Wednesday, October 15, 2003

The Steelers are 2-4 and on a three-game losing streak. The good news: They have a bye week. The coaching staff can analyze the team's problems and make the moves necessary to start winning.

The bad news: The Steelers' problems are going to take more than two weeks' worth of practice and preparation to remedy. In fact, they may take two good drafts and a couple of shrewd free-agent signings to fix.

The Steelers will not make the playoffs this season. They are more likely on the verge of beginning a rebuilding process that will see them miss the postseason for several campaigns.

Moving Alan Faneca from left guard to left tackle appears to shore up an important position. But it's merely a case of the Steelers picking their poison on the offensive line.

Faneca may do well at left tackle, but he's better at left guard. Keydrick Vincent will take Faneca's place at left guard, so you still have a backup-caliber player starting on the offensive line. With Marvel Smith going back to right tackle, it basically means that Vincent takes Todd Fordham's spot, with Faneca playing out of position. If that's an upgrade, it's a marginal one. Same with Chukky Okobi playing center while Jeff Hartings moves to right guard to take Kendall Simmons' spot.

Give the coaches credit for trying something, but these changes still leave the offensive line a unit that's well below average.

Anyway, wasn't Smith supposed to a "natural" left tackle, ordained at birth by God to excel at that position? And if that wasn't true, why isn't Wayne Gandy still a Steeler?

The defensive backfield still stinks despite making two interceptions at Denver. Containing Steve Beuerlein isn't enough to give me a warm, fuzzy feeling about the defensive backs just yet. Great plays don't make up for grievous mistakes, and Brent Alexander dropped that ball.

The quarterback situation is much more debatable. The Steelers have stopped throwing the ball deep, which means they have eliminated the whole reason for making Tommy Maddox the starter in the first place. Given the putrid nature of the offensive line, short passes (with short drops by Maddox) could be a seen as a measure designed to save Maddox's life. But, for whatever reason, he no longer plays to his biggest strength.

The schedule eventually gets easier for the Steelers, but not just yet.

After the bye week, they play at home against St. Louis, then visit Seattle, so 4-4 isn't happening. Maybe 3-5, but maybe 2-6. If it's not over now, it will be then. Teams that are 3-5 or 2-6 don't suddenly win seven of their last eight games no matter how weak the opposition.

A poll at Post-Gazette.com asks whether you believe the Steelers will still make the playoffs. Fifty-seven percent say no.The rest belong in straitjackets.

Nothing good should be taken away from the loss Sunday at Denver. Sure, the Steelers battled back, and they played pretty nifty defense, and that was a nice drive to tie the score, and imagine how well we would be doing if The Bus were in there all the time!

But the Steelers don't need close, courageous losses right now. It's time to get good results and the much-needed accompanying confidence. Not the phony, chest-thumping bravado the Steelers always have. I'm talking about the confidence necessary to stop a foe from engineering a last-minute winning drive. Could the Broncos have moved down the field any more easily?

Anyway, here's the really bad news: The Steelers need drastic help at offensive tackle and cornerback. They need to think about shoring up quarterback and safety, too. They obviously can't fix all that over the course of a bye week. Like it or not, it's time for the Steelers to rebuild.

And like it or not, it's going to take years.

The NFL salary cap and the constant free agency it creates supposedly make rebuilding easy. But not at offensive tackle and especially not at cornerback, where teams hoard good players by any means necessary. You can always go get a linebacker, and the Steelers often do. But Dre Bly was the only above-average corner available in free agency this past off-season.

As for the draft, good corners are a prized commodity there, too. Terence Newman and Marcus Trufant were long gone when the Steelers picked in the first round this year, and that was even with the Steelers trading up to No. 16 to get ... to get ... aw, heck, somebody help me here. Whom did the Steelers pick in the first round this year?

Smith is a decent tackle. The Steelers don't even have one decent corner. So they need to get one quality tackle and two quality cornerbacks. How hard will it be to do that? How long will it take to do that? And do the Steelers even recognize the problem at cornerback?

Don't forget, while the Steelers solve some problems -- if they solve those problems -- others may crop up. Guys like Jason Gildon are getting old. Sooner or later, Hines Ward might not get up after taking all those big hits and making all those big blocks.

Not to be the voice of pessimism, but it's easy to imagine the Steelers experiencing another three-year playoff drought like they did from 1998-2000.

There's only one thing they can do: Get more linebackers.

Mark Madden hosts a sports talk show from 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays on WEAE-AM (1250).

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