Published: Monday, December 4, 2006
Steelers play better against lowly Bucs
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
PITTSBURGH — With the playoff hunt pressure greatly diminished, the Steelers showed some signs of resembling the team that won Super Bowl XL 10 months ago.
A week after being humiliated by the AFC North Division-leading Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers rebounded Sunday with a 20-3 thumping of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-9), another 2005 playoff team who has fallen on hard times.
"Our defense did a really good job setting the tone early," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. "I thought our coverage teams were excellent today."
Those are the kind of comments you'll hear after a game where the only touchdowns were scored by tight ends (Jerame Tuman and Heath Miller) and the winning team's top rusher (Willie Parker) was limited to 61 yards (on 22 carries).
Field goal on final play
In fact, the game was so bland that Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden's decision to kick a field goal on the final play of the game stirred up a minor fuss.
"In the grand scheme of things, does it really even matter?" said Cowher after being asked if he said anything to Gruden about Matt Bryant's 27-yard field goal on the game's final play.
"I've got so much respect for Jon Gruden, so I understand it — no one wants to be shut out in this league," said Cowher, who added that he chose to not go for a field goal late in last week's 27-0 loss to the Ravens.
"I'll just say this — I was in the same position last week," Cowher said. "It crossed my mind for a very, very split second. You saw what my decision was."
Gruden said he expects to be "criticized. I just wanted our quarterback to leave Pittsburgh with something."
While the Steelers struggled on the ground, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger passed for 198 yards and threw two touchdown passes as Pittsburgh (5-7) won for the third time in four games.
Despite playing without strong safety Troy Polamalu and losing free safety Ryan Clark to a groin injury in the second half, the Steelers defense gave up ground but no scoring drives until the very end.
"They marched down the field at the end, so I guess they felt like they deserved it," said safety Tyrone Carter who replaced Polamalu in the starting lineup and made six tackles.
Rookie quarterback
Bucs rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, a Pittsburgh native from the University of Toledo, completed 20-of-34 passes for 175 yards, but was intercepted three times, once by cornerback Bryant McFadden in the end zone.
"He's a good quarterback," Cowher said. "He scrambled around and made some plays."
The Steelers' first touchdown came late in the first quarter after linebacker Larry Foote intercepted Gradkowski and returned the ball 11 yards to the Tampa Bay 27.
"They like to run the ball — we stopped that," Foote said of the Bucs' offense. "So we knew they were going to do the West Coast offense [with] a lot of one-two [step drops] and a lot of slants and stuff. We knew it was coming and we jumped a lot of those things."
On second-and-7, Roethlisberger hit rookie wide receiver Santonio Holmes (playing quite a bit with Hines Ward out following knee surgery) with an 18-yard pass.
Three plays later, Roethlisberger found Tuman alone in the back of the end zone for a 6-0 lead.
Cowher said Jeff Reed's 50-yard field goal (the longest at 6-year-old Heinz Field) with 1:56 to go before halftime was key.
"We were fortunate to get the big lead," said Cowher who admitted it was a fringe decision.
"It was the two-minute warning and I had too much time to think about it. I started to second-guess [myself] and Jeff had a nice swing on that.
"That was a really big play because that put us up by 10 — otherwise they would have gotten the ball with two minutes to go with pretty good field position."
Early in the fourth quarter, Roethlisberger scrambled and found Miller for a 16-yard touchdown and 17-0 lead.
That bulge enabled Cowher to pull some starters, mostly because the Steelers will play Thursday night against the Cleveland Browns (4-8).
"We were able to rest more guys defensively," Cowher said. "We got Willie out of there for the fourth quarter. Every little bit will help given the short week."
Monday, December 4, 2006
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
PITTSBURGH — With the playoff hunt pressure greatly diminished, the Steelers showed some signs of resembling the team that won Super Bowl XL 10 months ago.
A week after being humiliated by the AFC North Division-leading Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers rebounded Sunday with a 20-3 thumping of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-9), another 2005 playoff team who has fallen on hard times.
"Our defense did a really good job setting the tone early," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. "I thought our coverage teams were excellent today."
Those are the kind of comments you'll hear after a game where the only touchdowns were scored by tight ends (Jerame Tuman and Heath Miller) and the winning team's top rusher (Willie Parker) was limited to 61 yards (on 22 carries).
Field goal on final play
In fact, the game was so bland that Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden's decision to kick a field goal on the final play of the game stirred up a minor fuss.
"In the grand scheme of things, does it really even matter?" said Cowher after being asked if he said anything to Gruden about Matt Bryant's 27-yard field goal on the game's final play.
"I've got so much respect for Jon Gruden, so I understand it — no one wants to be shut out in this league," said Cowher, who added that he chose to not go for a field goal late in last week's 27-0 loss to the Ravens.
"I'll just say this — I was in the same position last week," Cowher said. "It crossed my mind for a very, very split second. You saw what my decision was."
Gruden said he expects to be "criticized. I just wanted our quarterback to leave Pittsburgh with something."
While the Steelers struggled on the ground, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger passed for 198 yards and threw two touchdown passes as Pittsburgh (5-7) won for the third time in four games.
Despite playing without strong safety Troy Polamalu and losing free safety Ryan Clark to a groin injury in the second half, the Steelers defense gave up ground but no scoring drives until the very end.
"They marched down the field at the end, so I guess they felt like they deserved it," said safety Tyrone Carter who replaced Polamalu in the starting lineup and made six tackles.
Rookie quarterback
Bucs rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, a Pittsburgh native from the University of Toledo, completed 20-of-34 passes for 175 yards, but was intercepted three times, once by cornerback Bryant McFadden in the end zone.
"He's a good quarterback," Cowher said. "He scrambled around and made some plays."
The Steelers' first touchdown came late in the first quarter after linebacker Larry Foote intercepted Gradkowski and returned the ball 11 yards to the Tampa Bay 27.
"They like to run the ball — we stopped that," Foote said of the Bucs' offense. "So we knew they were going to do the West Coast offense [with] a lot of one-two [step drops] and a lot of slants and stuff. We knew it was coming and we jumped a lot of those things."
On second-and-7, Roethlisberger hit rookie wide receiver Santonio Holmes (playing quite a bit with Hines Ward out following knee surgery) with an 18-yard pass.
Three plays later, Roethlisberger found Tuman alone in the back of the end zone for a 6-0 lead.
Cowher said Jeff Reed's 50-yard field goal (the longest at 6-year-old Heinz Field) with 1:56 to go before halftime was key.
"We were fortunate to get the big lead," said Cowher who admitted it was a fringe decision.
"It was the two-minute warning and I had too much time to think about it. I started to second-guess [myself] and Jeff had a nice swing on that.
"That was a really big play because that put us up by 10 — otherwise they would have gotten the ball with two minutes to go with pretty good field position."
Early in the fourth quarter, Roethlisberger scrambled and found Miller for a 16-yard touchdown and 17-0 lead.
That bulge enabled Cowher to pull some starters, mostly because the Steelers will play Thursday night against the Cleveland Browns (4-8).
"We were able to rest more guys defensively," Cowher said. "We got Willie out of there for the fourth quarter. Every little bit will help given the short week."
Monday, December 4, 2006
With the playoff hunt pressure greatly diminished, the Steelers showed some signs of resembling the team that won Super...
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