CLEVELAND -- The play is called Boss. It is to the Steelers’ offense what french fries are to a Primanti’s sandwich. The play is so named because it is a acronym that stands for “Back on strong safety.”
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Browns defenders Percy Ellsworth and Brant Boyer (52) try to corral Jerome Bettis, who rambles for 27 yards in overtime to help set up Kris Brown's field goal. Bettis finished with 163 yards rushing. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette) |
“It’s our bread and butter,” tight end Mark Bruener said.
In an ideal world, the play is designed to get a running back, in this instance, Jerome Bettis, into the secondary and isolated on the strong safety.
It says nothing about running the poor guy over. Even when he is 6-foot-3, 225 pounds.
Right when they needed it most yesterday, the Steelers pulled out the play and ran the Boss ...er .... Bus right down the collective throats of the Cleveland Browns.
By the time Bettis was done hammering the Browns’ defense, the Steelers had a pulsating 15-12 overtime victory that helped ease the sting of what happened last year in Cleveland Browns Stadium.
“That’s always been the big play for us -- our bread-and-butter play,” Bettis said after the Steelers had successfully rallied from a 9-0 deficit to improve their AFC Central Division-leading record to 6-2. “It’s something we’ve been using since I’ve been here.”
The Steelers have so much confidence in “Boss,” they called it on the first play of overtime. Bettis responded with a 27-yard run that immediately put the Browns on their heels and changed the tempo of the game.
The Steelers ran Bettis six more times in overtime, gaining 21 yards, before winning the game on Kris Brown’s 32-yard field goal with 5:22 gone in the extra period.
But it was that one play, that one run, that did in the Browns, left them two games behind the Steelers in the division standings.
The Boss.
By the Bus.
“It’s the Boss and he’s the Boss,” quarterback Kordell Stewart said.
After having just 74 yards rushing after three quarters, Bettis finished with a season-high 163 yards on 29 carries. But that one run helped the Steelers avoid wasting another comeback performance in Cleveland and allowed them to atone for some botched play-calling in the red zone. Not to mention Brown’s only missed field goal, this one from 45 yards, with 1:40 remaining.
“When you jump out on them as quick as we did in overtime, there’s not much you can do about that,” Stewart said.
“It was a huge play because the defense is trying to stop you and get three-and-out,” Bruener said. “To have such a big play and a big momentum change was big because the momentum might have been in their favor after we missed that field goal.”
“You saw what it did,” guard Rich Tylski said. “It breaks their back.”
It wasn’t just the significance of the play, either. It was the execution, the way the play unfolded, the way it worked to perfection.
Bruener, who was lined on the left side, sealed defensive end Tyrone Rogers. Left tackle Wayne Gandy blocked down on tackle Orpheus Roye. Fullback Dan Krieder blocked outside linebacker Jamir Miller.
It allowed the 255-pound Bettis to hit the hole and get isolated on safety Percy Ellsworth, just the way the play is designed.
Bettis did the rest.
He bounced off the 225-pound Ellsworth like a bowling ball hitting the 10-pin. By the time he was done rambling into Cleveland territory, the Steelers had the ball at the Browns’ 45, and the game, for all intents and purposes, was over.
“The first couple of snaps in overtime usually sets the pace, offensively and defensively,” Gandy said. “If you get some kind of negative play on them, you got them on their heels. To get 27 yards and across midfield right off the bat, we start feeling that with a couple of more first downs we can end it.”
The Browns did a good job keeping Bettis in check for three quarters. Then, almost as sudden as what transpired last week in Chicago, the Browns started watching their defense get creased. By overtime, the Steelers had solved Cleveland’s shifting front.
The result: Bettis had 89 yards on his final five series.
“We knew what they were going to do in overtime,” Ellsworth said. “They gave the ball to Bettis. He’s their best player, period. He just ran it down our throats.”
“We went away from it, then came back to it at the right time,” Bettis said.
“We know what we got back there,” Tylski said. “If we can do our best, we just let him do what he does best.”
In the end, the Steelers did not want to have a repeat of what happened last year when they battled back from a 14-0 deficit against the Browns, only to see the game end with a sack on Kent Graham and a frantic futile attempt to kick a field goal as time expired.
“Some of us guys who were here last year remember how it went down,” Tylski said. “We said we have to put this away with all we got.”
So they called on the Boss.
Er .... Bus.
Play of the Game: Bettis' 27-yard run in overtime 
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