Here is something that could make Maalox the beverage of choice for offensive coordinators around the league. Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said there is still room for improvement for outside linebackers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley, who combined for 27.5 sacks last season. "...

The ball glanced off his fingertips. He fell to earth gripped by disbelief, frustration, emptiness. The game-winning, championship-securing, legend-making touchdown pass just eluded him. Santonio Holmes came back to the huddle with a message for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. I want to be the guy w...

Wednesdays used to be almost as memorable on the South Side as Sundays on the North Side. Wednesday was the day the Steelers practiced third downs, the first-team offense against the first-team defense, in a best-of-five showdown for platoon supremacy. And when coordinator Dick LeBeau's defense ...

By now, it's something of a laughing matter on the South Side, and one the Steelers have good-naturedly broached at wide receiver Limas Sweed's expense. "Little, friendly jokes," Sweed said, "something about 'Stickum.' "You gotta expect that, especially in the NFL...

His players call Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau "wizard" and there is some irony to that. In the classic film "Wizard of Oz," an average man uses bluster and gimmickry to create the illusion that he is great and all-powerful. LeBeau, maestro of the No. 1 defense in th...

Ruth Bobel took a drag off her cigarette before eagerly offering a prediction. "The Steelers are going to kick the Ravens' (butts)!" said Bobel, 55, of Bloomfield, as she walked down Forbes Avenue Thursday. "I'm not scared of them at all. And neither are the Steelers. "Th...

Willie Parker said opposing teams don't fear the Steelers' running game the way they did in past years. And the two-time Pro Bowl running back understands why. "If I was on the defensive side of the ball, I wouldn't respect the running game," Parker said Wednesday, "becaus...

There are inherent problems with having the National Football League's top defense, perhaps none more acute than trying to guard against panic when an opponent manages even a modest accomplishment. Such was the case against the Tennessee Titans, who managed to become the first team to have more ...

When asked this week to describe his definition of blitzing, Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau said that it occurs anytime his top-ranked unit rushes more than four players. So when outside linebackers James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley rush the quarterback at the same time as the three down...

Willie Parker's frustration with the running game is rooted in many facets, everything from his lack of production and decreased activity to what he said is an ineffective use of the two-tight offense and a departure from what he calls the "Steelers mentality." But it is more than that...