Monday, October 27, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

After catching just one pass for 6 yards yesterday, Plaxico Burress said he's getting open a lot and getting ignored, and he suggested the coaches need to change their tactics on offense because defenses know what's coming.

"It's kind of embarrassing when somebody plays you man-to-man the whole game and I can't find a way to get my hands on the football," Burress said. "It makes me feel I wasn't out there contributing. ...

"I'm not having any trouble getting open, that's evident. I don't feel one player can really just walk up to the line of scrimmage and take me out of a football game. If he can do that, I want to see him. When it's not coming your way on that particular day, you just take it on the chin, learn from it and go home."

Burress said he has no idea why he is not being thrown to more often. He had four passes thrown to him yesterday. He caught one for a first down. He made a diving effort on a slant and trapped the ball on the ground and it was ruled incomplete. He did not come down with a deep ball in a man-to-man situation in which he complained about interference. And a Rams safety came over and knocked the ball away on a double-team in the fourth quarter.

That last play, he said, underscored why the coaches need to change some things on offense.

"Those are some of the things where we have to switch up things and do stuff differently," Burress said. "When teams see you do the same things for three, four years, it kind of gets repetitive, it gets old.

"People tell you they don't really care about people knowing what you're doing, but it's hurting us. It's plain and simple. All I'm doing is doing what you're asking me to do."

Burress declined to offer any suggestions of what they should try differently.

"I'm not the coach. They're the coaches, so I'm pretty sure they can figure it out. They're the coaches. They played this game. I got faith in them that they'll figure it out."

Burress has caught seven passes in the past three games and has not had more than 64 yards receiving in the past five games. For the season, he has 29 receptions for 436 yards and one touchdown, off the pace of 2002 when he caught 78 passes for 1,325 yards and seven touchdowns. He said he believes his role has been reduced.

"I'm just starting to tell myself to just perfect my role on this team as a player. I've come to realize basically what my role is on this team, just accept it, roll with it and just perfect it and just be as good as you can at it. My opportunities are not much, so you have to make the best of them."

He also said the offense isn't consistent.

"If we're going to run the football, let's run it. If we're going to pass it, let's pass it. I mean, let's do the things we've been practicing and go out and make those things work."

Asked if the coaches were getting away from that, he said, "There were some times that could have been different, but what do I know? I'm just a player, I'm out there playing. I don't really know much. I just go out and play and do the things they ask me to do.

"That's all you can do as a player, just go out and play, execute the things they tell you to do even if it's not in the best situation for that particular instance; just try to make the best of it and make it work."

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