Home >  Sports >  Steelers

Wednesday, October 11, 2000

Bengals (0-5) vs. Steelers (2-3), 1 p.m. Sunday, Three Rivers Stadium. TV, radio: KDKA; WDVE-FM (102.5), WWSW-AM (970).

The Steelers this week turned down a bid from the Philadelphia Eagles to acquire Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala or Amos Zereoue without listening to what was being offered in return. The Eagles' Duce Staley has an injured foot and will miss six weeks or more, so they have been looking for a running back. The Steelers are hip deep in running backs. The Eagles have extra picks in the third and fourth rounds in the 2001 draft. The NFL took the Steelers' third-round draft choice for a salary cap violation. The NFL trading deadline passed yesterday without the Steelers making a move.

Cornerback Dewayne Washington must agree with the oddsmakers who have installed the Steelers as 8-point favorites to beat winless Cincinnati Sunday in Three Rivers Stadium. The Bengals have beaten the Steelers in three of their past four meetings, including a 27-20 upset Nov. 28 in Three Rivers. "I don't see any letups like in the past," Washington said Monday night on his radio show on ESPN Radio 1250. "The past two years, it seems like we've kind of played down to our competition. I just see us going out and destroying Cincinnati, honestly." The Steelers have won just two of their past 12 home games and haven't beaten an AFC Central Division foe at home since Nov. 22, 1998.

Coach Bill Cowher is unsure who will start at either offensive tackle Sunday. Shar Pourdanesh is out with a sprained knee ligament. He started the past two games at right tackle. Rookie Marvel Smith, who played the first three games at right tackle, missed the past two with a sprained knee ligament. Cowher listed him as questionable for this game. Starting left tackle Wayne Gandy also is questionable with a slightly torn right biceps. Gandy played through the injury last Sunday. "We're hopeful by the end of the week he'll be fine and ready to go," Cowher said. "He's a very tough individual. He doesn't even want to miss practice. We talked about the kill-the-clock play at the end of the game. ... He was adamant he wanted to be out there and he went back out for that last couple plays because that was important to him. That's the kind of guy Wayne's been. He's very proud, he's been a tremendous leader, he's played very well for us this year. I'm very respectful for that." If Gandy can't play and Smith can, Smith would start at left tackle and Larry Tharpe at right. If Gandy and Smith can't play, guard Roger Duffy would have to play tackle. Duffy will practice at tackle this week, just in case. Also questionable for this week are defensive end Kevin Henry (shoulder), halfback Amos Zereoue (turf toe) and defensive lineman Jeremy Staat (shoulder). Halfback Jerome Bettis (various) and center Dermontti Dawson (hamstring) are probable.

Defensive lineman Ernie Brown was cut from the Steelers' practice squad, for the second time in three weeks, to make room for an offensive tackle.