Steelers fall to St. Louis for 4th loss in a row

Monday, October 27, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

The Steelers dipped back in time to celebrate their 1,000th game yesterday. They brought in Terry Bradshaw and Chuck Noll, Greg Lloyd and Dermontti Dawson, L.C. Greenwood, Bullet Bill Dudley and more.

Then they took the field and turned back the clock to 1999, losing their fourth in a row and tumbling into the AFC North cellar all by themselves, even behind the Bengals. One of Pittsburgh's own, quarterback Marc Bulger, rained passes down on the Steelers' heads in a steady downpour as the St. Louis Rams continued the home team misery in Heinz Field, 33-21.

	Steelers safety Troy Polamalu appears to be in perfect position for an interception, but Rams wide receiver Dane Looker somehow ends up with a 22-yard catch that sets up a second-quarter touchdown yesterday. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

If the Steelers don't start playing better, Jerome Bettis said they could reach their 1,020th game without another victory.

"You still have hope you can win it because you play everyone in the division again," Bettis said of the 2-5 Steelers. "But it doesn't matter, if you're not playing well, regardless what other games [you have]. We can have 20 games left, but if we're not playing well we're going to lose 20 games."

The Steelers have lost four in a row for the first time since 1999, when they were 5-3 and finished 6-10, their worst record under coach Bill Cowher. They also have lost three in a row at home. The play of this team is more baffling because it was heavily favored to win the division and one of the favorites from the AFC to reach the Super Bowl. Now it goes to Seattle Sunday searching for only its third victory in the first half of the season.

"We have good football players," said Bettis, who started and gained 42 yards on 12 carries, "we have good coaches, but we're not a good football team right now. ... To look at the record and look how we're playing it's ridiculous to think that a football team as talented as this is playing this poorly."

The Rams (5-2) had a lot to do with that. Bulger completed 22 of 37 passes for 375 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. St. Louis coach Mike Martz eased up in the fourth quarter with Bulger completing only two passes for 31 yards. Had Bulger continued to throw, he would have threatened a passing record against the Steelers that stands at 430 yards.

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"His decision-making was impeccable," Martz said.

Bulger threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Tory Holt, who finished with seven catches for 174 yards, while undrafted rookie Arlen Harris had touchdown runs of 1, 9 and 9 yards, and Jeff Wilkins kicked field goals of 20 and 22 yards.

Antwaan Randle El tied the score, 7-7, in the first quarter when he returned a punt 84 yards for a touchdown for the Steelers, and Hines Ward tied it again in the second quarter at 14-14 with a 9-yard touchdown catch from Tommy Maddox. When Ward caught his second touchdown, a 22-yarder, it put the Steelers in front, 21-20, in the third quarter.

The Rams responded by driving 70 yards in seven plays to reclaim the lead, scoring on a 9-yard draw by Harris while the Steelers were in their pass-covering dime defense.

That's when the Steelers' offense bade an early good night on the first day of Eastern Standard Time. They did not get another first down until late in the fourth quarter when the game virtually was out of hand.

Maddox tossed two of his three interceptions in the final five minutes of the game and came away with another poor game statistically. He completed only 12 of 28 passes for 159 yards and a 45.7 passer rating.

"In the fourth quarter, we really did not make anything happen," said Maddox, who was sacked twice and was not under as much pressure as he had been recently. "I thought for three quarters we were in the game. It is a frustrating loss."

The frustration spread as the mistakes and blown chances mounted. The Steelers were 0 for 10 on third-down conversions before they got their one and only with 51 seconds left in the game. They were fortunate to be in the game as long as they were because the Rams piled up 448 yards to the Steelers' 245.

Rookie safety Troy Polamalu had a chance to prevent Harris' first touchdown in the second quarter. On the previous play, he broke in front of receiver Dane Looker at the 1 on a deep pass, and let it slip through his hands and into Looker's for a 22-yard reception.

"It went through my hands and there's no excuse I can really make," Polamalu said. "I had an opportunity to help this team out and I missed that opportunity. I blew it, pretty much."

That was about as close as anyone got to a Rams receiver all day. In fact, of the 37 times Bulger threw passes, that was the only instance in which a Steelers defensive back put his hands on the ball -- and it slipped right through them.

Even Ward, who caught two touchdown passes and had five catches for 90 yards, dropped two and had a ball wrestled away from him by cornerback Aeneas Williams for a fourth-quarter interception.

"I know I can play better in crucial situations like that," Ward said. "I had two balls slip through my hands. The standards are so high for me, I feel if we make more plays and we get into a rhythm and I didn't do that today."

The Rams did it without perhaps their best player, injured halfback Marshall Faulk, and despite their reputation as a passing team they ran the ball twice as often as the Steelers. Harris, a native of the Philadelphia area, ran 34 times for 81 yards. The Steelers, ranked 28th in the NFL against the run, fell short of the 100-yard mark again. They ran 18 times for 94 yards -- 39 of those on two runs by Randle El, one on a reverse, one on a direct snap.

Cowher said he knows only one way to break the losing streak.

"We have to keep working. We need to find a way to put together a complete game, not a spurt of plays or a spurt here or there. That is the only answer I have for them."

He said "right now there is no solace" arising from playing in the NFL's weakest division and "we're trying to get out of this funk we're in."

Some Steelers players described their situation as shocking.

"If you had told us we'd be 2-5, I'm still shocked myself," Ward said. "I can't even describe it."

However anyone tries, the description won't be a good one.

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