Plenty of blame to go around for floundering Steelers

By Darrell Laurant  |   Thursday, November 09, 2006  |  Comments( 2 )

Pittsburgh Steelers
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"I don't send messages," Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher said earlier this week. "I deliver them."

Last week's 31-20 loss to Denver dropped the defending Super Bowl champions to 2-6, the worst record ever for a team the year after winning it all. And it also demonstrated most emphatically that the slide wasn't all Ben Roethlisberger's fault.

There was, for instance, the public undressing of Steeler cornerback Ike Taylor by Denver wideout Javon Walker, who caught six passes for 134 yards and two touchdowns on Taylor's watch and also scored on a 72-yard reverse as Taylor whiffed on a tackle.

The bad news is, Taylor -- who signed a $22.6 million contract extension during the offseason -- is considered the Steelers' best cover man, having shut down the likes of Chad Johnson, Chris Chambers, Randy Moss and Marvin Harrison.

This week, though, one of the messages Cowher delivered was that Bryant McFadden is going to replace Taylor in the starting lineup Sunday against visiting New Orleans.

But it wasn't all Taylor's fault, either. Roethlisberger passed for over 400 yards, but continued to serve up interceptions (three). The running game stalled, the Steelers had six turnovers and the third-down conversion rate was a dismal 4 of 13.

Another head that might roll this week is that of WR Cedrick Wilson, who caught a long pass from Roethlisberger, dangled the football in one hand around the Broncos' six-yard line, and had it slapped out of his hands by Denver defender Sam Brandon.

"You'll have to ask him," growled Cowher when asked what Wilson might have been thinking. Rookie Santonio Holmes may get the start instead this week.

Meanwhile, RB Willie Parker said publicly that maybe some of his teammates were satisfied with winning last year's Super Bowl and had gotten a bit too...comfortable.

Rest assured, nobody is going to be comfortable for long with Cowher on the warpath.

Safety Ryan Clark did say he thought the goat's horns hung on Taylor were unfair.

"A lot of us could have helped him out more," Clark said. "On the reverse, we all had a chance to make a play, and we didn't."

Taylor, a former walk-on at Louisiana-Lafayette, took the demotion in stride.

"You have to get over it," he said. "You can't let it linger. You have to use it as motivation."

Follow the Pittsburgh Steelers all season long at RealFootball365.com
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