Steelers Look Best by Degrees

The most important football game of the season -- the AFC championship game, which some are sure to call the real Super Bowl -- probably will be played outdoors on what could well be the coldest day of the winter in Pittsburgh on Jan. 23. That became probable last Sunday when the 14-1 Steelers won the home-field edge through the playoffs.

Pittsburgh is a running team built for Pittsburgh weather and its probable opponent that winter day will be a passing team, either the 13-2 New England Patriots with Tom Brady or the 12-3 Indianapolis Colts with Peyton Manning.

It’s true that Corey Dillon has given the Patriots what they needed most -- a running back -- and it’s also true that tailback Edgerrin James has been vital to Manning’s play-action game.

But there’s a difference between running for change of pace -- which is what Dillon and James do -- and running steadily with Jerome Bettis and Duce Staley. For title day, the Steelers are counting on either bitterly cold weather or high winds. In milder, windless weather -- with a sloppy field to retard the running backs and defensive backs -- the advantage could shift to Brady or Manning. In any case, Pittsburgh’s offensive line is still the envy of the league, and good blockers can throw blocks in any kind of weather.

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Raven Cheap Shot

The Steelers are where they are today because of the remarkable contributions of their new quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger. As the most successful rookie quarterback since Bob Waterfield of the old Cleveland Rams, Roethlisberger has won all l3 NFL games he’s started.

Nonetheless, on a running team, he throws only an occasional pass. And there came a time in the Baltimore game last week when he couldn’t even do that. After a cheap shot by Raven linebacker Terrell Suggs, a second-year pro from Arizona State, Roethlisberger went to the sideline with one of the most painful of all injuries, badly bruised ribs.

He had just thrown the second of his two touchdown passes to defeat the Ravens, 20-7, when Suggs sneaked up on his blind side and got him well after the ball was gone. Under Coach Brian Billick, the Ravens have been widely known for moves like that.

To win their only Super Bowl, in 2001, they knocked out all three passers they faced in the playoffs. And more recently, in a Baltimore game last September, Roethlisberger’s predecessor, Tommy Maddox, went down and out with an elbow injury.

The Maddox incident backfired on the Ravens -- they’d be that much closer to the Super Bowl today if it weren’t for Roethlisberger -- but who knew that? Who could have expected a rookie to do what Big Ben’s doing?

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Worst Quarterback?

The Denver Broncos are favored to win a wild-card spot in the playoffs today by turning back the only NFL quarterback to throw 49 touchdown passes in one season. Say hello to Manning, whose 34-31 comeback conquest of San Diego in overtime last Sunday identified him as one of the best passers of recent years -- and one of the worst quarterbacks.

As a field general, Manning leaves much to be desired. He loves what’s known as play-action football -- handing off or faking handoffs to runner James before dropping back to throw or fake a throw -- and the faking is essential, but all those handoffs are not.

Against a San Diego team whose quarterback, Drew Brees, passed aggressively on nearly every first down, Manning kept handing off for small gains on time-consuming, profitless drives.

In five quarters, James totaled but 81 yards in 22 carries. In the first quarter alone, Manning had possession for 24 plays to nine for Brees, who led at the end of the quarter, 7-0.

Half a dozen James runs per game would be more than enough to keep any defense honest. Instead, in the second half Sunday, Manning kept running James until San Diego had opened a 31-16 fourth-quarter lead on Brees’ passes.

Just then, when the Colts seemed dead, the improbable happened, reserve Colt running back Dominick Rhodes bringing the kickoff back 88 yards to save Manning.

Until Rhodes stole away, it was obvious that Manning had wasted so much time dancing around in the backfield after handing the ball to James that, now, he couldn’t catch up throwing passes. And that’s bad quarterbacking.

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Nine Consecutive Passes

To win the game in the final minutes, Manning just stood back in shotgun formation and fired away, dispensing with his play-action nonsense on the game’s decisive 80-yard drive.

After Rhodes’ big return had made it 31-23, the Colts needed eight points to tie it, and the crucial problem was getting the touchdown. Manning got it by lining up as a shotgun passer and throwing nine consecutive passes, six of which connected.

There were no runs on that drive. There were no window-dressing stretch plays. There was no elaborate faking. Although Manning often skips around in the backfield before snaps, apparently conferring with teammates and pointing left or right, there was none of that.

There was no need to huddle. There was no need for the sandlot plays Manning may have used at least once. His exceptional wide receivers were open on all nine plays.

He simply stood there and threw with purpose and accuracy -- once on fourth and four, the last time on first and 10 to slot receiver Brandon Stokley, who was in the clear 21 yards away in the end zone. With the clock running down, the superb Charger defense knew it wouldn’t see James at all. Just Manning. That isn’t quarterbacking. It’s great passing.

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Rule Enforcement

The NFL rates a thank-you and an assist on Manning’s record 49 scoring passes. The Colt star couldn’t have done it last year or in other recent years when, defying league rules, pro football’s more active defensive players repeatedly mauled pass receivers, preventing legal catches.

This year, the NFL stopped that.

And in restoring an old rule forbidding physical contact on receivers, the league office has restored the luster to pass offense. The rule book allows linebackers and defensive backs to bump and otherwise obstruct pass-catching opponents on the scrimmage line or anywhere else in what is known as the five-yard bump zone beyond the line. Thereafter, though, no bumping.

Manning’s receivers are all relatively small. Marvin Harrison, a 6-footer, weighs only 178 pounds. Reggie Wayne measures 6-0 and 198. Stokley, at 197, stands 5-11. When bigger defensive players are permitted to manhandle any of these three, the magical Manning pass offense grinds to a halt.

This year, by merely enforcing a good rule, the NFL has made possible better pass-offense play everywhere. When the quarterback of a 7-8 team can complete 14 of 20 and throw a key touchdown pass to beat an 8-7 team, as Houston’s David Carr did last Sunday when he brought down Jacksonville, 21-0, there is joy in Houston if not in Jacksonville -- whose passer Byron Leftwich created weeks of joy there earlier. And, down the road, will generate more.

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Nothing-Doing Game

The St. Louis Rams, playing their first team, beat the Philadelphia Eagles’ second team in an unsatisfactory 20-7 Monday night game that raised more questions than it answered:

* How can the NFL best avoid late-season nationally televised fiascos when the schedule must be announced six or eight months earlier?

* What can be done in a situation like this, when one team (14-2 Philadelphia) isn’t trying and doesn’t want to be there and the other team (7-8 St. Louis) hasn’t played well enough to even be on national television?

* In the long run, does it help or harm the better team to give its best players the night off in a meaningless game to avoid any possibility of the injuries that would disrupt the decidedly meaningful playoff season?

In the NFL’s new TV contracts, the league is planning some answers for questions one and two. Despite that, there will always be similar unforeseeable late-season problems. Clearly, on Monday night, the Rams and Eagles didn’t sell pro football to any new customers.

The only realistic reply to all this may be that in football, as in real life, there are questions that don’t have answers.