Strange Days Indeed When Kitna’s a Factor

It hadn’t been done since 1988, 13 long years, so lengthy a wait that the locals had begun to doubt it would ever happen again.

When it finally did, on a frigid December Sunday afternoon, a goodly portion of Pennsylvania went cold, uncertain how exactly to react to such news.

But there it is, in black and white, in the record book, unmistakable and undeniable:

Jon Kitna, 411 passing yards against the Pittsburgh Steelers .

The last time someone passed for 400 yards against Pittsburgh, the Philadelphia Eagles were on their way to the championship of the NFC East. Yes, it had been that long.

Thirteen years ago, Doug Williams passed for 430 yards against the Steelers in a 30-29 Washington Redskin victory. It wasn’t considered that big a deal at the time; the Steelers were in a down cycle, en route to a 5-11 last-place finish, and Williams was coming off an MVP performance in the previous season’s Super Bowl.

But this latest bit with Kitna, how can you explain it, other than to guess the Steelers were caught looking ahead to the first-round bye in the playoffs?

Kitna, the lowest-rated passer in the NFL, starting at quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals only because the other options are Scott Mitchell and Scott Covington, completed 35 of 68 passes for 411 yards to lead the Bengals, who had lost their previous seven, over the Steelers, who had won their previous seven, in overtime, 26-23.

How is this possible?

Well, the Bengals have their methods. Given a chance to win the game in regulation, with Kitna still shy of the 400-yard mark, Cincinnati kicker Neil (Nerve) Rackers shanked an extra-point attempt with seven seconds left. This kept the score tied at 23-23, sent the game into overtime and gave Kitna the assist he needed--four more completions in the extra period, enough for the historic 411.

That set up Rackers again, this time with a 31-yard field-goal attempt after supportive teammates such as Corey Dillon sent him out there with warm words of encouragement.

“You don’t want to know,” Dillon said when asked by reporters to repeat the warm words of encouragement. “It ain’t something you can print.”

Rackers, helpfully providing the G-rated transcript, said, “They were saying, ‘Just kick it. It’s only 31 yards. Just kick the ball.”’

So Rackers did. And before another Bengal could utter another expletive, Rackers’ effort hooked just inside the right upright, inches to spare, and Cincinnati had defeated Pittsburgh, sending the Steelers to their locker room with their third loss of 2001 and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Yes, it’s a strange league.

By throwing four interceptions and yielding 544 yards to the 5-10 Bengals, the Steelers (12-3) clinched the AFC’s home-field advantage because Oakland also lost, to Denver, 23-17, leaving the slump-ridden Raiders at 10-5 with one game to play.

That’s two consecutive losses for the Raiders, 2-3 in their last five and suddenly in danger of losing the AFC’s No. 2 seeding and a first-round bye. Their final regular-season opponent? The never-in-December New York Jets, who lost again on the last December Sunday of 2001, 14-9, at home, to the 3-12 Buffalo Bills.

“We played like a team that was 2-12,” said a disconsolate Jet Coach Herman Edwards, whose team is actually 9-6 and still in the running for the AFC’s last wild card despite the franchise’s long-standing tradition of peaking around Thanksgiving.

The Jets are vying with 9-6 Baltimore and 8-7 Seattle for the conference’s last two playoff spots. The Seahawks remained in contention by bringing Trent Dilfer off the bench to defeat San Diego, 25-22, a result that has to depress Charger Coach Mike Riley, who now probably will be fired, but it couldn’t have surprised him, considering the pregame tale of the tape:

Dilfer, in his previous 13 starts: 13-0.

Chargers, in their previous eight starts: 0-8.

Seattle can sneak into the playoffs if the Seahawks defeat Kansas City and the Jets lose to Oakland.

(Considering the recent form of the Jets and Raiders, it should be noted: The Jets would qualify for the final wild card with a tie.)

In the NFC, the six-team playoff field is set, courtesy of an improbable victory by Philadelphia and the lack of the same by Atlanta.

The Eagles, 1-9 in their previous 10 games against the New York Giants, 3-4 in their previous seven at home and 0-12 in their previous 12 attempts to win the NFC East title, finally overcame the odds, and themselves, by holding off the Giants at Veterans Stadium for a 24-21 victory and their first division championship since 1988.

Philadelphia braced for the occasion as you might expect, prepared for the worst. In New York, the newspapers spent the preceding days discussing the season-saving comeback against Seattle, the game plan to contain Donovan McNabb and Michael Strahan’s quest to break Lawrence Taylor’s single-season club sack record. In Philadelphia, the newspapers spent the preceding days discussing the 1964 Phillies.

Another soul-savaging collapse by the home team was imminent, that was the consensus view. And it continued, past each of McNabb’s three touchdown passes Sunday, past David Akers’ go-ahead field goal with seven seconds to go.

Because, sure enough, there was Kerry Collins, on the game’s final play, passing to Tiki Barber, who lateraled to Ron Dixon, who kept running, and running ... inside the Eagle 40 ... the 30 ... the 20 ... . the 10. It was happening again--how could it not?--before someone in an Eagle uniform, a new Philadelphia folk hero named Damon Moore, raced over to bump Dixon out of bounds at the six-yard line as time expired.

By that much, the Eagles finally reclaimed the NFC East, earning them consecutive games against Tampa Bay--first in next Sunday’s regular-season closer, then in the first round of the playoffs. Tampa Bay clinched the NFC’s last wild card at 9-6 when Atlanta fell to 7-8 with a 21-14 loss at Miami.

“I really thought I was going to get in,” Dixon said.

He wasn’t alone, not at the Vet, not in Philadelphia, where, at last, the worst-case scenario was eliminated, at least for the next two weeks.