A familiar face will be part of the CBS broadcast when the Pittsburgh Steelers visit the New York Jets on Sunday. Bill Cowher will work as an analyst, and his first game in this role just happens to feature the team he coached from 1992-2006. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ed Bouchette caught up with Cowher and got his thoughts on a number of subjects, including what has ailed the 0-4 Steelers.
“There’s no need to be sensitive about anything,” Cowher said in an interview Wednesday from New York. “Mike’s a proven coach, he’s very good at what he does. I have great respect for him and great respect for that organization.
“I’m a professional doing what I do. I love it, it’s challenging. I’m going to be objective. I’ll call it like it see it. I’ll give a perspective from a guy who coached the game before.”
Cowher and three other analysts on CBS’ “The NFL Today” will leave the studio and join broadcasts on site where their former teams are playing. Cowher will join Jim Nantz and Phil Simms to work the Steelers-Jets.
“It was like, OK, we’re going to do this, three of us are going out,” Cowher said of the network’s decision to try something different. “And then you look at this game, it’s like, wow, suddenly the Jets these last couple of weeks look very impressive. This game takes on a pretty significant meaning for both these football teams in terms of how the rest of the season turns out.”
Cowher’s 2000 team lost its first three games — after going through two losing seasons in 1998 and 1999 — so he knows what Tomlin and his team might be going through.
“You listen to Ryan Clark talking about still making the playoffs, you have to think that way,” Cowher said. “The one thing you don’t want to do is get to a point where losing becomes a habit.
Cowher’s 2000 team rebounded to win nine of its final 13 games to go 9-7 and just missed making the playoffs. He believes the current Steelers have enough talent to turn this season around. He said he sees things on offense that are starting to click and on defense the need to create some turnovers and concentrate on the basics.
“You go back to fundamentals when things start to go awry,” Cowher said. “Don’t give up big plays on defense, don’t turn it over on offense.”
Cowher does not believe lack of talent is an issue.
“I think they do have talent, it’s getting the first win and going from there. It’s tough, they dug a hole, and there is very little margin for error. Everyone else in their division is 3-2. But they have to think, get this win, they’re still only two out and they have chance to play all those division teams again.”
