Steelers Give Oilers the Boot in Overtime

It began as a comedy of errors, and although both teams played 15 minutes of pretty good football in the fourth quarter, it ended with another big error in overtime--a fumble that led the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 26-23 upset victory over the Houston Oilers Sunday at the Astrodome.

In the first half, Houston halfback Lorenzo White fumbled a kickoff in the end zone before picking the ball up and running it out to the five-yard line. This is a mistake that few high school backs make.

In overtime, on the Oilers’ first play after the Steelers had won the toss but failed to make a first down, White fumbled again.

This time, Pittsburgh got it on the Oiler 46, made one first down, then called in Gary Anderson to kick the seventh 50-yard field goal of his career for the winning points of the day’s second NFL wild-card game.

It was his fourth field goal of a ragged, sometimes badly played game that was full of dropped passes, mishandled punts, false starts and wasted big plays.

Anderson’s kicking, however, was errorless, putting the Steelers in Denver for next weekend’s second-round match with the favored Broncos.

“It can go unsaid that our football team is on the way up,” Pittsburgh Coach Chuck Noll said afterward. “Playoff time is fun time. That’s what you work for all year.”

Houston Coach Jerry Glanville, who usually has a lot to say, said: “There really isn’t much to say.”

Anderson’s big kick put Glanville’s team away despite a strong comeback performance by Oiler quarterback Warren Moon, who took charge in the fourth period after Pittsburgh had led after the first 15 minutes, 7-0, at halftime, 10-6, and after one series of the fourth period, 16-9.

At that point--after the Oilers had made only one first down in the third quarter--Moon finally got them moving with two impressive drives ending in touchdown passes to wide receiver Ernest Givins.

And now, after slumbering most of the afternoon, Houston was ahead, 23-16.

It didn’t last. As a crowd of Houston partisans swept the Steelers with noisy jeers, they marched 82 yards to get even in regulation time, 23-23, before winning it in the fifth minute of overtime.

Pittsburgh quarterback Bubby Brister was the triggerman for the Steelers on the two touchdown drives they managed in the midst of Anderson’s kicking exhibition--an exhibition in which he improved steadily as the day wore on with field goals of 25, 30, 48 and 50 yards.

Moreover, Brister’s poise--in only his second season as a starter--was eventually the difference. But it was the coaching of Noll that made everything possible for the Steelers, who moved to their first touchdown with well-rehearsed, old-fashioned plays--a Statue of Liberty run and a quick-pitch end run, both by rookie running back Tim Worley.

In the opening minutes, after the Steelers blocked Houston’s first punt at the Oiler 32, Noll’s first call was the statue, which produced 13 yards. His last call was the pitch to Worley for the nine-yard touchdown.

In the old days, the NFL’s better teams often relied on the quick pitch, which requires a big, fast back with the moves to cut around the defensive line without any help from pulling blockers.

Noll, who has been around awhile, brought it back at the right time and place, and Worley made it go as well as Bobby Mitchell used to for Cleveland when Browns’ opponents were keying on Jim Brown.

The game-tying Pittsburgh touchdown drive in the fourth quarter was another Noll masterpiece. At all times, he made sure to keep the pressure off Brister, who was asked to throw nothing longer than 10 yards, and who was assisted at a timely moment by an end-around run by wide receiver Dwight Stone gaining 22 yards to the Houston 29.

From there, the Steelers hammered in the tying touchdown on six runs by their big backs, Worley and Merril Hoge, through a Houston line that had been devastated by injuries. By then, three of the Oilers’ most useful defensive linemen, Ray Childress, Doug Smith and Richard Byrd, were all out.

Noll’s most successful call on that last drive, the one that probably won him the game, was Hoge’s nine-yard draw play to the one-yard line.

And so a sharp, old NFL coach, Noll, combined with some sharp new Steelers--Brister, Worley, Hoge and tight end Mike Mularkey, among others, to end another dream for Houston Coach Glanville.

To most of the 58,306 watching in the oldest of the domed stadiums, Glanville appeared to have brought in the better offensive players--Moon, Givins, wide receiver Drew Hill and four rotating backs, the best of whom is halfback Allen Pinkett.

But as an offensive team, the problem with the Oilers is that their running offense is based on power and their pass offense on the run-and-shoot.

You can usually tell what they’re going to do by the way they line up. When their four little receivers are on the field, it’s hard for them to fake a pass and succeed with a power run.

Conversely, they don’t effectively pass after faking a run.

Good football teams normally run to set up the pass--as Washington and even San Francisco often do--or they pass to set up the run, as Detroit does in its run-and-shoot offense.

But the Oilers don’t do either. And in the overtime period, after their defensive team had stopped Pittsburgh at the outset, Glanville had to make a decision: Should he send in the pass-offense race horses or the power backs?

After thinking it over a moment, he called for the power. But on first down, he gave the ball to White, an East-West runner with some moves who often fails to cut forward at the appropriate time.

On the biggest play of the game, he was still sliding laterally when cornerback Rod Woodson came up and separated him from the ball.

When White fumbled, the New Year’s party was almost over for the Oilers. On Pittsburgh’s first play after recovering the fumble, Noll went back to his trap-blocking offense--he is one of the few favoring this style of attack as an everyday staple--and got 11 yards from Hoge.

That was enough for Anderson.