Steelers notebook
Bettis says sluggish running game is result of weak passing attack PITTSBURGH – Jerome Bettis came out of the Cleveland game with exactly 100 yards – for the season.
“Finally,” said Bettis, who explained that the Steelers’ sluggish running game is a result of a weak passing attack.
“If I’m the defensive coordinator I’m going to practice run all week because it’s the only way they can beat us,” he said. “It’s not just the running game. It’s the passing game, too.”
The passing game, however, has been the team’s weak link since Neil O’Donnell left for greener pastures in 1996, and Bettis never had this much trouble gaining yardage. After three games, the Steelers are averaging 3.1 yards per carry and 80 yards per game, far off last year’s respective numbers of 4.8 and 173.
It’s become a puzzle for a team that has all of last year’s components back except for right guard Rich Tylski, who was released before he retired.
“It’s cohesiveness,” Bettis said. “You can have the same five guys and not be the same from one year to the next year. You’ve got to get every guy to play the same as he played last year. That’s a hard thing to do. You’ve got injuries and other things factoring into it, so it’s an uphill battle. We’re nowhere near there yet.”
Bettis was asked if he felt he was playing up to his past standards.
“I can’t tell you that,” he said. “That’s not my call. I don’t see it. There’s nothing I can do different that could maybe keep me in the game and do more. I mean, I’m doing the best I can do.”
The Steelers could opt to spread the field with four and five receivers as they did late Sunday, thus opening the running lanes. But Bettis doesn’t see that as an answer.
“I don’t think that’s what I do best,” he said. “I’m not a scatback by any means. If we’re not pounding the football, it’s really tough for me to be out there.”
FU AWAITS RESULTS: With Bettis struggling to gain 24 yards on 14 carries against the Browns, Steelers coach Bill Cowher called upon Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala in the middle of the third quarter. Fuamatu-Ma’afala gained 20 yards on 5 carries before a rib injury sent him to the sideline.
As of Monday afternoon, Fuamatu-Ma’afala was awaiting X-ray results on the injury. He said he’d played early in the 2000 season with cracked ribs, and would wear a flak jacket if necessary.
“You just hope you fall the right way,” he said.
NEW ORLEANS BANGED UP: Because of injuries, the New Orleans Saints may have difficulty spreading the defense and matching the 46 passes Steelers opponents have averaged per game this season.
In their 26-21 loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, the Saints lost wide receivers Joe Horn and Donte Stallworth because of injuries.
Horn, the team’s leading receiver the last two seasons, injured his knee in the third quarter, but played into the fourth before leaving. He was to have undergone an MRI exam Monday.
Stallworth, a rookie sensation out of Tennessee, injured his hamstring during halftime warm-ups and missed the second half. He’d caught a first-half touchdown pass, giving the first-round pick a touchdown reception in each of his first four games, one shy of the NFL record set by Washington’s Charlie Brown in 1992.
Also, back-up receiver Jake Reed dislocated a ring finger in the fourth quarter but finished the game.
The Saints also lost starting defensive end Willie Whitehead with a broken fibula. Whitehead leads the Saints with two sacks.
The Saints are also thin at linebacker, where former Steelers draft pick and cast-off Roger Knight is now listed as a starter.