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Flowers has career game
The strong safety picked off two Jon Kitna passes Sunday, helping the Steelers to a 34-7 win at Paul Brown Stadium.
"That probably matched his career," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said.
Actually, it did. Flowers, more known for his run support and jarring hits than pass coverage, had all of two interceptions for his eight-year career, until yesterday.
Flowers was trying not to make too much of the thefts, two of the three the Steelers had in the game.
"Not any bad thing on Kitna, (but) I thought he made some bad throws today," Flowers said. "It wasn't that we made great breaks on the ball or anything."
On the second interception, a better Kitna throw might have resulted in a touchdown. Bengals wide receiver Peter Warrick was approximately 5 yards behind Flowers, but the ball never made it.
Linebacker Joey Porter, who had two sacks and forced a fumble, said a vigorous pass rush deserved credit for the interceptions, too.
"That comes off the pressure on the quarterback," he said. "You get some pressure on the quarterback, you can make him throw some uncomfortable balls.
"When he's getting hit like that, he's going to get the ball off faster than he wants to."
Flowers said his role has changed somewhat in the Steelers defense as teams have come out trying to pass it into submission. Instead of playing near the line of scrimmage as an eighth man in the defensive box, Flowers had been dropping into deep pass coverage.
"They're making me play a lot of Cover 2 on the post right now," he said. "I'd like to be down in the box. But whatever my role is this year, I'm going to do it. If that's my job to get more interceptions, I'll take them."
It could end up paying off for Flowers, who will be a free agent after this season. Run support is nice, but interceptions get attention.
Besides, Flowers had been beating himself up for not making a tackle last week in New Orleans. Saints running back Deuce McAllister had come free through a hole vacated by rookie Steelers linebacker Larry Foote. Flowers rushed up to fill the gap but missed his diving tackle attempt on the shifty McAllister, who ran for a 52-yard touchdown run.
Flowers still hadn't forgotten yesterday.
"I take a lot of pride in tackling," he said. "Even though that wasn't my gap, I still had a chance. I touched him. I feel like if I can put my hands on him, I can tackle him."
Flowers made five tackles against the Bengals, including a crushing hit early on Warrick.
The Steelers held the Bengals off the scoreboard until late in the third quarter, a touchdown set up by a Tommy Maddox interception that gave Cincinnati the ball at the Steelers 9-yard line.
The Bengals were held to 268 yards of total offense and only 78 on the ground.
"That's how we've got to play," Flowers said. "That team that you guys saw on the field, that's what you guys have been expecting. We've just got to keep it going."
The Steelers ran the ball effectively, got an early lead, and the defense looked dominating. Admittedly, this was against a Cincinnati team that fell to 0-6 with the defeat.
It was, however, a start for the Steelers, now 2-3. They play again next Monday, playing host to Indianapolis. Earlier this season, the Steelers have lost in prime time to New England and Oakland.
"Unfortunately, we've been very poor on national TV," Flowers said. "We've got to step it up."
