Steelers back in first place
BALTIMORE – Alone at the top, just where the Pittsburgh Steelers thought they belonged. The Steelers worked their way to the top with a 31-18 win over the Baltimore Ravens Sunday before 69,638 at Raven Stadium.
Yet, there was no gloating. Instead, there was an admission that the hardest work still lies ahead.
“This is where we are,” Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. “We dug ourselves a big hole (with an 0-2 start) and we’ll spent more time climbing out of it. This one was big, but we can’t let up because we have another big one next weekend.”
And it’s another one with first place in the AFC North Division at stake. The Steelers are 4-3 heading into Sunday’s showdown at 4-4 Cleveland. Pittsburgh also remained perfect in division games at 3-0.
“It feels good to be back in first place, but it feels better to be playing as well as we are right now,” defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen said.
“It feels pretty good, but there is a lot of football left,” quarterback Tommy Maddox said.”Our offense made our jobs easier,” safety Lee Flowers said. “We played with a lead the whole game. When you’re up 28-3, like we were, you can do whatever you want on defense. That helped a lot.”
Indeed, Maddox and the Steelers offense took lots of pressure off the defense.
The Steelers got on the board first with their third consecutive game-opening drive touchdown. Amos Zereoue covered the last 35 yards for the score, capping a 5-play, 68-yard drive. Maddox was 3-for-3 for 32 yards on the drive.
After a Baltimore punt, Maddox marched the Steelers 80 yards on seven plays and capped the drive with a 20-yard TD pass to Plaxico Burress. That extended Pittsburgh’s lead to 14-0. Maddox was 4-for-4 for 61 yards on the second drive.
Pittsburgh got the ball right back when Mike Logan caused a fumble on the kickoff and Chris Hope recovered. Burress scored his second TD on a 9-yard catch on the first play of the second quarter to make it 21-0.
“The coaches called the under route, but Tommy keeps amazing me by throwing me the ball when I don’t expect him to,” Burress said. “The way that play was unfolding, I expected him to go to someone else with it. But he came to me, then Hines got a good block and I took it in.”
Maddox was as close to perfect as an NFL quarterback can be in the first quarter. He was 8-for-8 for 104 yards and a touchdown pass for a passer rating of 158.3.”I was seeing the field really well,” Maddox said. “I don’t know why, but when you’re in a zone like that, you think youy can do anything.”
The Ravens got on the board on Matt Stover’s 28-yard field goal 10:08 before halftime. Baltimore marched 70 yards on 12 plays, but had to settle for the field goal when Blake overthrew Brandon Stokley on third-and-8.
Antwaan Randle El set up Pittsburgh’s next possession with a 37-yard kickoff return to the Ravens’ 49-yard line. But Maddox showed he’s human, but only by throwing an incompletion, not fumbling the ball away.
The officials originally ruled that Maddox fumbled on a hit by Peter Boulware, but Cowher challenged and the officials overturned the ruling.
“Clearly, it was the tuck rule, at its finest,” Cowher said, referring to last season’s Oakland at New England playoff game, when Tom Brady was ruled to be tucking the ball away instead of fumbling it.
The turnover became an incompletion and ended Maddox’s streak of 11 consecutive completions to start the game. Still, he got the Steelers into the end zone again on another Zereoue run, this one from the 2-yard line, to make it 28-3 5:21 before intermission.
Jeff Blake, a late fill-in for Chris Redman at quarterback for the Ravens, tried to get Baltimore back into the game. He took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched the Ravens 72 yards in 12 plays and capped the drive with an 18-yard TD pass to tight end John Jones. Blaqke passed to Todd Heap for a 2-point conversion to trim Pittsburgh’s lead to 28-11 with 8:58 remaining in the third quarter. Included in that drive was a fourth-down conversion on a pass to Stokley.
On the first play of Pittsburgh’s next drive, Maddox suffered an injured left ankle and in came Kordell Stewart. Stewart had a bad pitch to Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala, but recovered the fumble.
Maddox left the game having completed 15 of 20 passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns, with one interception. His passer rating was 110.4. He returned after a trip to the locker room and his final stats were 18 of 24 for 172. His rating was 104.9.
Burress also left the game, but under different circumstances. He and Baltimore’s James Trapp were both ejected after a messy altercation.
Back in the game, the Ravens came to life offensively. After being limited to 130 total yards in the first half, Baltimore seemed to be on a roll, until a Blake pass to Stokley was intercepted by Dewayne Washington, giving the Steelers possession at the Ravens’ 25-yard line.
Baltimore finished the game with 360 total offensive yards.From there, Todd Peterson kicked a 34-yard field goal with a new holder in punter Josh Miller. Maddox had held for Peterson all season. The turnover helped boost Pittsburgh’s lead to 31-11 with 4:11 remaining in the third.
The Ravens used up the remainder of the third-quarter clock and some of the fourth progessing to Pittsburgh’s 11-yard line. From there, however, they went backwards with consecutive false start penalties, then took a delay of game penalty on fourth-and-10 from the 11.
Blake coerced a pass interference penalty on Washington, then scored on a 1-yard run with 11:11 remaining to make it 31-18.
During that drive, however, Maddox returned to the Steelers sidelines and he returned to the huddle when Pittsburgh took over at their own 24-yard line.
With the Ravens obviously needing a quick stop, Maddox kept the Steelers moving. He got one first down on a pass to Hines Ward, but couldn’t get a second one and the Steelers had to punt, as the clock ticked under eight minutes.
Blake moved the Ravens past midfield, but Jamal Lewis fumbled on a pass reception and Washington recovered for Pittsburgh with 4:39 remaining.
Clark Haggans caused the fumble and Pittsburgh was able to run out the clock.