When Kordell Stewart left the game in the second quarter of Sunday's victory over Oakland with a sprained right knee, there must have been a sigh of despair among the 50,000+ fans in Three Rivers Stadium when Kent Graham came into the game to relieve Stewart. And Graham did not disappoint the Steelers' faithful. On his first snap from scrimmage, Graham threw the ball into the hands of Eric Allen (his 6th career touchdown on an interception), who easily brought the ball back 20 something yards for a touchdown that gave the Raiders their first lead at 10-7. A kickoff ensued, (in which Will Blackwell returned 25 yards) and Graham was there again at the helm, only to take a big sack, and go three and out as his third down pass was batted away at the line of scrimmage. At this point, I reached an anger point that I have not been at yet this season. My question was "why not Tee Martin." I can understand bringing Graham in for the first series, but after such a critical mistake, he did not deserve a second series. If you take away his interception, the game does not go down to the wire as it did. Which explains our headline. If Oakland had pulled this game out, Kent Graham would have been the big loser in this game.

However, it was Kordell Stewart who was the hero of the game for the second week in a row, although Jerome Bettis could be considered the most valuable player of this game as well. This game had plenty of controversy; the big hits promised by Lee Flowers and Dewayne Washington never came about; and it ended with perhaps one of the biggest bonehead plays for Oakland of the season. With hardly a tick left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Oakland was in fairly good field goal range for Sebastian Jankowski, when on what was a fourth and one play, Rich Gannon attempted a short pass that would have given the Raiders the first down. BUT, Gannon thought it was third down and not fourth, as he was looking at the stadium scoreboard which read third down. Down on the field, the official markers said fourth down, and that became the official call on the play. Thus, Oakland turned the ball back to Pittsburgh. You have to wonder if someone upstairs purposely ordered the scoreboard operator to make the mistake so as to confuse Gannon. "Ya never know."

Nonetheless, this win over Oakland was huge for Pittsburgh. It was Kordell's first victory at home in the last four tries; it improves the team to 7-6; and keeps them alive in the wild card playoff spot; and maybe the most important aspect of the game, they defeated a 10-2 Raider team that has been considered the best in the AFC thus far. Pittsburgh may perhaps be the best 7-6 team in the NFL. Take away the three losses that could have had a different outcome if not for the NFL making a mistake and then apologizing, and the blown Philadelphia game, and the Steelers could easily be sitting pretty at 11-2 instead of 7-6. All the talk this week though surrounded Kordell Stewart, and I myself said if he is going to prove that he has found his game again, it would have to be proven in this game today. KORDELL: YOU PROVED IT TO ME! Stewart made a nearly mistake-free game; he threw for two more touchdowns and scored another on his own; despite a bum knee, he still ran the ball extremely effectively, even scoring on a 20-yarder in which he broke several tackles. Teamed up with Jerome Bettis who was absolutely ON FIRE in this game, and the offense all the sudden has become very effective. Bettis played against Oakland on this day with a fire that I have not seen in him in his five seasons with Pittsburgh. He easily went over the 100-yard mark again today, often breaking tackles and picking up big rushing plays, one which went for 30 yards, his longest of the season, and in the process was running over, and through players.

My friends, in my opinion, this was easily the most impressive game by the Steelers on both sides of the ball this season, not counting Kent Graham's two miserable series. This was playoff ball all the way, and if the Steelers can continue this trend, continue to play this well, and run the table for the remaining three games and sneak into the playoffs, they will be a very dangerous team to contend with. Now for the game notes:

David Dunn, the ex-Steeler, said he wanted revenge in this game while returning kicks. He took the opening kickoff 20 yards back, but was buried by the Steelers special teams. The second time he got 31 yards, but no significant yardage. He did catch one pass late in the game, but clearly did not get his revenge.

Several Steeler players other than Stewart and Bettis deserve mention and kudos:

Dan Kreider: This kid came to play when signed to replace the injured Chris Fuamatu-Ma'Afala. In my opinion, he has played so well that I believe he will not only make the team in 2001, but will give starting Fullback Jon Witman a run for his money as the starter. On his very first play Kreider took the ball 21 yards up field for a first down as he was blasting through the defense.

