Sunday, October 07, 2001
Steelers 16, Bengals 7
Late TD avoids shutout; defense can't stop run
By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PITTSBURGH — Judging by the looks on the faces of Bengals players as they walked back to the locker room Sunday, the 16-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers hurt more than any in recent memory.
With due respect to the Steelers, the Bengals fully expected to win. The team's 2-0 start raised the bar to where there are no more quality losses or moral victories — even on the road.
“As a team, we weren't very good today,” Bengals coach Dick LeBeau said.
The Bengals scored only one late touchdown, coming within five minutes of being shut out in Pittsburgh for the second consecutive time.
The defense gave up 274 rushing yards, the most by a Steelers team since 1988. Pittsburgh running back Jerome Bettis had 153 yards, his ninth 100-yard game against the Bengals in 12 starts, and became just the 14th player to rush for more than 10,000 yards. He ended the day at 10,099.
The Bengals' defense also couldn't contain struggling Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart, who rushed for 61 yards on nine carries, including his team's only touchdown on an 8-yard run in the second quarter. Stewart threw for another 151 yards.
“We were fortunate we weren't further behind,” LeBeau said, referring to the 10-0 halftime deficit.
Bettis had 103 yards in the first half. Amos Zereoue had 60 yards rushing for the game. The Steelers' offensive line pushed the Bengals' front seven around all day and picked up Cincinnati blitzes.
A reason for hope in the loss is widespread accountability by individual players, position groups and the whole offense and defense. They all shared blame for the poor overall performance.
“They were out-running us, beating us to the corner, overpowering us,” Bengals defensive end Vaughn Booker said. “There's a lot of work that needs to be done. There's no secret about it. No sense B.S.-ing. We got to go back to work, because if we don't, the next running back will do the same thing.”
The Bengals had an impressive goal-line stand on the Steelers' first possession. Bettis ran 48 yards on his first carry, down to the Bengals 5-yard line. After cornerback Rodney Heath dropped an interception on a badly thrown Stewart fade pass, the Bengals stopped Bettis three times from the 5, the last play coming from inside the 1.
But the Bengals' offense foreshadowed problems it would have the rest of the day on the next possession. Corey Dillon ran twice for 6 yards, setting up a third-and-4, but Jon Kitna's pass to tight end Marco Battaglia came up inches short of a first down, forcing a punt.
The Bengals' offense would remain out of sync until its fourth-quarter scoring drive.
Exhibit A came on the Bengals' first drive of the second quarter.
After the Steelers took a 3-0 lead on a 26-yard field goal by Kris Brown, the Bengals drove 43 yards to the Steelers 33-yard line. On first down, rookie wide receiver Chad Johnson was one-on-one with cornerback Chad Scott inside the 10, but Johnson broke deep. Kitna threw short, and Scott intercepted at the 2.
“I should have crossed his face, but I didn't,” said Johnson, who did have five catches for 52 yards. “That one was the blame on my part. We'll get it right, though.”
Kitna was expecting Johnson to cut in front of Scott.
“On that play, we had everything we were looking for last week in practice,” said Kitna, who has thrown four interceptions in the two losses after throwing none in the two victories. “We couldn't have drawn up the defense any better for ourselves.
“That's part of an anticipation throw for me. I thought we had one there.”
Problems also showed on passes to Battaglia and Peter Warrick. In the third quarter, on a third-and-6 from the Steelers' 42-yard line, Warrick was open in the middle but was overthrown by Kitna.
“We've got to fix it and fix it in a hurry,” Kitna said of the timing and communication problems in the pass game. “It should have been fixed a long time ago. We can't have the mental errors we're having and expect to win.”
Kitna was clearly upset afterward. His emotion could be heard in his voice.
“Most of the time, I'm a pretty mellow person, but I expect a lot out of myself and I expect a lot out of my teammates,” he said.
The Steelers helped the Bengals with two fumbles. Zereoue fumbled at the Pittsburgh 33-yard line on the first possession of the second half. Dillon ran for 14 yards on the Bengals' first play, but instead of first-and-10 on the 19, a holding penalty on Peter Warrick brought the ball back to the 43. The drive ended with a missed Neil Rackers field goal from 51 yards, his fourth miss in a row after going 3-for-3 in the opener.
Dillon had 55 yards on 14 carries at the half but would get just 9 yards on five second-half attempts.
Dillon declined comment, but offensive captain and right tackle Willie Anderson took his share of the blame for the running game's three-game slide.
“I have to apologize to my teammates for the two plays I didn't block from the weak side,” Anderson said. “Me, as the captain of the offense, I have to start with myself.”
The Steelers had the ball for 33 minutes, 54 seconds and accumulated 425 yards of offense.
There was no finger-pointing.
“I'm not concerned about the offense right now,” middle linebacker Brian Simmons said. “I'm (upset) how the defense played. As a defensive player, I have to worry about how we let Pittsburgh stay on the field. Bettis pretty much ran the ball where he wanted to.”
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Steelers 16, Bengals 7 
