PITTSBURGH -- There are games and situations that define a quarterback. How will he react to playoff adversity? How does he respond when half the stadium is calling for his backup, not knowing that half the struggles are the result of more than just bad passes?
The Steelers learned a whole bunch about their quarterback Sunday. Tommy Maddox, the reclamation project who has gone from insurance salesman to quarterbacking a playoff team, made a bold, loud statement to his teammates.
This is now officially his team.
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| Bill Cowher hugs Tommy Maddox after his QB engineers a stirring comeback Sunday.(AP) |
Using a no-huddle offense for most of the second half, with Maddox calling almost all of the plays at the line of scrimmage, Maddox completed 30 of 48 passes for 367 yards and three touchdowns. He bounced back from two first-half interceptions to lead the Steelers to their biggest comeback under coach Bill Cowher and their biggest playoff comeback ever.
Maddox won the pitch-and-catch duel with Cleveland quarterback Kelly Holcomb, who completed 26 of 43 passes for 429 yards and three touchdowns while picking the Steelers secondary apart.
The two looked as if they spent the day in 7-on-7 drills, as if it was a training camp practice in July.
After Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala scored the Steelers' go-ahead touchdown with 54 seconds left -- they also got the two-point conversion to go up by three -- the Browns' last-ditch effort to tie ended when Andre King couldn't get out of bounds in time after catching a pass at the Pittsburgh 29.
"There's nothing better than when someone sticks a knife in your back, you take it out, and then stick it in their back," said Steelers defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen. "That's a great feeling."
The Browns spent the day moving at will on the Pittsburgh defense behind Holcomb, who was starting for the injured Tim Couch. With a group of skilled, fast receivers, Holcomb made throw after throw to put the Browns up 17-7 at the half. Holcomb had 232 yards passing in the first half, while Maddox threw for 116 and the two interceptions.
Boos rained down on Maddox for much of the second quarter, and you half expected Kordell Stewart to start warming up.
"Tommy don't care about that," said Steelers receiver Terance Mathis. "You have to understand where Tommy is coming from. The man has been out of football for a few years. He took the hard way to get back, Arena ball to the XFL to here. Some boos aren't going to bother Tommy. The man was partially paralyzed one week. Boos ain't going to bother Tommy."
By now, the odyssey of Maddox is well-documented: a former first-round bust with the Denver Broncos, bounced by three other teams, spent time in the Arena League, won the XFL MVP award and then was signed by the Steelers to be a backup, only to take over for Stewart earlier this year.
Nobody could have imagined that he'd be standing on the field with the Steelers' season essentially in the palm of his passing hand Sunday.
After what he'd been through, it certainly wasn't going to faze him. In fact, Maddox seized the moment. As the Steelers took the field for the second half, Maddox gathered the entire team around him for a few choice words.
"I can't say what he said," Steelers safety Lee Flowers said. "His wife doesn't think he talks that way."
| Up Next | ||
 | at |  |
| Pittsburgh | Sat. 1/11 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS | Tennessee |
| 3832 | Pass Yds | 3320 |
| 2120 | Rush Yds | 1952 |
| 5952 | Tot Yds | 5272 |
| 5 | Off Rank | 17 |
| 3460 | Pass Yds Allowed | 3540 |
| 1375 | Rush Yds Allowed | 1424 |
| 4835 | Tot Yds Allowed | 4964 |
| 7 | Def Rank | 10 |
| Complete head-to-head | ||
"Tommy had to get some stuff off his chest," said receiver Plaxico Burress.
It was the second time this year Maddox had made a passionate plea to his teammates. The first time came at the half two weeks ago in their key victory over the Bucs at Tampa.
"I wanted them to see it in my eyes that we still had a chance to win," said Maddox. "Talking to them coming out at halftime, telling them we are going to get this done. Everybody believed it and was excited. I felt led to do it. I felt like people were looking at me to see how we were going to come out and play."
Maddox isn't one to say a whole bunch, so when he did, it hit home, said players on both sides of the ball.
"He put it on him," said Steelers linebacker Joey Porter. "When your quarterback gets the entire team around him and says that he is going to get it done, you have to believe he will. And he did. He went out and made the throws to get us into the next round."
When the Pittsburgh offense went three plays and out on their first possession of the second half, and the Browns answered with a touchdown pass from Holcomb to Dennis Northcutt to make it 24-7, the Steelers went to the no-huddle. It was a move they had made in an earlier victory over Cleveland behind Maddox, a game in which he also rallied them from 14 down.
In the no-huddle, Maddox called plays at the line, setting the tempo and forcing the Browns back on their heels.
He drove the Steelers 71 yards in 10 plays to a 6-yard touchdown pass to Burress to cut it to 24-14 with 3:50 left in the third quarter. After a Cleveland field goal made it 27-14, the Steelers cut it to six points when Maddox hit tight end Jerame Tuman in the back of the end zone from 3 yards out.
Maddox was cooking.
Holcomb never stopped cooking.
He made it 33-21 when he hit Andre Davis with a 22-yard touchdown pass with 10:17 left. By then, some Steelers fans were seen heading for the exits. Their faith in Maddox seemed not nearly as strong as that of his teammates.
What they lost sight of was that everything Maddox had fought through to get to this spot, including being carted off the field earlier this year with no feeling in his arms and legs, had made a 12-point deficit seem like nothing. Even if it was the fourth quarter of a game the Steelers were favored to win, and he was in his first playoff game.
Maybe Burress summed up Maddox best when he said, "Tommy was right on target, man."
In the second half, Maddox completed 20 of 32 passes for 252 yards and the three touchdowns. On the last two, playing against a Browns defense that was stupidly in a soft zone rushing three or four, he hit 4-of-5 for 58 yards. One of those plays was indicative of the zone he got into in the two-minute offense.
With the Browns playing two-deep on one play, Burress said he noticed a soft spot in the middle of the defense. He reacted to it and changed his route, and Maddox hit him for a 24-yard gain.
"Tommy just made the right read when he saw I was open in there," said Burress.
That set up the go-ahead touchdown, and set off a wild scene inside Heinz Field.
It was the kind of drive that great quarterbacks make when the game is on the line. It's hasty to use "great" next to Maddox's name, but what he did against the Browns was impressive and could be a big step in his career.
"I think the thing that I was excited about was that we knew we had plenty of time left to move it down there," said Maddox. "Once we got into that spot, all of sudden, you didn't have to take as many chances."
That go-ahead score ruined a big-time effort by Holcomb and the Cleveland offense. It was an effort that nearly won the game, the passing strategy forced by their inability to run the football. But when Northcutt dropped a key third-down pass with 2:49 left, the Browns left the door open for Maddox.
"We might be going home if he didn't drop it," said Porter.
He did, Maddox didn't, and the Steelers have playoff life with their third three-point, comeback victory over the Browns this season.
"I bet they don't want to see him anymore," Porter said.
There might be a lot of teams that don't want to see Maddox, starting Saturday with the Titans.
He walked into Heinz Field on Sunday an uncertain starter, a guy with good numbers and a nice season but still with plenty of people having reservations about him.
One quarter, one comeback, one playoff victory later, those perceptions might be changed. The former insurance salesman who has played in virtually every league featuring a football proved a most important thing Sunday.
He is far more than just the MVP of some hyped-up spring league. Tommy Maddox belongs.
