Joe Starkey: Cowher's Unthinkable Folly

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Joe Starkey
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, September 25, 2006

Nobody was surprised when Ricardo Colclough muffed a punt midway through the fourth quarter Sunday and, essentially, cost the Steelers a winnable game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

You don't have to be a coach, scout or player to know this much about Colclough:

HE CAN'T CATCH!

That's why so many people were questioning coach Bill Cowher coming into the game, wondering why he would keep putting Colclough back there -- never mind putting him back there on a windy day with a critical game on the line, protecting a 17-14 lead with 8 minutes left.
It was unconscionable, really. Incomprehensible. It made Cowher's decision to leave Tommy Maddox out there in the second half of last year's Jacksonville game look like a stroke of genius.

Colclough's been misplaying punts since the early days of training camp. It didn't stop once the regular season began. He misplayed one in each of the first two games -- luckily recovering them -- and was averaging a robust 3.0 yards on his first two returns. He muffed a few in warmups yesterday, too.

I'd rather see Ricardo Montalban returning punts.

The only good return Colclough had was in the preseason against Carolina, and he spiked the ball before he was tackled.

All of which was why I asked Cowher at his news conference last Tuesday if he was going to dress rookie Willie Reid against the Bengals.

Reid, you'll recall, was drafted specifically to return punts. In order to dress him, the Steelers probably would have to de-activate one of their other receivers. I'm guessing they could get by without Santonio Holmes or Nate Washington for a day (Quincy Morgan sure would look good on this team, wouldn't he?).

Meanwhile, running back Najeh Davenport continues to dress and not play.

Anyway, Cowher glared at me and said, "Probably not."

Now, Reid didn't exactly light it up in the preseason, but if the Steelers weren't going to dress him, Cowher should have had Holmes out there late in the game.

Holmes, after all, has been the Steelers punt-return man inside their 10 because, Cowher said, "we feel good about his hands."

Nobody feels good about Colclough's hands. As usual, he tried to catch the punt above his head. It plunked to the ground and bounced off his leg. Cincinnati recovered at the 9 and scored on the next play.

Ballgame.

"You can put that one on me, as well," Cowher said, throwing it in with a couple of costly personal fouls his team committed.

For all the Steelers' blunders, this game was theirs before Colclough's muff. They were dismantling Cincinnati's depleted offensive line and had sacked Carson Palmer on three of the previous seven plays. They were running the ball at will.

After the Cincinnati touchdown, Cowher sent Colclough back onto the field, along with Holmes, to return a kickoff.

Yet, after Cincinnati scored again to make the score 28-17, Cowher kept Colclough on the sidelines and replaced him with Ike Taylor.

Having a little trouble making up your mind, coach?

Colclough actually had the nerve to confront Cowher after Taylor went in.

"We talked about it," Colclough said. "I mean, he's the coach. He's going to make the decisions. He's going to make the right decisions."

Not if he ever lets Colclough return another punt, he's not.

Joe Starkey is a sports writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at jstarkey@tribweb.com