CLEVELAND -- From one leg man to another, Jerome Bettis and Kris Brown had a little talk as the Steelers moved toward a possible winning field goal late in the fourth quarter against the Browns yesterday.
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Jerome Bettis leaves Courtney Brown behind on his way to a 163-yard rushing play. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) |
Having missed four kicks in a loss the previous week, Brown was searching for redemption.
"Kris told me before the last kick in regulation to give him a chance to win it -- and he missed the kick," Bettis said.
His 45-yard attempt nudged barely wide left with 1:40 left to keep the score tied, bringing back flashbacks of the nightmare Brown had to live for the past seven days. So, when the game went into overtime, Bettis went looking for Brown again.
"He was down on the bench," Bettis said. "We won the coin toss. I went up to him and said, 'I'm going to give you another chance."'
True to his word, Bettis slammed the Browns for 48 of his 163 yards rushing, then turned it over to Brown, who kicked the winning field goal from 32 yards 5:22 into overtime as the Steelers rode their two leg men to a 15-12 victory.
Brown scored all of his team's points by making 5 of 6 field goals. He was good from 31, 27, 37, 37 and 32 yards as the Steelers maintained their lead in the AFC Central Division with a 6-2 record. Cleveland, which led 9-0 in the first quarter on a safety and a 12-yard touchdown pass from Tim Couch to O.J. Santiago, fell to 4-4.
"I don't know if I can put into words how good this feels," Brown said. "I think it feels even better because of what happened last week."
The Steelers, who blew several opportunities, could not score a touchdown and were forced to rely on their kicker for a second consecutive week despite their overpowering advantage statistically. They outgained the Browns 428 yards to 187, including 247-74 on the ground, but their defense had to stop Cleveland on the final drive of regulation that could have won the game.
The Browns had a first down at the Steelers' 41 with the score tied and 50 seconds left, needing another 7 to 10 yards to take home an upset and a piece of the division lead. But rookie nose tackle Casey Hampton burst through and dropped quarterback Tim Couch at the 47. It was Hampton's his first pro sack.
On second down, linebacker Jason Gildon tackled Couch for career sack No. 561/2 and his third of the day as Cleveland's threat dissipated.
Then came overtime.
The Steelers won the toss when the coin came up tails, and they all but won it when Bettis, from his 28, ripped around left end for a 27-yard gain.
Bettis ran for another 3, quarterback Kordell Stewart ran for 10 of his 65 yards, and Bettis picked up the final 18 yards before they put their fate back on Brown's foot on third down at the 14, giving them a one-down margin for error.
"He really is a strong-minded guy," Coach Bill Cowher said. "He just went out there and he kicked it."
The Steelers would have been kicking themselves all the way down two turnpikes had they blown this one. It was bad enough that they piled up a 348-183 advantage in yards and lost to Baltimore a week earlier, but they owned the Browns yesterday.
Bettis piled up more yards than he has in one game since he ran for 164 against the Colts in 1997. It was his fifth 100-yard game this season as he passed Ricky Watters into 12th place on the NFL's all-time list.
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Linebacker Joey Porter knocks the ball away from Browns quarterback Tim Couch. The Browns recovered the fumble. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette) | |
"We rode the Bus today in overtime," said wide receiver Hines Ward. "They knew we were going to run the ball, and we just kept pounding it down their throats and moving it."
Yet they could not score touchdowns. They were 0 for 5 crossing the goal line once they crossed the 20. They reached the Browns' 13 in the first quarter and settled for a field goal when Plaxico Burress dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the end zone that would have been a 22-yard touchdown.
"I was down on myself," Burress said. "I was begging for the football to get my redemption."
They had a first down at the 6 in the second quarter and wound up with a field goal. Troy Edwards dropped a pass inside the 10 just before halftime and they did not score. And they had a first down at the Browns' 2 in the third quarter and got nothing.
The last one was particularly galling because they were tripped up twice, once by Amos Zereoue and the other by an NFL rule.
Trailing 12-9, Stewart threw a cross-field screen pass to Zereoue from the Steelers' 36. Using blocks by Alan Faneca and Burress, Zereoue burst through and ran away from the defense. But he ran out of gas or tripped at the 2 with no one to stop him.
"I was going so fast, I turned back around and my footing was just gone and I just tripped," Zereoue said. "I was sick to myself. I had my fingers crossed that somehow we'd pull this one off."
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Linebacker Earl Holmes barks back at the Dawg Pound after making a tackle. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) |
They did not pull that one off, however, because on first down at the 2, instead of giving the ball to Bettis, Stewart dropped back to pass. He scrambled to his left and ran toward a wide-open field. Just before Stewart was to cross the goal line, lineman Tyrone Rogers punched the ball out of his grasp.
The ball was headed out of bounds at the 1, but Stewart inadvertently hit it with his left hand, and the ball went out of bounds, but through the end zone.
The officials first ruled it out at the 1, but the call was overturned on a challenge by Cleveland Coach Butch Davis. NFL rules state that any fumble that goes into the end zone and out of bounds is a touchback and the defending team gets the ball.
So, instead of the Steelers having second down at the 1, Cleveland had a first down at the 20.
By this time, the Steelers' defense was crushing the Browns. The Steelers had seven sacks, all in the second half after defensive coordinator Tim Lewis made adjustments at halftime.
Basically, he cut the boys loose.
"We decided to come after them," Lewis said.
Someone might ask what took them so long, but the job was accomplished.
The Steelers got the ball back quickly, and their offense moved into position for Brown to kick his fourth field goal, from 37 yards, to tie the score, 12-12, with 11:28 left in regulation.
"We had plays where we could have knocked down a couple touchdowns," said offensive tackle Wayne Gandy. "It didn't happen, but we still had that confidence and belief that Kris would step up and kick that ball in."
And this time, he did it.
With Bettis pointing the way, Brown makes good on his second chance at redemption 
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