Clutch defensive stand sets stage for Steelers’ winning drive
PITTSBURGH – Tommy Maddox said he thought about John Elway “on the sidelines one time.” The rest of the stadium thought about Elway right before the biggest defensive third down of the season.
It had been five years since the Pittsburgh Steelers faced a situation similar to the finish of the 1997 AFC Championship Game, when they’d rallied from a 10-point deficit to trail by three with two minutes remaining.
Elway quieted the hopped up stadium with his third-down pass to Shannon Sharpe and the Broncos won the game.
Against the Cleveland Browns this past Sunday, the Steelers had cut a 17-point deficit to five with 3:06 remaining as quarterback Kelly Holcomb trotted onto the field with his teammates in an attempt to end the Steelers’ season.
“That’s probably the most fear I have ever had playing the game of football,” said Steelers defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen.
Fear?
“Fear of losing. Fear of going home,” he said.
“I don’t want to go home. I’ve got nothing at home but my daughters, and that’s great, but this is why – this is what I’m living for is to play this game.”
The Steelers needed a defensive stop and on first down William Green gained 3 yards and was tackled by linebacker Kendrell Bell, who was injured on the play.
“Because Kendrell got hurt, everybody knew they had to take it up a notch,” said von Oelhoffen. “But when he left, I think it was a dime situation anyway, so it wasn’t too bad for us.”
Yes, but the dime – the Steelers’ pass defense – had been shredded by injuries.
Starting cornerback Chad Scott missed the game with a broken hand and backup Chidi Iwuoma was injured early in the game. When Mike Logan was injured on an interception that would later prove to be the game’s turning point, defensive coordinator Tim Lewis was forced to move free safety Brent Alexander into the dime position near the line of scrimmage and insert rookie Chris Hope at free safety.
“Four or five weeks ago, Mike was out and I had to go in and change positions,” said Alexander. “I had to still try to communicate from down inside, which is kind of hard because I’m not in a place where I could communicate to both sides of the field.
“But we did a pretty decent job. We stayed pretty basic in that point in time.”
On 2nd-and-7, with 2:55 remaining, Holcomb dropped back and threw deep to Quincy Morgan, but cornerback Dewayne Washington broke up the pass to bring up third down.
“Dewayne was our star today,” said Logan. “He gave a little pre-game pep story about belief. It was unbelievable. He was talking about something personal in his life, and his beliefs, and he said we’ve got to go out and keep believing, and no matter what happens, keep believing.
“I was sitting in here in the locker room in the fourth quarter and I told the trainer that I’m going to go off his words that he gave us today. I had to go out on the field because I knew it was going to happen.”
“We had to make the stop there,” said Alexander. “We had a timeout and the two-minute warning left and we knew we could make some plays on offense. Tommy was picking them apart at that point in time.”
On 3rd-and-7, with the stadium rollin’ and tumblin’, and Elway nowhere in sight, the Browns opted to throw again.
Holcomb passed to Dennis Northcutt, who’d slipped behind Poteat.
The pass hit Northcutt in the hands, and then it hit the ground.
“Hank was close to him but not close enough. He just dropped it,” said Lewis.
“Fortunately we put some pressure on the quarterback and made it a high ball.
“It all works together, the coverage and the pressure. The coverage wasn’t as good as the pressure, but it worked out.”
Of course, the game wasn’t in hand until the Steelers fair-caught the Browns’ punt at their own 37. From there, Maddox drove the Steelers to the winning touchdown in six plays.
“What this shows us is that we can handle adversity with the best of them,” said von Oelhoffen. “If you can handle adversity, and you get your fundamentals down during the week and are playing smart football, you can’t be beat. You really can’t.”