Maddox, Steelers notch huge comeback win
January 5, 2003 Print it
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By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer
PITTSBURGH -- The Cleveland Browns have been haunted for 16 years by The Drive. Now they've got to live with The Comeback by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Tommy Maddox, the Comeback Player of the Year, led one of Pittsburgh's great comebacks ever, throwing three touchdown passes in the final 19 minutes as the Steelers rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half to stun the Browns 36-33 Sunday in an AFC wild-card game.
Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala's 3-yard touchdown run with 54 seconds left won it as the Steelers, coming off so many playoff disappointments at home under coach Bill Cowher, kept their postseason going with one of the franchise's most memorable victories.
"I don't think anybody in the building thought we weren't going to win," Browns quarterback Kelly Holcomb said. "I think everybody thought we were going to go on."
They Steelers denied the Browns their first road playoff victory since 1969, their first playoff win of any kind since returning to the NFL in 1999 and gave themselves a huge momentum lift going into Saturday's divisional round game at AFC second-seeded Tennessee.
The Jets, shutout winners Saturday over the Colts, now play Sunday at top-seeded Oakland -- no doubt after thinking for most of the afternoon they were going to Tennessee.
"I was already in Oakland," Browns receiver Kevin Johnson said, wistfully, referring to where Cleveland would have played.
Not even the Steelers of the '70s ever pulled off a comeback from a deficit like this mostly because they rarely fell behind like this. Even in the famed Immaculate Reception game, they trailed Oakland only 7-6 before Franco Harris' game-winning tipped pass scoring catch in 1972.
"It's one of those wins that you can't see happening, but you just keep hoping it will keep going the way it's going," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said of the frantic comeback.
For the Browns, it was an eerie flashback to John Elway's memorable 98-yard "The Drive" to beat the Browns for Denver in a 1987 playoff game.
The Steelers were shredded all afternoon by Holcomb, who threw for 429 yards and three touchdowns, and trailed 24-7 until Maddox's 6-yard touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 3:50 left in the third quarter.
"I can't say how many times I must have said, "We've got time. We have time, so don't panic,"' offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey said. "I never felt there was a panic button pushed by anyone."
Except the Browns.
Their game-long inability to run the ball -- rookie star William Green ran 25 times for just 30 yards -- proved their undoing in a game they seemed to have locked up. It would have been their first playoff victory over their biggest rival, who also beat them in January 1995 in their only previous postseason matchup.
"This is going to hurt. This burns inside," Browns receiver Dennis Northcutt said. "It's going to be very hard to move on."
Unable to wind the clock down, the Browns were forced to throw on almost every down, and, once the Steelers' defense tightened up, that left Pittsburgh the time to come back.
Even after Pittsburgh's comeback began, the Browns had enough left to drive for Phil Dawson's 24-yard field goal and Holcomb's 22-yard touchdown pass to Andre Davis that made it 33-21 with 10:17 remaining.
The Steelers, who have lost four home playoff games under Cowher since 1992, including last year's AFC championship game to New England, didn't fold this time. It helped they rallied from 11 points down in the fourth quarter only last week to beat Baltimore 34-31.
The Browns forced Pittsburgh to punt once, but Maddox -- making his first playoff appearance since a few insignificant downs with Denver in 1992 -- led a 77-yard drive that ended with his 5-yard scoring pass to Hines Ward with 3:06 left, cutting the deficit to 33-28.
Still, the Browns -- who had already convinced thousands of Steelers fans to head for the exits -- needed only a first down or two to run it out and secure one of the sweetest victories in the franchise's history, new Browns or old.
"We came in here with the idea this was like a heavyweight prize fight, that you've got to knock them out because they're not going to quit," Browns coach Butch Davis said.
But Northcutt, who had made big play after big play with two scoring catches and a long punt return, couldn't hold onto a Holcomb throw on third-and-12 and the Browns punted.
"I just dropped it, plain and simple," Northcutt said. "It hurt standing on the sideline, knowing I could have secured the game."
Maddox, going 30-of-48 for 367 yards and overcoming two interceptions, then found Plaxico Burress for 24 yards, Hines Ward for 10, Burress again for 17 and Ward for 7. Fuamatu-Ma'afala, playing the power back role that Jerome Bettis usually plays when he's not hurting with a sore knee, then powered up the middle from the 3 with 54 seconds left, and the Steelers' sideline erupted.
The game ended with Holcomb's 16-yard completion to Andre King at the Steelers' 29 as the Browns couldn't get into range for a possible tying field goal.
Until Maddox took over, it was all Holcomb all the time in a remarkable performance by a quarterback starting only his fourth NFL game as Cleveland tried to win a road playoff game for the first time since 1969. Now, that winless streak has reached eight.
Holcomb, subbing for the injured Tim Couch, had no running game for support, not a single minute of playoff experience -- and no fear. Only Bernie Kosar, who threw for 489 yards in 1987 against Jets, has thrown for more yards in a Browns playoff game.
Holcomb, one of the most inexperienced quarterbacks to start an NFL playoff game, threaded completions of 83, 32, 29, 15 and 43 yards against the NFL's seventh-ranked defense but one weakened by injuries to cornerback Chad Scott and safety Mike Logan.
Holcomb set the tone on the third offensive play of the game, a third-and-14 from the Browns' 16, to find Kevin Johnson behind safety Brent Alexander for an 83-yard completion to the 1.
Green, coming off a 187-yard game against Atlanta, scored on the next play, one of his few positive-yardage runs of the day, and just like that, it was 7-0 Browns with only 1:16 gone.
Pittsburgh, troubled by turnovers all season, then turned it over three times in a span of 51/2 minutes, twice on Maddox-thrown interceptions by Daylon McCutcheon, but only rookie Antwaan Randle El's fumbled punt was turned into points.
Randle El, unwisely electing not to make a fair catch with Darnell Sanders bearing down on him, fumbled into Chris Akins' hands at his own 32. On the next play, Northcutt got behind Hank Poteat for a 32-yard scoring catch that made it 14-0.
With the Steelers desperately seeking something to get them back into the game, Randle El supplied it with a 66-yard punt return touchdown. But Cleveland answered with Dawson's 31-yard field goal off a soggy turf that was softened by a pregame snow shower.
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