Play of the Game: Burress' big catch gets Steelers out of trouble

Plaxico Burress left a lot of people speechless Sunday.

Among them were his critics, the Carolina Panthers defensive backfield and Steelers offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey.

Burress was busy answering reporters' questions after a 30-14 victory when Mularkey broke into the pack, looked Burress in the eyes and firmly shook his hand. No words were exchanged. No words were needed. It was the sort of look a father gives a son who has made him proud.

The Steelers players were equally pleased with Burress. He'd dropped five passes a week earlier against the Houston Texans but rebounded to catch six for 120 yards yesterday.

“I cannot say enough for Plaxico coming back and having a big game today,” quarterback Tommy Maddox said.

It had to be one of the more memorable performances of Burress' three-year career. He caught every pass that came his way, scored the Steelers' first touchdown, displayed fierce determination on a touchdown-saving tackle and delivered the play of the game: a 47-yard reception early in the fourth quarter.

“I thank God for adverse situations, because they let us see what type of people we are,” said Burress, who met the media wearing an old-school, Minneapolis Lakers basketball jersey. “I think everybody was kind of looking at me, like, how is he going to respond, or, what type of person is he• I just told myself before the game, I'm going to go out and be me — go out and play Plaxico Burress football.”

On the Steelers' first drive, Burress caught three passes for 38 yards. The last of those was an 11-yard touchdown catch. With that, he'd broken his previous season highs for receptions (66) and touchdowns (six), both set last season. He goes into next week's game against Tampa Bay with 70 catches for 1,146 yards and seven touchdowns.

Between the first drive and the fourth quarter, however, Burress caught only two passes. But he made up for that in a hurry. Carolina had seized momentum on Dee Brown's touchdown run that cut the Steelers' lead to 20-14. The Steelers were facing a third-and-10 from their 19 with 12:30 left.

Mess up here, and there is no telling what sort of turn the game takes, to say nothing of the season.

Mularkey made a gutsy call: “X-in and Go.” It's a long-developing play that requires Burress to run 14 yards, make a quick cut to the middle, then go long. Burress said he hadn't run the pattern all season and had never caught a pass on it.

The hope was that Panthers safety Deon Grant would bite on the first move. Earlier in the game, Burress had slipped running an “in” route, and Panthers safety Mike Minter made an interception that he returned 62 yards. Burress somehow hustled back to make the tackle at the Steelers 4-yard line.

He also made an important observation.

“The safety was sitting on that one,” he said. “I went back and said, ‘Coach, the guy's back there sitting on it.' He said, ‘OK, next time we run that play, we're going to run the in-and-go.' ”

Maddox got smacked just as he released the ball but still managed to fire it nearly 50 yards. Grant didn't bite much, but Burress felt he had him beat and would score if he got the ball in stride. It didn't. Burress had to turn and come back to the ball. He made the catch below his knees.

“I was running and I looked over my inside shoulder, but I didn't see the ball,” he said. “I heard the crowd go, ‘Waaah!' so I turned over my other shoulder and I didn't see the ball again. And I turned back over the inside shoulder, and it was short. I kind of hit (Grant) with an old Cris Carter trick.”

Hey, we said it was a long-developing play. Asked to expound on the “trick,” Burress said, “Just push so the ref don't see it.”

Did Carter teach him that?

“Just a little something I watched,” Burress said.

Grant said he would have made an interception if it had been thrown farther. Mularkey's major concern was the time the play took to develop. There are no short cuts on a play like that.

“Tommy stood in there, and Plax made a great adjustment,” Mularkey said. “You better have a cannon to throw that. He threw it well enough.”

The play led to Jeff Reed's 23-yard field goal that put the game nearly out of reach for the offensively challenged Panthers. Maddox, who was coming off a rough game himself, praised Burress for his route and spoke about how the two stuck together during the week.

“That is just the way this team has been,” Maddox said. “It's a credit to everybody in that locker room. When things get bad, everybody pulls together.”