clue how to pick it up and you only had a week or so to prepare for it." It also accounts, in part, for why neither Kirkland nor Earl Holmes, the team's two inside linebackers, have a sack.