STEELERS Peterson not fazed by Cowher's decisions

The coach chose to gamble on fourth down three times in Sunday's win over the Browns.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Sometimes the worst part about being an NFL kicker isn't missing a big kick. It's not being asked to kick at all.
Todd Peterson kicked field goals of 43, 42 and 28 yards in the Steelers' 23-20 victory Sunday at Cleveland, missing only from 41 yards. The 42-yarder in the fourth quarter proved the margin of difference.
However, coach Bill Cowher uncharacteristically passed up three other possible field goal tries in the close game. Two, from 44 and 47 yards, normally are within the range of many NFL kickers, even on a windy day.
Cowher, critical earlier this season of Peterson's short kickoffs, seemed to display a lack of confidence in the kicker's ability to power the ball on anything other than medium-range attempts.
He's a smart coach
Peterson has long understood a strong mind is as important to a kicker as a strong leg, and appears determined not to let Cowher's indecision affect his kicking.
"Why he makes the decisions he makes is his prerogative," Peterson said. "I think he's a smart coach. He's done this for a long time, he was a special teams coach. So I don't get wrapped up in that."
Before Cowher passed up the 44-yarder, he asked Peterson if he could make it. Peterson said he could, but Cowher still chose to gamble on fourth down.
"It was a gut instinct to go for it," Cowher said. "I would really not read more into it. With the second one [the 47-yarder], that was on the fringe. I felt good about the offense and taking a shot to go for it."
With a so-so 10-of-15 (.667 percent) success rate that ranks him in the lower third of NFL kickers, Peterson knows he will be under considerable scrutiny the rest of the season, just as Kris Brown was a year ago. Peterson was a .798 kicker in his first seven NFL seasons, but five were on artificial turf in Seattle.
Brown was one of the league's most reliable kickers in his first two Steelers seasons, but seemed to lose confidence after missing 4-of-5 attempts in a close loss to Baltimore. He would go on to miss 14 attempts, the most by any NFL kicker in 10 years, with 10 misses coming at Heinz Field.
After the season ended, Brown chose to sign with expansion Houston -- mostly, it seemed, to get away from Heinz. Brown hasn't exactly prospered in his new home, going 9-of-14 overall.
He's OK at home
Peterson is 4-for-6 at Heinz Field with five games to go, Sunday's game against Atlanta plus four in late November or December, when swirling winds off the three rivers can play havoc with kickers.
"It all depends on the surface," Peterson said. "Is it cold, frozen, is it slick, how are the winds? Sometimes the weather is great in December."
Peterson is 7-of-11 from 30 yards or longer but, in a season when 15 NFL kickers have hit from 50 yards or longer, has yet to attempt a kick of that distance.
Still, the 32-year-old Peterson knew what he was getting into when he signed with Pittsburgh, and doesn't wish he had gone to a team with a turf field that might add a few yards to his kicks.
"This is the honest-to-goodness truth; there's no spin here. I've never won. I wanted to win," he said. "I didn't care about the numbers. I've been to one playoff game before I came here, and that was really important to me.
"I visited Cincinnati and Minnesota and I was still haggling with Kansas City, but I thought this was the place I had the best chance to win at this point in my career. I'm not playing because I'm money hungry or I think I'm going to go to five Pro Bowls and the Hall of Fame, I'm playing because I want to win. This is probably the best chance I'll have to win."