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Monday, December 03, 2001

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

So much for the notion if Randy Moss doesn't get started early, he doesn't get started at all.

"It's frustrating because we did such a good job for three quarters," safety Lee Flowers said. "This would have been something special for us to talk about this week -- we held Randy Moss, Cris Carter and Daunte Culpepper to less yards than what they're used to."

	Randy Moss makes a one-handed catch behind Chad Scott to set up a Vikings' touchdown. (Gabor Degre, Post-Gazette)

Well, at least for three quarters.

If Moss plays only when he wants to play, as he asserted two weeks ago after a 10-catch performance against the New York Giants, this Pro Bowl receiver for the Minnesota Vikings certainly still wanted to play after the Steelers took an 18-point lead into the fourth quarter yesterday.

Moss finished with eight catches for 144 yards and one touchdown, but six of the catches came in the final quarter when the game was seemingly out of reach for the Vikings. Included was a 62-yard pass down the right sideline that set up his 12-yard touchdown catch from backup quarterback Todd Bouman with 3:22 remaining.

Both catches came against cornerback Chad Scott, who has been picked on more than a schoolyard sissy the past two weeks.

"We blew an opportunity today to really shut him down," said safety Brent Alexander, who had two interceptions.

The Vikings finished with 385 yards offense -- 340 passing -- but until the fourth quarter the Steelers' No. 1 defense had held them to 176 yards offense.

In fact, until the final 6:44, the Vikings had managed just 226 yards offense against the Steelers.

But the Vikings hit a couple of long passes -- an 80-yard catch-and-run by running back Michael Bennett on a screen and Moss' 62-yard catch over Scott -- to make the Steelers feel fortunate to come away with a 21-16 victory at Heinz Field.

"We gave up more yards with eight minutes left than we did the whole game," Flowers said. "We have to play better. If we want to go where we want to go, we can't do that."

One week after surrendering 334 passing yards to Steve McNair, the Steelers did a good job containing Moss, a Pro Bowler since entering the league in 1998, and Carter for three quarters. They had combined for just five catches -- three by Carter -- for 65 yards, and the Vikings had been held without a touchdown for the seventh consecutive quarter.

Even in the fourth, when Bouman tried to rally the Vikings after replacing the injured Culpepper, Alexander snuffed a drive that reached the Steelers' 37 with an interception, his second of the game and seventh with the Steelers.

"When you're up, 21-3, there's only one place the ball is going to go and that's in the air," defensive coordinator Tim Lewis said. "Generally, when you have receivers like No. 84 [Moss] and 80 [Carter], that's where it's going to go."

It did, but not before Bouman threw a screen in the left flat that Bennett, a rookie from Wisconsin, took 80 yards down the sideline for a touchdown with 6:44 remaining.

Then Moss went to work.

After the Vikings held the Steelers on three running plays, Moss took off down right sideline and easily got past Scott for a 62-yard reception that pushed the ball to the Steelers' 12.

A week earlier, Scott got beat on a deep pass to Tennessee's Kevin Dyson for a 68-yard touchdown, but he atoned later in the game with a 45-yard interception return for touchdown that sealed the Steelers' 34-24 victory against the Titans.

This time, though, there was atonement.

Instead, Scott got beat three plays later on a 12-yard touchdown catch by Moss in the right corner of the end zone. However, Lewis said he will have to look at the film to see if Flowers, who came over late, should have helped out sooner on the play.

Scott dressed quickly after the game and was not available for comment.

"Chad's a very aggressive cornerback," cornerback Dewayne Washington said. "If he sees something from the quarterback, and the quarterback pumps, he's going after it."

"He's so deceptively fast," Coach Bill Cowher said of Moss. "I watched him on the play that he got on Chad and I don't think you can ever overthrow the guy. I think you just tell the quarterback to throw it as far as you can throw it and he'll run underneath it. He made a great catch, a great play. With a guy like that on the field, I don't think you can ever relax."

If the Steelers did, it almost cost them a victory that seemed guaranteed after three quarters.

"That's two weeks in a row," Flowers said of the secondary, which was ranked No. 1 in the AFC against the pass. "We gave up 140 yards on two plays. We're trying to do something special around here and we relaxed. We're putting too much pressure on our offense."