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Monday, December 31, 2001

Compiled by Ed Bouchette, Ron Cook and Bob Smizik

Steelers (12-3) vs. Cleveland Browns (7-8), 1 p.m. Sunday, Heinz Field. TV, radio: KDKA; WDVE-FM (102.5), WBGG-AM (970). The game has no bearing on the Steelers’ playoff position. The Steelers beat the Browns, 15-12, Nov. 11 as Kris Brown made five field goals, including a 32-yarder in overtime.

Corey Dillon, Bengals RB, left the game in the fourth quarter with an injured pinky.

Amos Zereoue, Steelers RB, did not return after his shoulder injury was aggravated in the first quarter.

Steelers RB Jerome Bettis, who missed his fourth consecutive game with a groin injury, had nothing new to report about his chances of playing Sunday against the Cleveland Browns in the final regular-season game. “I’m just going to take it day by day.” Asked if he was certain he would be ready for the playoffs, he looked down and said quietly, “I hope so.”

Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, who ran the NFL’s No. 1 defense going into the game, had a hard time believing the Bengals produced 544 yards of offense, including 403 passing. “We had too many guys running around trying to do things on their own. Just stay in the scheme. Let the defense work for you. ... We had far too many letdowns in discipline and execution. ... We flat out didn’t make any plays. As a defense, we’re charged with making plays. A couple of times, we got to their quarterback and he just flipped the ball. It fluttered in the air and hung up there for a long time, but their guys got to it before we did. There’s no excuse for that.”

WR Plaxico Burress caught six passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns to give him 960 yards on 63 receptions entering the final game of the season. Hines Ward caught three passes for 42 yards to give him 90 catches for 971 yards as the two receivers try to become the first to catch 1,000 yards worth of passes in the same season for the Steelers. Burress caught four of his passes for 92 yards and both touchdowns in the first half when he drew man-to-man coverage. After that, he found more double-teams. “After my second TD, they started rolling coverage my way,” he said. “Even on first and second down, they rolled two guys to my side and stopped me from catching the football.”

One game after his career-high 126 yards rushing, Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala ran for just 55 on 25 carries. It was the most he ever played with Bettis inactive for a fourth consecutive game and Amos Zereoue taken out of the game early after his shoulder injury was aggravated when he blocked on a blitz. Fuamatu-Ma’afala also caught five passes for 50 yards, including a 37-yard touchdown on a screen pass.

A skirmish broke out after the Steelers scored a touchdown in the third quarter to make it 23-10, and some of the participants can expect fines. Steelers OT Wayne Gandy received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and Bengals DT Oliver Gibson was called for a personal foul. CB Artrell Hawkins threw a punch at Burress. Gandy said he tried to pull Bengals LB Takeo Spikes, a friend, off WR Bobby Shaw when things started getting hot. “As I reached down to get him off, a cornerback hit me in the facemask,” Gandy said.

It was an up-and-down day for QB Kordell Stewart. He threw for three touchdown passes, giving him consecutive three-TD games for the first time. He also threw four interceptions for the first time. His 251 yards passing was the eighth 200-yard game of the season and lifted his season total to a career-high 3,037 yards. He threw for 3,020 in 1997.

Although the Bengals had been shut out twice in the previous six games and averaged only 7.3 points in that span, Cincinnati Coach Dick LeBeau said, “I told a lot of people we were going to score more than 20 points this week.”

Bill Cowher came across the field to congratulate LeBeau, a former defensive coordinator for the Steelers, after the game. “He was very gracious,” LeBeau said. “Bill and I spent five good years together in Pittsburgh. I was glad I didn’t have to congratulate him this time.”

Cincinnati K Neil Rackers took the Steelers’ timeout right before he was to kick the winning field goal as a positive. “I was actually thinking, ‘Wow, we have more time to find a better spot [to kick from].’ Anywhere you could find root today was where you wanted to be, where you wanted your plant foot to be and that would hold still a little better. In some cases, you weren’t able to find anywhere [to plant].”

The Bengals tied the score with 37 seconds remaining on a perfectly thrown pass from Jon Kitna to Danny Farmer in the corner of the end zone. The catch had to be especially gratifying for Farmer, who was a fourth-round draft choice of the Steelers in 2000 but was later cut. “I just kind of had to put myself into position to try and catch it.” he said. “I did that and the ball was right there. He threw it up there and it was real high because he got hit. He floated it up there and it was perfect.”

Among the Steelers’ inactives were Bettis, G Rich Tylski and CB Hank Poteat. Tylski, who has a rib injury, was replaced at right guard by Oliver Ross. Poteat is not on the injury list. Others inactive yesterday were C Chukki Okobi, DE Chris Combs, OT Mathias Nkwenti, LB Justin Kurpeikis and QB Tee Martin.

Bengals QB Jon Kitna threw a team-record 68 passes -- tied for third most in NFL history behind Drew Bledsoe’s 70 for New England against Minnesota in 1994 and Vinny Testaverde’s 69 for the Jets against Baltimore last season. George Blanda threw 68 for Houston vs. Buffalo in the AFL in 1964. Kitna’s 35 completions were second highest in club history. His 411 yards were the fifth most in Bengals history and fifth most against the Steelers. Doug Williams of Washington previously threw for 400 yards against the Steelers when he set the record against them with 430 Sept. 11, 1988.

Cincinnati’s 544 yards in offense was its 11th highest, the 22 first downs passing tied for team high and the 99 total offensive plays set a team record by seven.

LB Jason Gildon had one of the few productive days for a Steelers defender. He had their only two sacks and their only interception. It raised Gildon’s team-leading total to 12 sacks, 1 1/2 fewer than he had in his Pro Bowl season last year with one game to go.

The Steelers lost in time of possession for only the second time this season. The Bengals held the ball for 36:26, compared to the Steelers’ 34:26. The other team to hold the ball longer than the Steelers was Tampa Bay, whose time of possession was 30:58.

The 99 plays the Bengals ran were the same number run by the New York Jets and Baltimore combined earlier this month. Over the previous four games, the Steelers had allowed the opposition an average of 50 plays a game. The Bengals ran 88 plays in regulation time.

Cincinnati became the first team this season to run for more yards than the Steelers, 141-73, thus preventing them from achieving a modern-day NFL record. No team has outrushed its opponent in every game in a season since the NFL merger in 1970. The Steelers had done so through their first 14 games.

Steelers Coach Bill Cowher was absolutely right when he said, tersely, “There’s nothing good about losing.” But that doesn’t mean his players can’t benefit from the fiasco against the Bengals.

“Maybe now we’ll stop reading the papers about how good we are and just worry about playing football,” S Lee Flowers said.

“We got too far ahead of ourselves,” FB Jon Witman said. “We were talking about the bye week and the home-field advantage instead of worrying about the Bengals. You can’t do that in the NFL. You’ve got to play every week.”

“This is a valuable lesson to learn at this point of the season,” RB Jerome Bettis said. “If you don’t play your best game, anybody can beat you. We can’t expect teams to lay down and give us a win.”