Smoke from the Diesel-Stillers/Hawks

The Steelers continued their tumble into the abyss Sunday losing their 5^th straight to fall to 2-6. The Stillers fought hard but it is clear the front office made many mistakes lavishing huge contracts on undeserving veterans in 2001 and 2002. Being that we know Kevin Colbert is little more than a puppet GM, the failure of this team falls directly on the shoulders of Bill Cowher.

QB:

�Tommy Maddox seemed to aim his passes once again and was below average for three quarters. In the 4^th quarter Mularkey let Maddox wing it a little and the results were good but not enough. Maddox� final numbers were 21 of 35 for 226 yards with 1 TD and no INT�s. Not bad, but the offense did not take advantage of scoring opportunities in the 1^st half. Grade: B-.

RB:

Bettis rumbled 17 times for 50 yards, that is a paltry 2.9 yards a carry. Zereoue chipped in 7 times for 32 yards and the offense looked fairly stagnant for 3 plus quarters. The run offense seemed to be clicking at times but once again the Stillers could not convert on third downs. This made it impossible to sustain long drives and wear the Hawks defense down. In the 4^th quarter the Stillers fell behind and had to wing it thus making the running game irrelevant. Grade C.

WR & TE:

Hines Ward had another solid day with 8 catches for 66 yards and the Steelers only TD of the day. Ward was tough as nails and played hard all day, as if we�d expect anything else. Plex seemed to come alive late in the game and hauled in a deep ball to the 2 that set up Hines� TD. Randle El chipped in with 3 grabs for 45 yards and Tuman grabbed 2 for 22. All in all it would seem like a productive day but the Stillers had to settle for 3 field goals. This group needs to find ways to get open in the red zone and should get a boost from the return of Jay Riemersma. Grade: B.

O-line:

The O-line was better today but not good enough. They failed to open a hole for Jerome Bettis on a key 3^rd and 1. One member of the line that sucked was Oliver Ross. I can remember on at least 2 different occasions Ross getting beat in about one second. One of those 2 sacks came on a 3^rd and short that killed a promising drive in the 1^st half. When Marvel Smith comes back to right tackle (assuming he is fully healthy) this o-line may actually perform at a high level for the first time this year. Grade: B-

D-Line:

The D-ine had a good day as Shawn Alexander was held to 48 yards on 20 carries. One notable exception was when Morris (who rushed 3 times for 48 yards) broke the big run on the Hawks first drive. They still had to settle for three and other than that play the d-line was tough against the run and did an admirable job applying pressure on the QB. Grade B+

LB:

The big three were solid today. Jason Gildon did record a sack but did little else the rest of the day. The Stillers went back to their Blitzburgh roots a little and dropped Hasslebeck 5 times. Farrior had another big game as did Joey Porter. Those two were solid in coverage all day and tough against the run. Bell also was solid against the run recording 5 tackles with an assist. This group had a good day and can not be held responsible for the Hawks scoring 2 TD�s in the 4^th quarter. As always, Gildon is not included in this grade. You can look to the weekly Gildong report for his grade. Grade: B+

Secondary:

The secondary was again toasted this week. Cowher finally made an intelligent move benching Dewayne Washington and inserting Deshea Townsend into the starting role and getting Ivan Taylor onto the field in the nickel and dime. Hasslebeck torched the secondary on both 4^th quarter TD drives and the meek attempt to tackle Darrell Jackson on the 2^nd TD drive led to his benching. Burnt Alexander also missed a tackle on that play and Cowher should follow suit and bench him in favor of Chris Hope. This unit would have looked far worse had the Hawks receivers not dropped 2 wide open TD�s in the 1^st half. Grade: D-

Special Teams:

Reed was 3 for 3 on field goal attempts and Josh Miller had 4 kicks for a 35.8-yard average. Randle El did little returning the punts and he and Ivan Taylor both averaged about 20 yards a return on kickoffs. The coverage units gave up a 23 yard kickoff return and a 21 yard punt return but were solid otherwise. Grade: B-

Coaching:

Knowing his team was 2-5 and needing a win Cowher played a conservative game plan until the 4^th quarter when it was too little too late. Cowher has been too slow to make changes to his sagging secondary and the Stillers have paid the price. Cowher has too much say in personnel decisions and has been reluctant to make changes. This is because he does not want to look bad for encouraging Dan Rooney to lavish huge contracts on undeserving veterans. Mike Mularkey was too conservative in his play calling in the first half and Tim Lewis once again allowed his secondary to be torched. It would have been much worse if Seattle�s receivers did not 2 easy TD�s in the first half. Grade: D-.

The Steelers are 2-6 and will need to run the table to earn a playoff berth. The Ravens will not be better than 10-5 going into the last game against the Stillers but what am I talking about. The Stillers being 9-6 heading into that game is most likely a pipe dream. As for this week�s game, Jeff Blake makes just enough mistakes for the Stillers to beat the Red Birds 24-13.