It's not as if the Cincinnati Bengals could have been fooled.
In every practice, in every drill to prepare for facing the Steelers, their defense had one aim: Focus squarely on the 3 and the 6 on Jerome Bettis' chest and pursue him hard.
"It's pretty simple, really," linebacker Steve Foley said. "We knew coming in they weren't a good passing team, and we knew we had to stop Jerome."
"That's the big goal," cornerback Tom Carter said. "When you play the Steelers, you have to focus on the big guy."
So, if it wasn't the game plan or the emphasis that was misguided, the Bengals were asked after their 16-7 loss yesterday at Heinz Field, how is it that Bettis managed to trample them for 153 yards on 23 carries?
"He's a hell of a back," defensive tackle Oliver Gibson said. "You have to credit him. He's a great back and, when he gets started, he gets started fast and just starts rolling downhill. He ran right through us. He ran right through me."
Gibson shook his head.
"But I'm not going to lie to you: It was a poor performance on our part. There were times when I was on the ground and, when Jerome's going by you ... well, you can't arm-tackle him. There were times when I was in the backfield, and I missed him. And that feels the worst, because now I hear about it until the next game."
Funny thing is, if Gibson hears criticism from the Bengals' staff, some of it is sure to come from Coach Dick LeBeau. And neither of those men has cause to be surprised it was Bettis who did them in. Gibson played for the Steelers in 1995-98, and LeBeau was a defensive coach in 1992-96.
LeBeau dismissed the notion his defensive players were ill prepared to stop the run.
"Everybody's defense is geared to stop the run," he said. "If you let a team run the ball like that, you're going to have a hard time staying in the game. We never had the ball. They had the ball all the time."
LeBeau had his linebackers blitzing yesterday, determined not only to stuff Bettis in the backfield but also to apply pressure to quarterback Kordell Stewart.
The plan failed on all counts.
Stewart slipped loose for 61 yards on nine carries, including the Steelers' lone touchdown on an 8-yard sprint through the middle, and running back Amos Zereoue gained 60 yards on eight carries. Together, the Steelers ran for 274 yards and an average of 6.9 yards per carry.
Most painful for the Bengals, it marked their second consecutive defeat after stunning the NFL with a 2-0 start. And, by no coincidence, it marked the second time in as many weeks they allowed a 100-yard rusher. Last Sunday, San Diego Chargers rookie LaDainian Tomlinson ran for 107 yards and three touchdowns.
"This definitely is a step back," linebacker Brian Simmons said. "I know it was a step back for the defense. We can't just go out there and allow a guy to run with the ball wherever he wants. That's what Bettis did. He dictated the game. That's a shame. Our main goal is to stop the run, and we didn't do it."
"He saw the seams, and he hit them," Foley said. "The kind of runner he is, when he's going like that, it's going to take more than one guy to bring him down."
"He came out hard," Carter said. "That's the best I've seen him play, and he and I go back to when we were freshmen at Notre Dame."
After brushing Bettis' footprints off their uniforms, the Bengals were left at .500, a game away from being losers again, hoping their surprising opening to the season was something other than an abberation.
"It's a long season, a tough year with a lot of ups and downs," LeBeau said. "Certainly, we were more up then than we are now."
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