Pittsburgh Steelers Are No Longer a Pushover

Although no self-respecting coach or player will admit he does it, the San Francisco 49ers privately had to be licking their chops a few weeks ago as they glanced ahead at their schedule.

There, as tantalizing and as vulnerable as a ripe apple on a tree, stood the Pittsburgh Steelers, ready to be plucked Sunday at Candlestick Park.

A week after that would be another weakling from the AFC Central, the Cleveland Browns. A double bye in the schedule for the 49ers, who already have had one official week off?

Well, it sure looked that way, but how things have changed.

True, the Browns still aren’t scaring anybody, but the Steelers are.

After laboring the first four weeks, unable to generate an offensive touchdown, the Steelers have scored more points the last two weeks than any team in the league. And that includes the 49ers, who happen to rank first in the NFL in offense and are coming off a 45-35 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

So what has turned it around for the Steelers? And why wasn’t Joe Walton, the former New York Jets coach and new offensive coordinator for Pittsburgh, hanging from that apple tree?

Patience is the reason, says Steelers coach Chuck Noll. Plain and simple patience, even if the offense did develop a little slower than even Noll would have liked.

“We had no timetable,” he said. “We thought we would have most of the problems solved before now. We had shown inklings of getting it done. The past two games, I think, were a little more indicative of what’s possible.”

Indicative? How about a complete reversal. In consecutive weeks, the Steelers beat San Diego 36-14 and Denver 34-17.

There was no bigger critic of Walton’s changes than quarterback Bubby Brister. In Brister’s mind, to conjure up an old phrase, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

After all, didn’t these Steelers come within two points of beating Denver and advancing to the AFC title game last season?

True, Noll pointed out, but his team also was last in the NFL in passing in 1989 and, worse than that, last in overall offense. Besides, Noll had always been enamored by some of Walton’s offensive ideas when the Steelers played the Jets.

Thus, when Walton got the heave-ho in New York, Noll invited him aboard. Soon, posturing between Walton’s new system and the players began.

Only two weeks into the season, in fact, it appeared a mutiny was afloat, with Brister publicly blasting Walton. Noll, who has been through more highs and lows than any active NFL coach, responded by inviting Brister to go along with the plan or step aside.

Brister, although he really had no other choice and is given to occasional outbursts, complied and couldn’t be happier as the Steelers prepare for the 49ers this week.

“I think we’re more comfortable with what we’re doing to start with,” Brister said. “We cut back some where we get more repetitions in practice on things that we were going to do in the game.

“We went back to a few old plays that used to work for us in the past. And they’ve been letting me do some things at the line of scrimmage.

“But, for the most part, we’re still doing the things that Joe Walton put in in training camp. We’re just getting more familiar with them and we’re executing better and we’re eliminating our mistakes. That’s one big key for our success.”

Walton, who has become a reluctant interviewee but was awarded the game ball by the team after the victory over San Diego, had to give in some, too.

For example, Walton’s initial procedure was to send in plays to Brister by messenger. The problem with that, however, was that often the plays were too complicated to translate during the time between downs. Confused, Brister called back-to-back timeouts in the San Diego game.

“It was real frustrating,” Brister said. “Everything was new, and some things we did well they took away from us. It really wasn’t that complicated. It’s just that everybody on the field was doing something different.”

More than once, the Steelers got off plays that resembled the Keystone Kops. There were players running in the wrong direction, collisions in the backfield and botched blocking assignments.

“It was too confusing,” Brister said of the play-calling routine. “It was a good bit of stuff to carry in, and (the messengers) would be winded running in from the sideline. By the time I got it deciphered and gave it back to the team, the clock was running down and I didn’t have time to check off.”

Against Denver, the Steelers opted for a Reader’s Digest solution. Brister received hand signals from the coaches, giving him the basics of the play before the messenger arrived with added details.

Is it working? Evidently. The Steelers are on a two-game roll to even their record at 3-3 after losing their opener 13-3 to Cleveland, defeating Houston 20-9 and losing 20-3 to the Los Angeles Raiders and 28-6 to Miami.

Moreover, Brister’s quarterback rating, which had fallen faster than the stock market, jumped from 41.1 to 76.4. While that doesn’t compare with the likes of a Joe Montana (107.4), it places Brister seventh in the AFC, two notches below Cincinnati’s Boomer Esiason and Buffalo’s Jim Kelly.

In a six-quarter span of the Steelers’ last two games, Brister has completed 76 percent of his passes for 485 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions. He called an audible in Denver and threw a 90-yard pass to Dwight Stone.

When the Broncos stacked their defensive line to put heat on him, Brister’s retort was, “I’m cocky as heck when I get an eight-man front.”

Said wide receiver Louis Lipps: “Guys were fired up. Bubby was more poised than ever.”

At the rate rookie tight end Eric Green is going, you can expect Brister’s quarterback rating to keep improving. Green, a 6-foot-5, 274-pounder, was the Steelers’ surprising first-round draft pick from little Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

When Green continued to balk at the money the Steelers offered him, Noll said that the tight end might as well forget about reporting because he would be of no help without camp and preseason exposure.

Well, even the time-tested Noll can be wrong sometimes. Of the seven passes Green has caught since his activation Sept. 24, five have been for touchdowns.

Already 49ers coach George Seifert expresses concern about tackling Green, particularly with San Francisco low on healthy linebackers.

The Steelers, though, are suddenly enjoying the best of both worlds. Their offense is healthy, and their defense, ranked first in the AFC and second in the NFL, has been playing well all along.

In addition, the Steelers have traditionally given the 49ers problems. They were the only team to beat the Super Bowl-bound 49ers in 1984, although a controversial pass-interference call had something to do with that 20-17 victory at Candlestick Park.

But, to prove it wasn’t a fluke, the Steelers, despite a brutal passing day for then-quarterback Mark Malone, upset San Francisco 30-17 by intercepting Montana three times in the 1987 season opener at Pittsburgh. The 49ers didn’t win the Super Bowl that strike-riddled year, but they did wind up with the best regular-season record, losing only twice.

“They’ve always played tough against us, for whatever reason,” Montana said.

Perhaps the timing could be all wrong for the 49ers this Sunday, too.