Wednesday, October 29, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

As Coach Bill Cowher noted yesterday, "there are a lot of words that can be used" to describe the state of his 2-5 Steelers.

	Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher exhorts his offense on the bench during the first quarter against the St. Louis Rams in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003. (Gene J. Puskar, Associated Press)

You can hear them on talk shows, on the street, in the not-so-homey Heinz Field stands and throughout Western Pennsylvania's neighborhood bars. Some can even be printed in a family newspaper, like the one the coach suggested.

"I certainly believe desperate is not a bad word," Cowher said during his weekly news conference. "We need to start playing that way."

The Steelers need to start playing better than they have in their first seven games or they will be headed for their worst record in Cowher's 12-year tenure. That came in the 1999 season, when the Steelers finished 6-10. That's the previous time the Steelers had a four-game losing streak, but this one is different. That team did not have the high expectations this one had. The Steelers were heavy favorites to win the bedraggled AFC North Division and were among the favorites to reach the Super Bowl.

Cowher recognized as much after his team lost in the playoffs in overtime Jan. 11 at Tennessee. On Jan. 14, Cowher said, "I really believe that this team has an opportunity next year with the nucleus in place to make another run at a championship, and that is the only goal we will ever have."

Yesterday, he admitted he now doubts whether the Steelers are good enough to do that.

"Obviously, there has to be doubt," he said, "because we are not getting it done."

He declined to address the comments made by Plaxico Burress, who said he is constantly open but is not getting the ball thrown his way and that the offensive play-calling is too predictable. Burress made those comments in the locker room after Sunday's 33-21 loss to the St. Louis Rams, their third consecutive loss in Heinz Field.

Burress caught one pass for 6 yards Sunday and has seven receptions in the past three games.

"When people talk after a game, I just understand the whole significance of the emotions that are poured into it," Cowher said. "I made a statement to the assistant coaches. I said you guys don't have to do this, but I go in there and talk to [the media] first before the players. That is not always an easy thing to do. I have understood that to be part of the responsibility of this job. But I can also understand with players after a game that there is frustration and a lot of disappointment. Sometimes some of the questions that are being asked of them are very difficult to answer.

"There are not a lot of answers right now. There are not a lot of answers to questions."

Maddox put it simply when he was asked how a team gets out of what Cowher called it's "funk."

"Win a game," Maddox said.

Four-game losing streaks and last place in the division can cause players and coaches to press, which compounds mistakes. Cowher talked to his players and his staff about that, with particular emphasis to his offensive and defensive coordinators.

"The same things with coaches as with players is that you have to be careful that you are not trying to worry about making the perfect call. You start to worry about things that, instead of attacking an offense or a defense, you just have to be careful that you are not more concerned with what you are not able to do.

"I think you start to get into a very tentative mode in a play-calling standpoint. If you are asking the players to play loose and to play aggressive and for them to take chances, be aware."

One such example came Sunday when Marc Bulger threw deep down the middle to Torry Holt. Joey Porter had good man-to-man coverage, and free safety Brent Alexander moved up from behind in a deep zone. The ball looked as if it were overthrown, and Alexander stopped, waiting for the interception. Instead, Holt caught it.

"Brent Alexander is sitting there and, instead of going up to get the ball, he is going to cradle it in," Cowher said. "Why? Because he is thinking about the Denver game and he made sure that he did not want to drop this ball because he thought it was going to be overthrown.

"Go up and get the ball! I couldn't believe he threw the ball. I thought it was going to be an interception. Brent kind of thought it was going to be overthrown. But instead of going to get it, he was real cautious. I said that is the type of thing that you have to guard against doing, making sure you do the right thing instead of being aggressive and decisive.

"You can't be tentative in your thinking because when you are, and you start to be too cautious, you are a step behind. Being a step or an inch back, when you are pinching the little things, that is the difference in making the play or not making the play. It is true with players and coaches. We just have to be careful that we don't fall into that."

They've fallen into a lot after seven games that even words cannot describe.

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