Steelers’ Postseason In Jeopardy
Team MVP May Turn Out To Be NFL Schedule Maker
By Jerry DiPaola

The Steelers' run toward the playoffs started as a crawl on all fours, turned into a steady jog, regressed to an unsteady stagger and-as November turned into December-could hit the wall.

Steelers fans, take this opportunity to bow down and say thanks for that easy December schedule.

If the Steelers win the AFC North in the first year of the 32-team, realigned National Football League, the schedule-maker deserves nearly as much credit as some underachieving starters.

The Steelers' schedule for the decisive month of December calls for five games, with three at home. Only one of the five opponents had a winning record through 10 games. That's the NFC South-leading Buccaneers, who welcome the Steelers to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL, on the night before Christmas Eve. The others are the Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens.

Meanwhile, the schedules for the Cleveland Browns and Ravens, the Steelers' two chief rivals in the division, are a little tougher. The Browns must travel to Jacksonville and serve as hosts to playoff contenders from Indianapolis and Atlanta. The Ravens play the New Orleans Saints and Browns at home before closing the season against the Steelers at Heinz Field.

It appears that the Steelers can win the division and earn the eighth playoff berth in coach Bill Cowher's 11-year tenure. Failure to do so would equate to a collapse of monumental proportions, although it wouldn't be unprecedented.

Four years ago, the Steelers were one year removed from a losing appearance in the AFC Championship game-as they are today-and took a 7-4 record into the final five games of the season.

They lost them all. A year later, the Steelers were 1-4 in December. In 1996, they were 1-3, still qualified for the postseason and won their first game at Three Rivers Stadium. Yet, the team concluded its season with a flat, lifeless performance in a 28-3 playoff loss to the Patriots in New England.

What is there to indicate that December, 2002, will be different? Not much, really.

As they hit the stretch run of the season, the Steelers had serious questions about their running game and their defense, specifically their pass rush and dime. They weren't sure if running back Jerome Bettis could remain healthy for this important and lengthy span of games-and it appears that they'll need him desperately. Plus, they were devastated by quarterback Tommy Maddox's spinal cord and brain concussions, suffered in Nashville on Nov. 17, when the team hit its low point of an up-and-down season.

There is no clear indication when Maddox will resume his career, but the initial prognosis was encouraging. Maddox said he will return.

"That was never a question," he said. "This is what I do and this is what I love to do."

Maddox's decision has the support of his team and his family. "The last thing my dad told me was take it slow, see what you can do, and hurry up and get back out there."

Meanwhile, the team had to rely on backup quarterback Kordell Stewart, the deposed starter, to carry the offensive load in the initial stages of Maddox's absence.

The Steelers could do a lot worse.

The Philadelphia Eagles lost quarterback Donovan McNabb (out with a broken ankle), and had to turn to Koy Detmer, who had six career starts entering this season and completed only 15 of his 44 pass attempts in the past three seasons.

The Denver Broncos feel comfortable with Steve Beuerlein as the replacement for Brian Griese (knee), but Beuerlein is 37. With Stewart, the Steelers call on their most valuable player from a year ago. He has played in two AFC Championship games and has been a starter-on and off-since 1997. Little-known fact about the Stewart of 2002: Through 10 games, his interception rate (4.4 percent) was better than that of Maddox (4.7 percent).

Actually, the problems facing the Steelers late in the season may involve much more than their quarterback. The lack of great speed in the secondary led to a No. 27 ranking in pass defense.

Overall, the defense was 19th in yards allowed. Nearly half the time, it forces third down (48.7 percent), the opponent turns it into first down and no team in the AFC was that inefficient after 10 games.

The results have been horrifying to Steelers fans who just assumed their defense was among the best in the league. The Steelers allowed 30 or more points in five of their first 10 games.

How about this for perspective? In the previous three seasons before this year (50 games), the Steelers allowed 30 or more points a total of five times. The last time the Steelers were that generous (1988), Chuck Noll was the coach and the team finished 5-11.

The problems stem from several sources, not the least of which is the lack of great speed among the defensive backs and strong safety Lee Flowers' sudden, unexpected problems making tackles in the secondary. Inside linebacker Kendrell Bell, the 2001 NFL defensive rookie of the year, played only on first and second downs in his first games back from a serious ankle injury, and his presence was missed in Tennessee when the Titans converted 12 of 19 third-down situations.

Cowher was at a loss to find an answer. "You almost get to the point where you start pressing and trying to make the perfect call," he said. "The players start to press and try to make sure they are covering everything, and I give some credit to Tennessee.”

Cowher pointed to third-down and red-zone defense as two major problems, adding the inconsistencies by former kicker Todd Peterson and turnovers (25, second-most in the league after 10 games).

Meanwhile, the running game turned sour, thanks to injuries to Jerome Bettis (knee) and Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala (pectoral muscle) and the inability of Amos Zereoue to provide a consistently productive performance. He totaled 334 yards in two games-needing 66 carries to get there-but followed that up with 16 in nine carries against the Tennessee Titans.

Neither Bettis nor Zereoue was averaging 4 yards per carry after 10 games, and Ma'afala, a powerfully built but injury-prone back, was healthy long enough to get only 15 carries for 66 yards.

There has been mostly harmony among the Steelers for the past two seasons, but at one point after the Titans game, members of the defense complained about strategy.

All-Pro, but underachieving, outside linebacker Jason Gildon said much of the personnel is the same, but some of the strategy has changed, and it isn't working.

Outside linebacker Joey Porter said the defense is merely "mediocre" until it solves the third-down problem.

"Right now is not the time to start to question what you are doing," said Cowher, who pointed out that Porter missed some tackles against the Titans. "When you talk to players after the game, a lot of times there is frustration. Now is the time that we have to step up and we have to start answering and be part of the solution, not be part of the problem.

"That is the thing that our whole team has to understand and I think they do. We identified the things that you would like to correct, and talking about it will not get it done. We have to go out there and get it done and get it done on the field and let that be our talking."

With every game taking on nearly the same importance as a playoff encounter, Cowher must be careful that the players don't believe-and take to heart-all the bad things being said about them.

"We always come in here (to the news conference) and we talk about all the negative things," Cowher said. "You have to talk about it. I understand that. At the same time, if they are getting told all the time all the things they are not doing and you are not talking about the things you are doing well, it is like telling a kid he is a bad kid and he starts to believe he is a bad kid."

The Steelers aren't bad. In fact, they have one of the best teams in the AFC, when they are playing up to potential and everyone is healthy.

But they're getting beat up by a long season, and their hopes on making the playoffs rest on a schedule that doesn't appear especially difficult.

But if Houston and Carolina all of a sudden start improving, all bets are off.

Jerry DiPaola covers the Steelers and NFL for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.