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Monday, December 10, 2001

By Gerry Dulac, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Jerome Bettis won't have to deliver much of a presentation or worry about lobbying Coach Bill Cowher this week. He won't even have to be concerned about being guilty until proven innocent.

	Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala takes on Jets linebacker James Farrior. Fuamatu-Ma'afala had 50 yards and a touchdown. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette)

The Bus will be fueled and ready to roll when the Steelers travel to Baltimore for their nationally televised showdown Sunday. And he won't get any resistance from his boss.

"He won't need to lobby me," Cowher said. "If he's ready to play, then he'll be playing."

Bettis did not dress for yesterday's 18-7 victory against the New York Jets and, not surprisingly, the Steelers looked like anything but the NFL's No. 1 rushing team.

His replacement, Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, who was making only his second NFL start, gained 50 yards on 21 carries, though he scored on a 1-yard run. And the Steelers managed 134 yards rushing, their third lowest total of the season, despite some big runs by quarterback Kordell Stewart and a 19-yard run by Amos Zereoue in the fourth quarter.

"I felt like I did good, even though the yards might not show it," said Fuamatu-Ma'afala, a fourth-year back from Utah. "I was just trying to pound it up in there because they weren't giving us many reads. The defensive line is good, the linebackers are good. I did the best I could.

"I know I went out there and laid it all on the line."

Fuamatu-Ma'afala was even able to overcome a ding to the head on the fifth offensive play that forced him to come out of the game. He was picking up a block on a pass to Hines Ward when he ducked his head and was kicked in the helmet.

On the next play, Zereoue fumbled a pitch to the left and lost 7 yards, and it looked as if it was going to be a long day for the running game.

"I blacked out for a second," Fuamatu-Ma'afala said. "I had to go to the side and get my head straight and come back."

When he did, he produced his longest run of the game -- 6 yards to the Jets' 10 -- that helped set up Kris Brown's first field goal from 26 yards.

That was one of the few highlights for Fuamatu-Ma'afala, who spent most of the day trying to move the middle of the Jets' defense. In their previous five games, the Jets had done a good job of stopping the run, allowing teams an average of 88.2 yards per game.

The Steelers bettered that mark but fell way short of their average of 179.5 per game.

"A lot of that is the experience," said offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey, pointing out that Fuamatu-Ma'afala had made only one other start in his NFL career and that was at fullback last year in Cleveland. "He's only going to be better because of it. I'll tell you one thing, he moved the pile. Whenever he hit it up in there, there was a pile of bodies moving."

The Steelers overcame the loss of Bettis, who was missing just the fourth game of his nine-year career, because Stewart threw for 214 yards -- Ward had a career-high 10 catches for 124 yards -- and converted 11 of 18 third-down opportunities (61 percent).

In the past four weeks, the Steelers have converted 28 of 60 third-down chances -- an impressive 46.6 percent conversion rate. But they were especially efficient against the Jets, particularly without the NFL's second-leading rusher.

"We probably could have a done few things better faster, as far as making adjustments, that could have helped us pick up a few more yards in certain situations," said guard Alan Faneca. "But overall, we ran the ball at the end like we needed to."

"Fu has to get the timing with the blocks, and we have to get the timing down with him," said left tackle Wayne Gandy, who shut out defensive end John Abraham, the AFC's leading sacker. "He ran for some tough yards and had some solid runs, a couple tough first downs. But he had some big shoes to fill."

Still, nobody was complaining. The Steelers won without Bettis, just as they had when they lost tight end Mark Bruener (torn rotator cuff) and replaced him with Jerame Tuman. Just as they have the past three games when Oliver Ross, a converted tackle, has started at right guard for Rich Tylski.

"We still run the BOSS play, with Bruener or without him," Mularkey said. "We still run it with Fu into the line. We ask them to do the same things so we don't have to alter the Tuesday game plan. There's a trust factor that's extremely high."

"I didn't feel like we would slack off without Jerome," Gandy said. "I don't think you can appreciate how your backups have come into the game and stepped in, guys like Oliver and Jerame Tuman and now Fu. No matter what happens, you know the next guy can come in."