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Monday, October 22, 2001

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

TAMPA, Fla. -- Like most good defensive coordinators, Tim Lewis noticed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were so concerned about outside linebacker Jason Gildon and defensive end Aaron Smith, they moved their protection to the right to stop the Steelers' top pass rushers.

	Dewayne Washington, with assistance from Joey Porter, sacks Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette)

But all that did was open the left side for the outside guys on the other end -- linebacker Joey Porter and defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen.

"When I saw that, I said, fine, I'll go the other way," Lewis said.

And the Steelers did.

By the time they finished beating the Buccaneers, 17-10, yesterday for their fourth victory in a row, the Steelers had sacked quarterback Brad Johnson 10 times, tying a club record, and batted down four of his passes. And all the sacks came from his blind -- or left -- side.

Porter had a career-high four sacks, one shy of the club record held by Joe Greene (5). Von Oelhoffen, who had only six sacks in seven National Football League seasons, had three.

The other sacks were registered by cornerbacks Dewayne Washington and Deshea Townsend and safety Mike Logan. All the sacks came from the same side -- the left.

"Almost every third down we came after them," Lewis said. "I was bringing everybody. I brought everybody but Coach Cowher."

The Steelers had eight of their sacks in the second half, after they had taken a 14-3 lead on Jerome Bettis' 46-yard touchdown run. Porter had all four in the second half.

The Bucs did a good job shutting out Smith, who had a sack in each of the first four games, and Gildon, who had two. But they forgot about the other guys.

"Joey got more opportunities," Lewis said. "They were sliding everything to Jason to stop him."

That doesn't mean Gildon didn't disrupt Johnson, batting three of his passes at the line of scrimmage. Porter deflected the other pass at the line.

Johnson finished with 24 completions in 40 attempts for 283 yards, but he didn't hurt the Steelers until he threw a 5-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds remaining. The Steelers have allowed just 58 points in five games, best in the AFC and second to the Chicago Bears in the NFL.

"I don't care what quarterback you are, you can't complete passes on your back," inside linebacker Earl Holmes said.

The Steelers didn't even mind that wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson caught 10 passes for 159 yards, nearly all against Washington. They were more concerned with containing running back Warrick Dunn, who caught only two passes for 16 yards.

"We knew Keyshawn would get some catches," Coach Bill Cowher. "But the guy who could take it to the house was Warrick Dunn."

But, once the Steelers took the lead, once they shut down Dunn and fullback Mike Alstott, Lewis said he started blitzing on nearly every third-down situation. Most of the time he was bringing at least one, and sometimes two, guys from the secondary.

"I knew we could get after the quarterback," Porter said. "But our whole approach was to take away the run."

The Steelers did that, holding Dunn and Alstott to 46 yards on 16 carries. Once the Buccaneers abandoned the run after Kris Brown's 35-yard field goal made it 17-3, Lewis turned up the pressure as though he were turning on a water valve.

"We had to get into a throwing game in the second half, which isn't what we wanted to do," said Tampa Bay Coach Tony Dungy, a former Steelers player and assistant coach. "We had some protection breakdowns"

Collapses, was more like it.

Johnson had been sacked just nine times in the first four games. And he was operating behind an offensive line that includes two Pro Bowl players acquired from the division-rival Minnesota Vikings last season -- guard Randall McDaniel and center Jeff Christy.

But Porter, who had only one sack after registering 10 1/2 last season, kept getting easy shots at Johnson when the Vikings shifted their protection toward Gildon. That allowed the Steelers to pad their 2001 sack total to 21 -- more than half of what they registered last season (39) with 11 games remaining.

"We got some guys out there who can put pressure on anybody," Holmes said.

"It says they're going to have to give us respect and we'll have to take it," Porter said. "That's what we did."