Hines Ward: Ward has become the number one receiver for Pittsburgh and a huge clutch receiver. Besides that, Head Coach Bill Cowher calls him one of the best blocking receivers in the NFL. He proved that without a doubt today, making many key blocks, most of them very effective.

Richard Huntley: After being slowed by injuries, and looking rather lackluster, Huntley came alive on Sunday with several big runs after catching the ball and running the ball, but also threw some very impressive blocks.

Jason Gildon: Gildon had a "monster" game, getting a huge sack in the fourth quarter that forced Raider Quarterback Rich Gannon to intentionally ground the ball getting a flag on the play. Earlier at 5:00 to go in the third, Gildon stripped Tyrone Wheatley of the ball which Pittsburgh recovered.

Bobby Shaw: Everyone was clicking on offense when Kordell was in the game, including Shaw who caught the game's first touchdown, a 1-yard strike at the 10:13 mark in the first quarter, a perfectly thrown pass by Stewart to the corner of the end zone. It was a third and eleven play and came on the Steelers' first series.

Mark Bruener: Kevin Gilbride is finally getting Bruener involved more in the offense as Bruener scored a touchdown against the Bengals last week and added an extremely impressive touchdown on Sunday as he caught a pass, spun backwards to the four or five yard line, then subsequently dragged Kelvin Branch into the end zone for a touchdown.

 

The goat for Oakland had to be Tyrone Wheatley who fumbled away the ball twice. On his second fumble as mentioned above, Oakland challenged the play saying Wheatley's knee had touched the ground, only to lose a timeout as they lost the challenge on replay.

Kordell showed signs that he has found his game many times and in many ways in this game, one of his more spectacular moments came when he fumbled the ball but stuck with it picking up the bounding ball and rolling 18 yards for a first down, aided by a magnificent block by Richard Huntley. Later, Stewart broke several tackles and rambled 20 yards for a score, all while supposedly nursing a bum knee.

Jerome Bettis looked like he was having a ball on Sunday, often showing a huge smile after his runs, and who can blame him for the game he was having, and at one point, was shoved from behind by an Oakland defender, and I felt a flag should have been thrown. One thing became very clear to me today, the Oakland Raiders are a dirty, nasty, unsportsmanlike team.

The LOW moment of the game had to have been when Oakland's Regan Upshaw started jawing with Josh Miller then spit in his face. NO PENALTY? The announcers even said that Upshaw should have been tossed from the game and fined by the NFL. All the more reason I say the Raiders are dirty and unsportsmanlike. There were several controversial moments in the game, one of the biggest perhaps when Deshea Townsend beautifully fielded a punt that he leaped into the air and tossed back onto the field while airborne in the end zone. The Steelers's Ainsley Battles unfortunately had the ball touch his knee, and the Raiders' Darian Gordon touched the ball, which was then picked up by Pittsburgh. The Steelers thought the ball belonged to them, but according the referee and NFL rules, a kicking team cannot recover the ball once they have touched it; thus Ainsley Battles predicament. So the Raiders kept the ball, but did not make anything of that opportunity anyway.

Then of course there was the end of the game, when Rich Gannon got confused on what down it was, and when it should have been simple to figure out, it took the referees more than five minutes to squash the squabble. When they ruled in favor of Pittsburgh, the chants in Three Rivers went out, "Hey, Hey, Goodbye." SEE YA RAIDERS!

Prior to that ending, Gannon had also thrown what appeared to be a shovel pass that went incomplete, but he was past the line of scrimmage, and it took the refs several minutes to sort out that play as well.

Sebastian Jankowski never got a chance to make the winning field goal, but earlier had missed from over 40 yards, his ninth missed field goal this season, the most in the NFL.

The Steelers may have lost an opportunity at a turnover when with less than two minutes to play, Andre Rison fumbled the ball and the refs ruled that he was stopped with forward motion. That was BULL. But when there is less than two minutes to go in a game, there can be no challenges unless so decided by the team of officials.

Finally, a last word on Jerome Bettis. He did fumble the ball in the fourth quarter, however, the Steelers recovered. It was his first fumble in 379 rushes, and he has not LOST a fumble in over 420 carries.