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With Maddox, Steelers keep defenses guessing
Pittsburgh's Hines Ward jumps on top of Plaxico Burress after Burress scored
Chaz Palla/Tribune-Review
Jerry DiPaola is the Tribune-Review high school sports editor. He can be reached via e-mail.
The other team guesses pass, and the offensive coordinator calls a run. The defense guesses run, and the call is pass.
"Sometimes, you can feel like a coordinator is a play late in calling the defense," Maddox said. "You break a big run and the next play they try to get eight in the box, and you're able to hit a pass. It just seems like you can really tell when you get them shifting the way you want them to shift. When you get in a flow of the game, you can feel that."
That's essentially how it's been for the Steelers since Maddox replaced Kordell Stewart at quarterback. The team has scored four touchdowns in each of the four games in which Maddox has started, and only one of the 16 scores — a 99-yard kickoff return by Antwaan Randle El in Cincinnati — didn't come from a handoff or a pass.
"We're making a lot of plays," offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey said. "Guys are catching the ball. Tommy is putting the ball in there on some unbelievable throws. Our guys are very confident in what they're doing. There are no guessing games going on."
The Cleveland Browns stopped Stewart in the game Sept. 29 at Heinz Field, but they couldn't stop Maddox, who rallied the Steelers to a 16-13 overtime victory. Browns coach Butch Davis notices the difference.
"Because of Tommy Maddox's ability to throw the football," he said, "they are throwing the ball more than they were earlier in the season. I think that has made them more diversified and a much more difficult team to defend."
Entering the rematch with the Browns on Sunday in Cleveland, the Steelers' league ranking in total yards per game has improved 33 percent (from 21st to 14th) with Maddox as the starter. It is ranked 16th in passing yards — compared to 15th when Stewart was the starter — but the average yards per game is 210.1, up from 184.3.
Credit Maddox and his uncanny accuracy — his 66.7 percent completion rate is fourth in the NFL — but also give credit to the improvement in the running game (from 24th to 13th) and the balance achieved by Mularkey in his play-calling.
"In our last four games," he said, "we've thrown the ball 119 times and we've run the ball 119 times. Did I purposely do that? No. It just kind of unfolds that way. On everything, you'd like to have 50-50."
Before every game, Mularkey scripts the first 10 plays. He doesn't always run them in order — such as Bill Walsh used to do when he was coaching the San Francisco 49ers — but he seldom deviates from the list.
Once, he ran each play in order, and the result was a 21-3 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the 2001 opener, Mularkey's first game as a coordinator. Now, Mularkey usually sticks to the list but not the sequence.
The night before a game, he meets with his offense in the team hotel and reveals the first two. Mularkey said that meeting allows him to go through every possible scenario that can occur on those plays.
"So, when it happens, it's not a surprise to you," he said. "You don't have to sit there and think about it. It's all reaction."
With Stewart at quarterback to start the first three games of the season, Mularkey called a run on the first plays. Jerome Bettis was stopped after a short gain each time.
With Maddox, the Steelers have opened with a pass in all four games, with completions of 9, 5, 9 and 4 yards. The second play also was a pass in Cincinnati (a 36-yard reception by Plaxico Burress) and Baltimore (a 15-yard catch by Hines Ward).
Overall, the Steelers have run 78 times on first down, compared to 64 passes. That's just enough passes on a traditional running down to keep the defense guessing.
"He's gotten into a rhythm early calling plays and keeping defenses off balance," Maddox said. "He's not afraid to throw anything at them."
The script is tossed out after it has served its usefulness.
"Mike uses them as an opportunity to get in the flow of the game," Maddox said. "We see a lot of things on film during the week, and we also know there's a good chance with our offense that we're going to see things a little different. It gives us an opportunity to get a feel of what they're going to do. We get off the script pretty quick and we go from there."
The Steelers have been passing on their first few snaps, but Bettis and Ward agree that, predominantly, the team likes to run, a situation that probably won't change now that the weather is turning cold and damp. Six of the team's final nine games will be played in the northeast.
"The running game is definitely going to be critical," Bettis said.
"We know the weather is going to get bad," Ward said, "and we're not going to be able to throw the ball 30, 40 times a game. If we go out and mix it up good and make some plays, that's all we can really ask."
Ward said a good running game helps in other ways — it sets up the pass and helps keep Maddox healthy by slowing down the pass rush.
"If we don't go out there and run protect, we're going to have a long day in the passing game," Ward said. "We can't afford for them to get a good hit on Tommy and Tommy ending up leaving the game."
