– Steel City blues: The Pittsburgh offense is asked to please phone home. Collect.
How bad has it gotten?
Well:
The Steelers` (1-3) ”attack,” which finished with only 160 yards against the Dolphins, hasn`t scored a touchdown since the second quarter of last season`s 24-23 playoff loss to Denver.
The Steelers have managed only six field goals by Gary Anderson, an interception-return score and a punt-return touchdown in their four games.
Sunday, the offense was held to minus yardage on seven of its first 12 plays and managed only two field goals by Anderson.
The offense has gone 4 hours 30 minutes 26 seconds without scoring a TD.
The Steelers entered the game last in the NFL in total offense, passing offense, average gain per play, average gain per pass, first downs and third- down efficiency.
Thousands of the 54,691 fans at Three Rivers Stadium left early in the fourth quarter and others chanted ”Let`s Go Bucs,” in honor of the NL East champion Pirates, when the Steelers` offense took the field.
– Fightin` words: Adding spice to Sunday night`s Phoenix-Washington game was Cardinals coach Joe Bugel`s tirade over some comments made by Redskins quarterback Gary Hogeboom about his former team.
Hogeboom, a 10-year pro who started 13 games for Phoenix last season, was waived Sept. 3 by the Cardinals and then signed Monday as a free agent by the Redskins.
Upon his arrival in Washington, Hogeboom told reporters: ”It`s good to be here with a class organization because once you`ve been in the league 11 years, you find out what the class organizations are.” Hogeboom also said the Cardinals ”told me all along, `You`ll be on the team. Don`t worry about it.` ”
”That`s a lie. No one was ever promised a job,” said Bugel. ”We explained to him why we were going with younger guys and he didn`t say anything. When he left, he left on good graces. We said he was a class act.
”He`s been there one day and now he`s in the classiest organization in the league? If you call us classless, you better be ready to back it up. It`s uncalled for and I don`t like it one bit. He better be ready to fight me on the 50-yard line. If you`re going to call me a bad name, say it to my face, not through the media. I`m sick of it.”
– Cut that out: All-Pro kicker Eddie Murray missed four field-goal attempts in the Lions` 24-21 loss to Green Bay. That`s twice as many as he missed in 1988 and 1989 combined. In each of the past two years, Murray hit 20 of 21 field goals to tie the NFL accuracy mark of 95.2 percent first set by Washington`s Mark Moseley.
Murray was angry at Packers cornerback Jerry Holmes, a teammate last year in Detroit. Murray said Holmes was taunting him before each of his four attempts. Murray went so far as to take a poke at Holmes after the third miss. The worst day of his career? ”If there`s anything worse, I`ll quit,”
Murray said.
– They said it: Dolphins safety Louis Oliver on the Steelers` inept offense:
”It got to the point where you could hear (the Steelers) arguing with each other. The running backs were barking at the line, and (quarterback) Bubby
(Brister) was telling his line, `C`mon, protect me.` That gives you the OK to tee off on them.”
Brister on the non-offensive Steeler offense: ”If I were in the stands, I`d boo, too. There`s something to boo about.”
