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Thursday, October 31, 2002

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The red beam of light did not blind linebacker James Farrior so much as it made him angry. What sort of fool was pointing that laser at him? And why?

	James Farrior wraps up Cleveland running back William Green in the teams' first meeting in September. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) Steelers Report 10/31/02

It seemed like every week, the light sought him out. Farrior felt very much a victim, so he did something about it. He started playing better at linebacker.

Now, when defensive coordinator Tim Lewis reviews video of games, he does not point out Farrior's mistakes as often with his red laser as he did the first two weeks of the season.

"Coach, why are you always yelling at me?" Farrior asked Lewis one day.

He told him it was to get his attention.

"I raised my voice and concentrated just on him," Lewis said. "We have those laser pointers."

Farrior must have thought the red dot was part of his Steelers uniform. He had played outside linebacker with the Jets, where he led the NFL with 181 tackles. He came here to play inside linebacker and to replace Earl Holmes, who led the Steelers in tackles the past three seasons.

Not only did Farrior find himself on a new team, playing a new position, but the entire defense was attacked by the no-huddle spread offenses of New England and Oakland.

No one on the Steelers' defense played well early on, and there were only two things missing from the unit that ranked No. 1 in the NFL last year -- injured Kendrell Bell and Earl Holmes.

"I think those first couple weeks we had where people were spreading it out all over the place was the toughest thing he had to do," Coach Bill Cowher said of Farrior.

Since the second game of the season, Farrior has fit into the Steelers defense like ... Earl Holmes. Like Holmes, he is the team leader in tackles and is tied with Joey Porter with 51. Farrior leads the team with 42 solo tackles.

As the Steelers head to Cleveland Sunday to meet back up with Holmes, the Browns' starting middle linebacker, it's no longer a question that they've survived his departure.

"Earl's a good football player," Cowher said. "He did a great job when he was here, but James Farrior has played very solid football for us.

"He has just fit into that role that we asked him to come into. Not just on defense; he's helped us on the kicking game. He gives us a lot of speed from sideline to sideline."

That speed is why they signed Farrior as an unrestricted free agent from the Jets. The Steelers felt they had slowed down at inside linebacker two years ago, which is why they released Levon Kirkland. They tried to re-sign Holmes but could not get close to what he believed he was worth.

Their legacy at inside linebacker through the years has been long and hallowed, starting with Jack Lambert. Many of the best played the position over the past decade or so -- Hardy Nickerson, David Little, Kirkland, Chad Brown, Holmes, Kendrell Bell and now Farrior. All made Pro Bowls except Holmes and Farrior.

"I don't know if they necessarily forget [Holmes] but I think they like my presence," Farrior said. "They like being around me and they like me as a teammate. You never forget a guy you played with for so many years, but you just have to move on and look at what you have in the present."

It's the reality of the football world the past decade. Nickerson, Brown and Holmes left as free agents. Free agency was good to Nickerson and Brown, who made much more money and thrived with their new teams, Tampa Bay and Seattle. It appeared it might not be so kind to Holmes, both financially and on the field.

"I think he got off to a slow start," Cleveland Coach Butch Davis said. "I think some of that has to be due to the fact that he had some setbacks during training camp where he had his knee drained a couple times and had to undergo a minor orthopedic process and in changing schemes.

"It is a different scheme going from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3 with the job requirements and things that you are asking him to do."

Holmes, though, picked it up, just like Farrior, and is the runaway leader on the Browns with 58 tackles.

"I think he was credited with seven or eight tackles last week," Davis said. "He has become a lot more consistent and a lot more comfortable in feeling like he is not having to rely on other people. He is pretty confident in the adjustments. So, I think that part of it has been very good."

Farrior played his best game against Cincinnati, when he spent much of the day running down Corey Dillon. With his speed, Farrior ran from inside to the outside to tackled Dillon on one play that impressed his teammates and his coach.

"That's a tough play for a guy inside to get outside on certain blocking schemes and make a tackle on an outside run," Lewis said. "We were watching it on tape and said, 'Wow!' "

Said safety Lee Flowers: "He pretty much ran down Corey Dillon the whole game. That's really impressive, especially a back like Corey."

Flowers did not react well when he first learned Holmes would not be back.

"I worked with Kirk the first couple years, then Kirk leftand I worked with Earl," Flowers said. "It was really difficult to understand why we let the inside linebacker go when he was the only one left who really knew everything. Earl got everybody lined up on the inside.

"That was my initial thought, but once they brought James to camp and you started working with James and saw how fast he was and his athletic ability, you said, 'OK, if he can get the scheme down in time, we're still going to have the toughest linebackers in the league.' It's starting to show."

All except that red dot. It's no longer part of Farrior's video experience.