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Monday, December 03, 2001

You think you were concerned when The Bus blew a tire yesterday? "They definitely were a little nervous on the sideline," Jerome Bettis said.

"Guys kept coming up to me. 'You OK? You all right? You're going back in, right?' It seemed like just about every player on the team was trying to get me back out there."

The Steelers know.

They go as Bettis goes.

Never was that more obvious than after Bettis limped off late in the third quarter yesterday of what ended up as a lucky 21-16 win against the Minnesota Vikings.

You and the Steelers are starting to think about the Super Bowl now that they're 9-2 and have the best record in the AFC?

Bettis had better stay healthy.

That's no knock of Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, who had 11 mostly fruitless, fourth-quarter carries before finally breaking off a 46-yard run to ice the victory. It's no knock of Amos Zereoue, who's limited to spot duty because of a separated shoulder.

They just aren't Bettis.

Few, if any, NFL running backs are.

It's not just about numbers, although Bettis' are astonishing. His 81 yards yesterday gave him 1,072 for the season, his eighth 1,000-yard season. They also bumped his career total to 10,876 and put him within 360 of O.J. Simpson and 11th place on the all-time list. He could crack the top five before he's done.

It's every bit as much about durability with Bettis. He's in his ninth NFL season, has carried the ball 2,686 times and has missed just three games.

"I didn't expect to play today. I never expect to play with J.B. around," Fuamatu-Ma'afala said.

"I don't know how he does it. I had 12 carries today and I'm going home and take a long nap. He routinely gets 20 carries, 30 carries, sometimes 40 carries and keeps going. The man is a warrior."

Even the Steelers take Bettis for granted.

"We expect him to pound and pound and pound at other teams until he wears them out," Lee Flowers said. "We never give it a thought that he might get worn out once in a while, too."

That's why there was shock on the Steelers' sideline when Bettis came up lame with a hip/groin problem after a 16-yard screen pass. He had injured his hip during the first drive of the Tennessee game last week. He aggravated it when he took big hits from the Vikings' Tyrone Carter and Eric Kelly at the end of the pass play.

"I was hurting," Bettis said. "It started at my hip and wrapped all the way around to the inside of my leg. I couldn't have kept playing at that point. I had to come out and let it cool down a little.

"It's something I've been struggling with so I'm definitely concerned about it. I don't think it will keep me out, but we'll have to see how the week goes."

It's a good thing Zereoue scored on a 4-yard run on the play after Bettis left to give the Steelers a 21-3 lead going into the fourth quarter. You couldn't help but think they were done scoring once Bettis threw his helmet aside, put on his cap and called it a day.

It didn't seem like it would matter in this game until the Vikings' Michael Bennett scored on an 80-yard screen pass. Bettis asked Bill Cowher if he wanted him to go back in. Cowher quickly said no. Then, the Vikings scored again on a 12-yard pass to Randy Moss. Bettis put his helmet on, made sure Cowher saw him bouncing around and asked again to go in.

"He thought it about it for a while that time, but finally said, 'No way,'" Bettis said. "He said I had been out too long and was too cold to go back in. He didn't want to risk a more serious injury."

It was the right call.

It would have been the right call even if the Steelers had lost, which they surely would have if the game had lasted 5 minutes longer, if the great Moss had just one more chance to make toast of Chad Scott or even if old Mr. Reliable -- the Vikings' Gary Anderson -- hadn't shanked an early 38-yard field goal try.

This game wasn't that important.

The ones ahead -- especially the ones in January -- are more meaningful.

The Steelers don't just need Bettis to lead the way. They expect it.

"That's why he's got the $30 million contract," Flowers said. "That's why he is who he is."

Not to mention what he is:

The Steelers' clear-cut MVP, the one guy they can't win without.

Ron Cook can be reached at rcook@post-gazette.com.