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Returns propel Steelers
Ricardo Colclough
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
- Ward makes first move in trying to reach agreement
- Notebook: Big Ben getting attention
- Prisuta: Play before pay
Joe Starkey can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7810.
Hines Ward returned from his 15-day holdout.
Willie Williams returned an interception for a touchdown on the first play from scrimmage.
Ricardo Colclough returned a punt 66 yards for a touchdown, and Ike Taylor returned a second-quarter kickoff 100 yards for another score, as the Steelers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 38-31, on Monday in both teams' preseason opener at Heinz Field.
The Steelers' first-team offense played only one 10-play series, but nobody was complaining. The crowd of 57,276 was too busy cheering when the 34-year-old Williams, the oldest player on the defense, stepped in front of a Donovan McNabb pass and returned it 10 yards for a touchdown 12 seconds into the game.
The pass was intended for running back Brian Westbrook.
"The defense just allowed me to stay in the background," Williams said. "As soon as (McNabb) looked me off, I sat on it."
Colclough followed with his punt return. He caught the ball on a bounce at the Steelers' 34 and darted toward the right sideline, then quickly cut across the grain and outran a band of Eagles before finally diving over the goal line with just 2:05 elapsed in the game.
Colclough had only one punt return last season but might replace Randle El in that capacity this season.
Suddenly, the game began to resemble the Steelers' romp over the Eagles last season - the one in which McNabb and mercurial wide receiver Terrell Owens first showed a crack in their relationship during a sideline confrontation.
Owens, serving a much-publicized suspension, was not with the Eagles last night.
The bulk of the Steelers' first-team defense was removed from the game after the first quarter, in the midst of an Eagles drive that resulted in an 8-yard touchdown pass from McNabb to L.J. Smith that made the score 14-7.
McNabb finished 14 of 19 for 132 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
On the ensuing kickoff, Taylor used a couple of jarring blocks to spring free along the left sideline. He then cut right and sprinted to the end zone with Colclough providing an escort.
No team in NFL history has scored on punt, kickoff and interception returns in the same regular-season or postseason game. Such records are not kept for preseason games.
Other items from early in the game, when both teams had their starters in:
= The first pass intended for first-round pick Heath Miller was incomplete but drew a defensive holding call on linebacker Dhani Jones.
After the Eagles made the score 21-10, the Steelers mounted an eight-play, 80-yard drive behind Tommy Maddox and scored just before the half on Willie Parker's 3-yard run.
Gibson made the hit of the night on the drive, peeling back to crush Corey Peoples on a 33-yard pass from Maddox to Nate Washington, a rookie from Tiffin who finished with a team-best four catches for 76 yards.
Maddox rebounded from a shaky start to finish 7 of 11 for 87 yards and an interception.
After Maddox came Charlie Batch (5 for 9, 89 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions) and Brian St. Pierre, whose 7-yard pass to fullback John Kuhn made the score 38-24 with 6:17 left.
