After season-opening loss to Patriots
Cowher ready to ‘move on’ PITTSBURGH – Less than 12 hours after a humiliating 30-14 loss to the New England Patriots on a Monday night game in Foxboro that opened the season, Steelers coach Bill Cowher was reminded that his team was still in first place in the newly configured and seemingly conquerable AFC North Division.
Cowher actually smiled at the comment.
“You are the eternal optimist,” he said. “But you are right.”
No matter how badly the Steelers play, at any point in the season, there might always be reason to smile when talk turns to the weak division of which the Steelers are a part. That might be the reason Cowher didn’t announce any changes at his Tuesday press conference.
“We’ll look at it as a staff. I’ll point out to them what I thought. But at this point, with a short week, we need to address Oakland,” Cowher said. “We’ll make sure we point out the things that need to be corrected and let them know. Like I said to them, it’s the first game. We lost. Don’t accept it; deal with it. And let’s move on.”
When he takes a hard look at the game, Cowher will realize he needs to address problems with turnovers, penalties, and in both his run offense and pass defense.
The Steelers lost the turnover battle, 5-1, and committed 13 penalties for 112 yards against the Patriots. The Steelers gained only 74 yards rushing and allowed 280 yards passing. That’s nearly 100 yards less than what they averaged on the ground last year and nearly 100 yards more than what they allowed, on average, through the air.
And the penalties, particularly a stretch of three after reaching the New England 1-yard line in the middle of the second quarter, were particularly harmful. But it began with a curious illegal procedure call on left tackle Wayne Gandy that left Cowher baffled.
“I watched everything, and that’s a good question,” Cowher said. “I watched it on tape. I’ve seen the TV copy. I’ve seen every view. And Tunch (Ilkin), you’ve asked a very good question.”
At the time, the game was tied, 7-7. After the series, the Patriots scored on four of their next five possessions, eventually building a 30-7 lead.
“That’s huge,” Cowher said of the missed opportunity at the goal line. “Momentum is such a fine line, and certainly you score a touchdown there, or a field goal, and you go up 10-7 after starting out throwing two interceptions. That’s big. Even going in at halftime tied up. It’s big. And who knows? Maybe the outcome isn’t any different. I don’t know. But certainly, on the road, you can’t go down and have that opportunity and come away with zero points.”
Yet, with a deficit of only 10-7 at halftime, Cowher felt good about the obstacles his team had overcome.
“And then we had a very disappointing third quarter,” he said. “You can’t turn the football over as many times as we did. I thought it was not a very good performance that we put on and certainly defensively we gave up a lot of third downs in that third quarter and a lot of big plays. We did to ourselves what we didn’t want to do and consequently we lost the game.”
Cowher pointed out that a 40-yard touchdown pass on third-and-13 and a 19-yard completion on third-and-17 were critical in New England building on its 10-7 halftime lead. The two touchdown drives gave the Patriots a 24-7 lead.
In the quarter, the Patriots converted 5 of 6 third downs into first downs. The rest of the game, they were 0 for 7. But it was the third quarter – much like the second quarter in last year’s opening-day loss to Jacksonville – that upset Cowher.
“If we’re going to be the team we want to be, you cannot allow teams to convert third-and-13s and third-and-17s and you can’t turn the ball over with that fumble – three times – and expect to win many games. Not against good football teams and certainly not against the defending world champions.”
Cowher was asked if this was as good a time as any for a wakeup call.
“I’d like to not have it at all,” he said. “I don’t think you can win football games playing that way. I mean, the penalties, the turnovers, the big plays. You’re not going to win football games like that. You can’t. You’re not going to. I don’t care who you’re playing. You’re not going to win football games doing that and those are the things we have to correct.”
With the long, slow and possibly easy race that’s looming in the AFC North Division, it’s likely that Cowher will move slowly in that direction.