The Oakland Raiders chew quarterbacks up, spit them out, point to the heavens and dance.
Nothing personal.
It's just how they do business.
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Kevin Henry takes down Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon in the second half Sunday. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette) | |
"Our approach as a defense is to get to the quarterback as quickly as possible," defensive tackle Darrell Russell said. "I wouldn't say we're out there trying to knock quarterbacks out of the game, but that's happened."
On eight occasions this season, to be precise.
That's how often the Raiders had knocked opposing quarterbacks out of the game or out of that team's next game.
Which is precisely why they were applauding the gritty performance of Kordell Stewart after the Steelers edged the Raiders, 21-20, yesterday at Three Rivers Stadium.
They thought they had him rubbed out early.
With 5:30 left in the first quarter, Russell and defensive end Regan Upshaw combined for a crushing hit on Stewart -- Russell up high and Upshaw down low. Both with great force.
"I got hurt myself," Upshaw said. "It knocked the wind out of me."
Stewart was fine, bouncing back to his feet.
On the next play, though, he completed a pass to Hines Ward and took another low shot, this one from defensive end Lance Johnston. Stewart finished the drive, then left with a sprained right knee and gave way to Kent Graham.
"This turf was cold and hard, and we hit him a couple of times really good," Russell said. "We saw him go out, but we weren't like, 'Oooh, we got another quarterback.' We were just like, 'All right, let's concentrate on this other guy.' "
The Raiders concentrated well. They teed off on Graham, who moved as if he were carved from marble, sacking him three times and returning an interception for a touchdown.
"No offense to Graham," Oakland linebacker Greg Biekert said, "but he just can't make the plays Kordell can."
Stewart returned to start the second half, a development the Raiders insisted was no shock.
"He's a great athlete, a tough guy," Coach Jon Gruden said. "We expected he'd find a way to come back in the ballgame."
"He went down a few times, he was hurt ... I thought he was out of the game," Upshaw said. "But he came back. My hat's off to him."
"Hey, it's his job. This is football," Russell said. "If you're a quarterback and you don't think you're ever going to get hit, then why are you out there? That was his attitude, I think. He just went out there and played football."
He did it well.
On the Steelers' first possession of the second half, Stewart burst out of the backfield after a brief fumble and ran for 17 yards, capping the drive with a touchdown pass to Mark Bruener.
"Right off the bat," Biekert said, "you could see he wasn't exactly thinking about the knee."
And early in the fourth quarter, in the game's defining moment, Stewart tiptoed around left end for a remarkable 17-yard touchdown run.
Along the way, he left three defenders grasping at air and several Raiders gasping at his talents.
"That was really big," Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon said. "That's a very athletic guy."
"Kordell Stewart's going to make you miss," Gruden said. "He can make you look bad sometimes in the open field. He's a great runner. He made some unbelievable plays, even when we felt we had him penned in."
Stewart wound up with 33 yards on three runs, and he completed 14 of 23 passes for 136 yards.
And, for what it's worth, he was able to earn the grudging admiration of what just might be the NFL's nastiest defense.
Defensive tackle Grady Jackson recorded six tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.
He was asked what more the Raiders could have done to stop Stewart, and he shook his head several times before replying.
"We did what we usually do," Jackson said. "But Kordell stepped up. You've got to give it to him. He got it done."
Raiders tip their black hats to Stewart 
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