The Steelers are at it again, falling apart in the second half of the season. By losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 26-23 on Sunday, not only was it
Pittsburgh's second consecutive loss to start the second half of the 2000 season, but it marked the second week in a row that the Steelers blew a lead very late in the game. It has become apparent that this team is relying on its defense to win games for them, and survive on offense solely on the legs of Jerome Bettis. And, Bettis looks like the "Bus" of old. He looked better on Sunday than perhaps he has in his entire career. He was putting on moves, shifting his movement, and running over defenders in rushing for over 100 yards again. He ended up with 134 for the day. But without some sort of passing attack, this team will go nowhere. They have to stop relying on the defense as they have all season. I owe WABC's Bob Wychusen an apology for tearing into him following the Jet game. He was right about Kordell Stewart. I have tried desperately to stay on Kordell's side, however, it has become very obvious that Wychusen was correction in his analysis of Stewart when he said he is inconsistent. Kordell showed that today, often making mental mistakes, under-throwing his receivers, yet every once in a while coming up with a big play. We simply cannot have that type of Quarterback leading our offense. We need a man that is a pure Quarterback, a passing Quarterback, and one who can think about situations 100% of the time. Kordell is not that man. And, for now, perhaps it is time to see what Tee Martin can bring to the table. The answer is not Stewart, it is not Kent Graham, and that only leaves Martin.until next year. At the time of the 2001 draft, if the Steelers are not in position to grab say a Drew Brees, then they NEED to make a big trade to get into that position. If that means trading away a big defensive name, then so be it. The offense in reality lost this game in part for Pittsburgh, and not so much the defense. In 1998, the Pittsburgh Steelers finished the second half of that season 1-7. In 1999 it was 2-6. Now in 2000 we are off to a 0-2 start after Bill Cowher said the team would "run the table" for the second half, winning the rest of its games beginning with the Eagles. Well, now that is down the drain, and the schedule does not get any easier. They host the Jacksonville Jaguars next Sunday, then travel to Cincinnati, host Oakland, on the road at the New York Giants, home to face the Washington Redskins, and then finish in San Diego. 'Run the table?' If this team wants to see the playoffs, then that is their only hope. With a 5-5 record, one more loss will make it highly unlikely and very doubtful that they will reach the post-season.

In reality though, in retrospect with this game; although the Steelers blew a lead they should not have, they may never have been a position for a win if not for a missed David Akers field goal. But given that, how can any team possibly blow two onside kicks in a matter of seconds? That is exactly what the Steelers did after allowing Donovan McNabb march his offense downfield to close the gap to three points with under two minutes to play. The first onsides attempt was negated when Philadelphia touched the ball too early. O.K. Do-over. The second attempt bounced high into the air, out of the reach of a leaping Mark Bruener, and guess what? Eagles ball. They subsequently marched downfield and tied the game. And, as in the Detroit Lion Thanksgiving game that went into overtime two years ago, Philadelphia won the coin toss (albeit, this one was not controversial), and Kordell Stewart never got his hands on the ball again. The defense had the game on their shoulders again, and for the second Sunday in a row, they could not hold the lead. This could turn out to be a long six game stretch in the end.

Game Notes: 

The defense was on the verge of breaking the all-time NFL record for consecutive quarters for not allowing a touchdown (22 set by the 1976 Steelers), when Chad Scott was called for pass interference (and he was called for this penalty twice in the game), which gave the Eagles first and goal where they found Kenny Thomasson in the end zone for a touchdown that broke the streak of 20 that the Steelers defense had been on. After reviewing the play, it did not appear that Scott had interfered. But, the play stood and the Eagles took a 10-0 lead at the time. The defense had not allowed a touchdown in 61 consecutive drives to that point. All good things must come to an end however. "That's the way the cookie crumbles." Famous quote, and it applied in this game. Jason Simmons had a chance to down the ball on a punt by Josh Miller at the one-yard line. There he was standing there, waiting for the ball, and boink, the ball bounces over his head as he waited, into the end zone. Joey Porter came up with a huge play when he picked up a fumble and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown, although on instant replay it appeared he fumbled the ball before getting across the goal line. What about the play of rookie Plaxico Burress? He is simply not getting any better. I predicted that this game could be his "breakout" game, but boy was I wrong. He dropped more passes, ran poor routes, and even made a mental mistake of brining in one catch and stepping out of bounds instead of
challenging the defender. Troy Edwards was a much better rookie last year than Burress is in 2000. Kris Brown did manage to kick his longest field goal of his short career, a 52-yarder. Following Scott's second pass interference call, on the sidelines, you could easily read Bill Cowher's lips as he said "That's bullsh_t!. That's twice." And then he said something about five something or other. How about Amos Zereoue on special teams? He went after kick returner Brian Mitchell and actually lifted him with one arm up into the air, sending him spiraling to the turf, all with his back turned to Mitchell. A show of the strength that Zereoue possesses. Chad Scott nearly got called for a third pass interference late in the game, as a flag went down there were chants of "bullsh_t" from the fans, and the refs then said there was no penalty. It really looked like they felt like they owed Scott a favor. Kordell's inconsistent play was obvious when he missed a wide-open Courtney Hawkins. More on the fine defensive play of Pittsburgh. After Aaron Smith sacked Donovan McNabb, Jason Gildon followed it up with another sack on the very next play. In the end, it was the penalties that killed Pittsburgh. Try 13 penalties for 141 yards. My friends, that is RIDICULOUS and PATHETIC. The Eagles rushed for just 88 yards and we gave them 141 yards on penalties, most of them S-T-U-P-I-D.

Editor's Final Thoughts

This much I know, we have NO offensive threats. Yes, Jerome Bettis is a threat to rush for 5-7 yards a carry, but without him doing that on every play, the offense will continue to stall after 1-2 plays. We need to find a passing threat and when I see Courtney Hawkins as the main target on this Sunday, it makes me wonder why we drafted Plaxico Burress in the first place. Especially when we could have had our hands on Chad Pennington. I would rather be taking my chances on Pennington right now instead of Burress. He has hardly been our savior. It might not be entirely his fault, because Kordell has not been exactly a Peyton Manning, but most of the blame for Burress's play is on his own shoulders. All the talk was about his height in preseason, and he has yet to use that to his advantage. By far, he is the biggest disappointment to date. But, I don't see the offense getting any better, all the more reason to give Tee Martin his shot. But (said with a heavy sigh) I think Bill Cowher will pull his same act down the stretch and give the playing advantage to his veterans while ignoring the rookies. Now we will find out what the character of this team really is, based on the track record they have posted over the past two seasons in the course of the final eight games.