Inside the Ropes

The Steelers took to the practice field at noon Saturday knowing they'd have last night off and all of today at their disposal, right up until a scheduled team meeting at 7:30 p.m. And for a while, they appeared to be concentrating more on their upcoming break than the task at hand. Coach Bill Cowher responded by barking repeatedly, especially at the defense. 'Let's go defense, come off the ball. Let's go, hit,' Cowher said. When defensive tackle Chris Hoke responded to the prompting, Cowher took notice. 'Keep coming off (the ball) like that, beat him every time,' Cowher said. And so it went, and the tempo gradually picked up. 'We have to take a physical approach to practice,' Cowher said. 'That's the only way you become a physical football team. We had (Friday morning) off, we came out in shells (Friday afternoon) and we really had only helmets and shoulder pads on (Thursday). I just wanted to make sure we realized we had full gear on (yesterday) and that this had to be a good, crisp practice.' ... Tight end Corey Geason dropped a touchdown pass during the goal-line drill that concluded yesterday afternoon's work, but wide receiver Troy Edwards counted the play as a score, anyway. 'In a game situation, he'd have been more serious,' Edwards yelled to the defense ... The quarterbacks often were off target, firing low and behind their intended targets with regularity ... Linebacker Joey Porter showed he is not just a sacks specialist when he dropped into coverage and jumped to bat away a pass intended for wide receiver Hines Ward.