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Sunday, January 12, 2003

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tommy Maddox's season began with a comeback from obscurity. It included a comeback from a potential career-threatening and life-altering injury. Then, last week, there was a 17-point comeback against the Cleveland Browns in the second-wildest playoff game in the Steelers' history.

Last night, though, with Maddox on the verge of engineering another comeback, this one from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit, the story had an unhappy ending.

"The hard thing about this league is, if you don't win the Super Bowl, you end your season like this and feeling this way," Maddox said. "We knew we were close, we knew we had the guys that could compete and play the game with a passion that could get us to the Super Bowl. To end your season that way is tough."

It wasn't just that the Steelers lost in overtime, 34-31, to the Tennessee Titans in an AFC divisional playoff game.

It was the way they lost -- Dewayne Washington getting called for running into kicker Joe Nedney after he missed a 31-yard field goal in overtime. Nedney made good on the second chance, this time from 26 yards, and Maddox had run out of chances to rescue the Steelers again.

Not even the league's Comeback Player of the Year could rally from that.

"I'm going to try real hard not to say anything that I'll regret," Maddox said. "It's hard to believe guys can play a game that hard and it comes down to an official's call. It's unfortunate. Obviously, the Titans don't think it's unfortunate, but I do. That's one that will be hard to swallow."

This was a different ending from the previous time Maddox played at The Coliseum. That was the day he left the field in an ambulance, temporarily paralyzed from a cerebral and spinal concussion.

In his second playoff appearance, Maddox completed 21 of 41 passes for 266 yards and two touchdowns. What's more, he put the Steelers in position to pull out another improbable playoff victory after rookie Jeff Reed's 40-yard field goal gave them a 31-28 lead with 8:30 remaining.

But, after Nedney tied the score with a 42-yard field goal with 5:40 remaining in regulation, the Steelers managed only one first down in two offensive possessions.

And they never touched the ball in overtime after the Titans won the toss and needed only four plays to move to the Steelers' 13.

"We felt good," Maddox said. "We had some shots. We battled all day. We were down, 14-0, and everybody probably thought the gas had run out of the tank. Everybody kept fighting, and we got back in it."

Trailing, 14-0, Maddox started the Steelers' comeback with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward, a score set up when Lee Flowers recovered a fumble by Eddie George at the Titans' 8.

After an interception by Chad Scott, Maddox put the Steelers in position for Reed's 30-yard field goal with a perfect, 40-yard pass to Plaxico Burress that split two Titans defenders -- cornerback Samari Rolle and safety Lance Schulters.

"Everybody continued to play hard, like they did all year," Maddox said. "We kept battling. We had our shots to win."

That, though, was only because Maddox rallied the Steelers from a 28-20 deficit in the fourth quarter. He completed four of five passes on the drive, including a 22-yard pass to Terance Mathis, that ended with a 21-yard touchdown to Ward -- a play in which Ward broke tackles by safety Rich Coady and linebacker Keith Bulluck and dived into the end zone. When Ward threw a 2-point conversion pass to Plaxico Burress, the score was tied, 28-28.

Then, after an interception by cornerback Deshea Townsend, Maddox started the Steelers on a drive that gave them the lead with less than nine minutes remaining. Reed's 40-yard field goal made it 31-28, but the drive stalled only after Burress dropped a pass over the middle on third-and-8 from the Titans' 22 that would have given the Steelers a first down.

But it all ended with what the Steelers felt was a debatable call by the officials. Maddox never had a chance for another comeback.

"I can't say enough about it, to be quite honest," he said about the team's comeback ability. "I don't know if words can really describe how I feel about the guys in that locker room, each one of them. There isn't a guy in there that doesn't play with a passion and play with a burning desire to get the job done.

"I know in sports, sometimes you come up a little short. But that doesn't make it any easier."