Analyzing Steelers’ Turnaroud

An irrepressible quarterback with his chin stuck out, daring somebody to throw a punch. A tight-lipped coach with his jawline set, daring somebody to disrupt his stony composure.

Bubby Brister and Chuck Noll, pro football’s odd couple, are responsible for one of the more remarkable turnarounds in a pro football season--and for the appearance of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL playoffs.

The Steelers were written off after they had opened the season with two embarrassing losses--51-0 to the Cleveland Browns and 41-10 to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Neither Noll, who has coached the Steelers to four Super Bowl wins, nor Brister, who had only one winning season as a pro, lost hope, and now Pittsburgh is at the Astrodome today to play the Houston Oilers in the American Football Conference wild-card game.

“He didn’t freak out,” Brister said of Noll. “When we lost the first two, he didn’t go crazy. He didn’t throw stuff or start cutting on the players or pointing fingers. He told us what we needed to do, and that was work harder, come earlier and stay longer.

“He kept us together, and that’s one reason why we’re in the playoffs right now.”

“The one thing I respect most about Chuck is his consistency,” said Pro Bowl tackle Tunch Ilkin. “He just stays the same. He’s not going to panic. He’s not going to quit, and I think the players sense that.”

The players seemed to believe Noll when he told them they were not as bad as those first two scores, and when Pittsburgh beat the Minnesota Vikings, 27-14, in the third week of the season, the turnaround had begun.

“We, individually, had faith,” said Noll. “It was a question of getting the confidence in one another, and that is gradually built throughout the year.

“They’re building pride, and they came back and were not discouraged when everyone else was. That’s an important element.”

With the two early losses to the AFC Central Division rivals came calls for Noll’s firing. Fans said the game had passed by Noll, said Myron Cope, Steelers broadcaster and talk-show host. But Noll didn’t seem to hear that. “What they are saying,” Noll said, “is, ‘Why aren’t you winning more?’ ”

Cope said, “Thanks to Emperor Chaz, as I like to call him, this team stayed right on course. He might have been the only guy in town who thought they would. He has blinders on like no coach I have ever seen.

“Now the guy they wanted fired during the first half of the season is the guy they want for coach of the year.”

Noll’s single-mindedness was evident Tuesday morning when the Steelers met for the first time after Minnesota’s victory last Monday night over Cincinnati, which, in combination with Pittsburgh’s victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday, boosted the Steelers into the playoffs.

“He said, ‘Congratulations,’ and then he started talking about Houston,” said Brister. “He didn’t spend any time patting us on the back for Tampa Bay. He went right on to Houston.”

Noll kept his players focused, but this young team--the Steelers are the youngest in the league, with 12 rookies and 30 players with three years of experience or fewer--took its inspiration from Brister, with his almost manic optimism and his street-fighter posturing.

“He doesn’t take any stuff out there,” Ilkin said. “He didn’t let us get down. He’s a hard-nosed guy, and everybody believes in him.”

Brister said, “We don’t want to be just happy making the playoffs. We want to do a lot more. We want to shock the world. We want to go to the Super Bowl.”

To do that, Pittsburgh must first beat Houston, a team that has beaten the Steelers twice this season. Houston won easily in October, 27-0, at the Astrodome. But it took a last-minute touchdown to secure a 23-16 victory in December, making the Oilers the only team to defeat the Steelers during the final six weeks of the season.

The Oilers ended the season much as the Steelers had begun it, losing to Cincinnati and Cleveland by a combined score of 85-27.

“We haven’t been able to write the script,” Noll said. “I don’t think anybody would have (written it) the way our season has gone. It’s kind of been stranger than fiction.”

Noll and Brister are not the only characters in this dramatic turnaround, from 5-11 last season to 9-7 this year.

First-round draft pick Tim Worley, who missed training camp in a contract dispute, ran for just 353 yards during the first 11 games of the season, fumbling often.

“I was lost,” said Worley. “But I’ve been playing pretty good in the last four weeks.”

He gained 417 yards in the last five weeks, as he learned to hold his eagerness in check and wait for the blocks set by an offensive line that features two more first-rounders, Tom Ricketts and John Rienstra, who finally are coming around.

Defensive back Rod Woodson was the first-round pick who missed last year’s training camp in a contract dispute. This year, he leads the league in kickoff returns with a 27.3-yard average and has four interceptions in a Steeler secondary that rekindles memories of the Super Bowl teams with its tough hitting.

Wide receiver Louis Lipps, voted the team’s most valuable player by his teammates, gained 944 receiving yards and 180 rushing yards.

Noll fired three assistants in the off-season and another resigned. Their replacements have been part of this turnaround. It took time for the players to learn, but defensive coordinator Rod Rust and linebackers coach Dave Brazil, who came together from the Kansas City Chiefs, have revamped a Steelers defense that has no superstars but is increasingly tough-tackling and stingy.

George Stewart came from Notre Dame to take over a special-teams unit that gave up six blocked punts last year, an NFL record that doubled the old mark. This year, none of Harry Newsome’s punts was blocked until the final game of the season, when Tampa Bay got one.

“We’ve been improving every day, and we haven’t peaked yet,” Woodson said. “Teams that do well in the playoffs are hot right now.”