Jerome Bettis did not have enough fingers to point at all the players on the Steelers' offense who messed up Sunday.
"I can give you names," said Bettis, the team's offensive captain. "All eleven! We all stunk."
The Bus included himself in that category after he was held to 28 yards on 12 carries by the Jacksonville Jaguars, who beat the Steelers, 21-3, in the regular-season opener.
"I made my share of mistakes. I tripped on a simple 'boss' play we've been running since I've been here. It was a little tight, but I tripped over my own feet. I go to my left, there's a hole, know what I'm saying? It's like, oh, let me get that again. But no, you don't get a second chance to, so I have to live with that.
"We all screwed up. It wasn't just them. It was us."
It was so bad, Bettis said, that it would not have mattered who they played.
"If we ran 11 on zero, we still wouldn't have gotten down the field, know what I mean? We were making mistakes in terms of the running game and the passing game, assignment errors. You put a team out there with a white helmet -- no name -- they're going to beat up on us because we're beating ourselves."
Bettis gave a couple more examples of the errors the offense committed. Once, he said, a teammate jumped offside when quarterback Kordell Stewart walked to the line and began, simply, by shouting "Ready" without ever saying "set" or "hut-hut."
Another time, there was a pitch play called and not everyone went the right way.
"It's a pitch this way and you take a step that way!" an incredulous Bettis said. "What happened? You heard that 'Pitch right' and you take a step left?"
Perhaps the offense does not lack talent so much as it does intelligence? Or do many of them have attention deficit disorder?
"I'm very surprised we made as many mistakes as we did," Bettis said. "Very surprised. I have no idea. I have no clue. It wasn't like young guys making mistakes. It was us, veterans. You assume that's not going to happen. You don't even have to cover that."
Want more? Bettis and tight end Mark Bruener agreed that too many times the Steelers had third downs and a reception was made short of the sticks.
"It's knowing down and distance," Bettis said. "If it's third-and-6 and I'm running a 6-yard route and I have to come back to the ball, I have to run 10 yards and run back so I at least get the 6 yards.
"The play is designed for a 6-yard route and you are correct in running it. But if you run a 6-yard route and come back, you're not going to get the first down. You have to know down and distance."
Said Bruener, "It's our job as receivers to know down and distance on every play, no matter what route is called."
Wide receiver Plaxico Burress admitted he should have come up with the first pass thrown to him, and it might have helped ignite the offense if he had.
Wide receiver Hines Ward said that the lack of production in the ground game killed any chance they had in the passing game.
"We have to establish our running game so it opens up our play-action and stuff. That's what we're all about. We're all about letting Jerome pound it, run the play-action and pick up the big yardage off it.
"But without a running game and them disrupting our running game, we're not going to get any pass production."
Once the Steelers had to pass to catch up in the second half, the rain came in Jacksonville and that was that.
"We were down 21-3 and had to get back in the game and ran the hurry-up offense and with the rain, things were hard," Ward said. "Marvel [Smith] slipped on a couple of plays and we got sacked on one, and you can't do that against a great team."
Another problem for them was Jacksonville strong safety Donovin Darius, who kept blitzing at just the right time.
Ward said Darius timed the snap count and no one blocked him.
"He's already in the backfield before anything can happen. They just disrupted our offense. Donovin, with the blitz, was just going up inside every time and we weren't picking him up."
All in all, it wasn't a good day for the Steelers' offense.
"What happens is, wanting to progress so fast you lose sight of the little things," Bettis said. "Then you get in a hostile environment and you're on the road, the little things are what get you through. I think that's what we neglected. So it's important for us to get back to the basics and do the things we know we can do and be comfortable with things we know we're good at doing."
Now all they must do is find out which ones those are.
Bettis spreads plenty of blame around for opening loss to Jaguars 
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