Steelers.com: Steelers sprint past Titans, 34-7

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Steelers sprint past Titans, 34-7

http://www.steelers.com/article/56844/

Sunday, September 11, 2005

By BOB LABRIOLA

Steelers.com

PITTSBURGH -- The names are different, but the image they portray is the same.

John Henry Johnson, Franco Harris, Frank Pollard, Barry Foster, Bam Morris, Jerome Bettis, Duce Staley.

Big, strong, tough.

But none of them did as much for the Steelers on an opening day as Willie Parker did on Sunday at Heinz Field, and they certainly never did anything the way he does it. While the typical Steelers running back is more bowling ball than bullet, Parker is showing himself to be anything but typical.

Parker, a college backup who came to the team last April as an unknown undrafted rookie, set a franchise record for opening day by rushing for 161 yards, to go along with a touchdown that helped the Steelers roll to a 34-7 win over the Tennessee Titans at Heinz Field.

"He's got the kind of speed you can't coach," said Marvel Smith. "He's a raw talent, basically, but he's so fast and he's just all over the place. He broke a lot of tackles out there."

The Steelers have known about Parker’s speed from his first day with the team, but there also have been the questions. Is he tough enough, can he hold onto the ball, can he carry 25 times a game, can he learn an offense? There were questions, because Parker was a backup on a bad University of North Carolina team, and the natural assumption is that there had to be a reason.

But as a professional, Parker has shown the ability to learn the offense, run between the tackles, not fumble and be durable. And, man, that speed.

"I’m not going to blame it on all the (North Carolina) coaches," said Parker. "I have my share of [fault]. I probably didn’t listen, run the right hole or I tried to do more than the play was supposed to be. I’ll take all that credit. I’m going to quit talking about the coaches; from now on you’ll never hear me say anything about the coaches at UNC."

But since he didn’t play very much in college, there’s a lot of tread left on those original tires.

"That’s a blessing," said Parker. "I didn’t take many hits in college and now my career is beginning really. I felt good out there today. And to all those guys who asked if I could last the whole game; I should ask you that question now. You got your question answered."

There were a lot of answers delivered by the Steelers, and an emphatic one was delivered by the passing attack.

Coach Bill Cowher called the passing attack "not in sync," after the third preseason game, and he didn’t see anything to change his mind in the finale, but against the Titans Ben Roethlisberger became the first quarterback since Trent Green in 2003 to post a perfect passer rating.

Roethlisberger pulled it off by completing 9-of-11 for 218 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

"He’s going to get compared to last year, and he’s not going to live up to anybody’s expectations with where he set the bar," said Cowher about his second-year quarterback. "He’s just got to be an integral part of this thing. I don’t think he’s ever deviated; there’s been a lot of criticism thrown at him but he’s never really wavered at all. He’s a very confident young man. He’s confident, yet he’s critical of himself, and I love that about him.

"I don’t think he was bothered by the things that were said and the concerns that a lot of people had, myself included. He’d say, ‘Just relax coach we’ll be OK.’ OK, well show me. He got a good start today. He’s going to grow as a quarterback. He’s a lot more comfortable and he understands what’s going on out there now.

"We’ve had good practices the last couple of weeks; we’re starting to get Hines [Ward] back into things. The roles are a little bit more defined for Cedrick [Wilson] and [Antwaan Randle] El. We’ll get Quincy [Morgan] involved a little, as the year goes on. We should be able to get a little more comfortable with the roles that some of the people are in, and consequently be a little more crisp with our execution."

The Steelers scored on each of their four first-half possessions – touchdown, field goal, touchdown, field goal – and then when they added two more touchdowns in the third quarter to make it 34-7, Cowher shut things down and played the clock.

"I know we really didn’t throw much in the second half after that second touchdown [in the third quarter]," said Cowher. "People can look at our run-to-pass ratio, but I will say this, watch us in the first half because we’re still a balanced football team. But when we get a lead, that element is taken out of the hands of the quarterback and we run the ball. So we just shut it down. It distorts the numbers a little bit. So, talk about the numbers in the first half."

Parker’s numbers through the three quarters he played are worth talking about. He had runs of 45 and 25 yards, plus a screen pass for 48 more on a day when the Steelers averaged 8.2 yards per offensive snap.

But if the offense seemed to be operating on all cylinders, Cowher wasn’t so happy with the defense. The Titans took the opening kickoff and drove for a touchdown, and even though Roethlisberger finished with a perfect passer rating after completing 9-of-11, Steve McNair completed 9 of his first 10 and that 1 was dropped.

"I felt we were really on edge on defense for most of the day," said Cowher. "We had some big plays. Don’t get me wrong, we played hard, but we gave up some plays, we missed some tackles. Letting them take the ball after the opening kickoff and drive right down against us wasn’t very encouraging. We responded. We had some guys make some plays. Ike [Taylor] was solid.

"Still, overall as a football team, we still have a ways to go."