Tuesday, October 28, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

It looked so easy when the Steelers rolled over Baltimore in the season opener, 34-15. It has been mostly downhill for them since.

Quarterback Tommy Maddox could do no wrong that game. He completed 21 of 29 passes for 260 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions against a good Ravens defense. His 134.3 passer rating led the NFL.

The Steelers' defense held the Ravens to 143 yards passing and 88 rushing, including 69 yards by Jamal Lewis, who would break the NFL single-game record with 295 yards the following week.

The Steelers built a 27-0 lead in the third quarter and all was good as they crushed their bitter rivals.

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"This team and this offense can do whatever we want to do," crowed tight end Jay Riemersma after he caught his first touchdown pass as a Steelers player in that game.

Six weeks later, the Steelers can't seem to do anything they want. Their offense has tumbled, their defense is soft and they have taken a nosedive into the unfamiliar depths of last place in the AFC North Division. They haven't finished last in their division since they went 5-11 in 1988. At 2-5, they have slipped two games behind first-place Baltimore, which has won four of six games since that beating in Heinz Field to go 4-3.

The Steelers have as many losses as they did all last season and this one isn't half over. Three losses have come at Heinz Field, where they lost only three combined in their first two seasons. If they lose Sunday in Seattle, where they are four-point underdogs, the Steelers will be on a pace to finish 4-12 and have their worst record in 34 years.

That team that looked so perfect on opening day now looks, as former quarterback Bubby Brister once said, as if it were coming unglued. Wide receiver Plaxico Burress complained Sunday about not getting the ball, questioned coaching calls and said they had become too predictable on offense. Linebacker Joey Porter, his defense able to produce just 13 sacks, reminisced about the Blitzburgh days when they used to attack quarterbacks.

How to describe the Steelers today?

"Man," guard-turned-tackle Alan Faneca said, "at the bottom of the rack. We have to start climbing and you can't miss any steps on that climb. You have to keep climbing and get your way back to the top."

The two-time defending division champs, two seasons removed from the AFC championship game, have fallen hard from the top since that season-opening victory. The quarterback who played flawlessly that day has slipped to near the bottom in the AFC with a 71.2 passer rating. He has seven touchdown passes and his 11 interceptions lead the conference.

Maddox is at a loss to explain what happened to the team that crushed Baltimore and finds itself at the bottom of the AFC North.

"Boy, I wish I knew. It boils down to making throws, it boils down to making plays. I think in that game, anytime any of us had an opportunity to make a play, we made a play. Maybe we just hadn't been making enough."

Coach Bill Cowher preached against turnovers in the spring and summer after deciding their turnover differential of zero wasn't good enough last season when they lost the ball 36 times and recovered or intercepted it 36 times. After all that preaching, the Steelers are next-to-last in the conference with a minus-six turnover differential.

Cowher also wanted his quarterback to stop forcing the ball after Maddox threw 16 interceptions last season and 20 touchdown passes. Maddox is on a 16-game pace to throw 25 interceptions and 16 touchdown passes.

His yards per attempt have shrunk to 6.88 from 7.5 last season as the Steelers try to dink and dunk their way against cover-2 defenses.

"Obviously, coverage dictates that a lot," Maddox said. "When we get our chances ... we are pushing the ball down the field. It probably doesn't seem like that but coverage dictates that a lot."

Burress caught just one pass for 6 yards in Sunday's 33-21 loss to the Rams at Heinz Field. He has caught seven passes in the past three games but said Sunday that he is open all the time and did not know why he's not getting the ball more. He had a chance to catch a 40-yard pass inside the 10 and could not come up with it, dove for another that he trapped along the ground and had one tipped away.

"We tried to get the ball to him," Maddox said. "I think we threw it his way four, five, six times. It's just one of those games. That goes along with everybody on this team. When you're going through periods like this, there's going to be frustration. I don't know of anybody in that locker room who wasn't frustrated after that game. Those are just things that happen. Obviously, he's a great player and we've got to find a way to get the ball in his hands more."

Burress has 29 receptions for 436 yards and one touchdown, but hasn't had more than 64 yards in a game since he opened the season with consecutive 100-yard games.

"Obviously, everybody's frustrated," said Maddox, who is captain of the offense. "If we didn't have the expectations we have of ourselves, it would be a lot easier. I've been on teams in the past where the expectations weren't that high, so you weren't that frustrated.

"Everybody in the locker room is going to be frustrated, but I really sense that everybody's still wanting to come back Wednesday and work as hard as we can and can't wait until we get back on the field again. I think that's a positive thing. I've said all along this is a team that stays together very well through adversity and obviously this is probably a test like no other test for adversity."

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