Tuesday, September 16, 2003

By Ed Bouchette, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

You can't run? Then you cannot hide in the NFL. The Steelers know the drill. They know they cannot live merely by the pass.

	Steelers running back Amos Zereoue managed 48 yards on 11 carries in the loss to the Chiefs. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

The question is can they run the ball?

"We're going to run," tackle Todd Fordham said. "We got to."

The Steelers ran only 16 times for 60 yards in a 41-20 loss in Kansas City Sunday. Amos Zereoue gained 37 of those on two consecutive carries in the fourth quarter.

Considering that they rushed for 98 yards in their opener, the Steelers appear to be incapable of doing something that has been second nature for them through the years.

The team rankings in the AFC today don't look very Steelers-esque. Their offense ranks first overall, first in passing and 14th on the ground. Only twice in the past 23 years has the Steelers' passing offense outranked the team's running game, but there was never that much of a disparity.

	More Steelers Coverage: Steelers Report: 9/16/03

"We definitely have to pick it up," running back Jerome Bettis said. "We have to be able to run the football better. Teams are going to stop the passing game or it's going to be a situation where we get a lot of yards passing the football and it doesn't make a difference. We've got to do a better job with running the ball when it counts."

Bettis, once the heart and soul of a dominant Steelers ground game, has been relegated to Zereoue's backup. Bettis ran four times Sunday, and gained 7 yards. He has eight carries for 21 yards in two games. Zereoue has 26 carries for 104 yards. Third-down back Verron Haynes has 11 carries for 18 yards.

The backs aren't contributing much in the passing game, either. Haynes has four catches, Zereoue three and fullback Dan Kreider one.

The Steelers have been outrushed by their opponents, 246-148.

No Bill Cowher-coached team has been outrushed in a season. It happened only twice since Chuck Noll was the Steelers' coach and one of those seasons came in Noll's first season, 1969, when the Steelers went 1-13.

It probably won't happen this season. The Steelers' defense was No. 1 in the NFL against the run in each of the past two seasons, and their running game got off to slow starts in past seasons before picking up steam.

But there were no signs in the first two games of this season that any momentum is building in the ground game.

"It's been difficult," Bettis said. "We've been up and down. We just have to stick with it. You have to stay with it -- win, lose or draw. You have to say in your mind we're going to run the football and do it. We have to.

"It's tough. When you can be very effective in one area it's easier to overlook the other areas until you run into a roadblock and it doesn't allow you to throw the football. Until we get into the situation where teams are going to commit seven or eight guys to the pass, we have to be able to run the football."

Bettis and his teammates used to talk about defenses putting "eight men in a box" to load up against the Steelers' running game. They talk about it today as if that were the good old days.

"It's hard on an offense," Fordham said, "when you go into a place like Kansas City to be playing off their dictation instead of your own because you're not running the ball effectively. So they know you're going to throw the ball, so they can blitz you, they can play cover-2, they can do lots of different things that if you don't run the ball effectively it doesn't help the offense."

It's not as if the Steelers did not try to run Sunday. On their first series, after Hines Ward caught a 50-yard Tommy Maddox pass to the Chiefs' 7, Zereoue ran for a yard and Bettis ran for a yard.

On the next series, Zereoue ran on the first two downs for a yard and minus-2 yards.

On the third series, Zereoue ran 6 yards up the middle on first down.

Staked to a 17-14 lead, the Steelers ran Bettis three times in five plays and gained 6 yards in the second quarter. The next time Bettis ran, he picked up 7 yards on first down but a holding penalty against center Jeff Hartings made it first-and-20. That prompted the Steelers to pass and on third-and-3. The ball glanced off of Antwaan Randle El's fingertips and the pass was intercepted and returned for a Kansas City touchdown.

Not until the fourth quarter did the Steelers have a run longer than 6 yards.

It must be difficult for offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey to look at the talent he has in his quarterback and receivers and not want to throw the ball more than run it.

"There is always a tendency when you have so many great players in the passing game that you are going to look at that," Bettis said. "When you look at your team, you have to figure out what's the strength of your football team. If you have a tremendous amount of talent in your passing area, you have to pass the ball, but you can't forget the run."

There's a bottom line to it all, Fordham said.

"We know where we want to get as an offense and as a team and we know what we have to do to get there. First things first. We have to win the up-front battle and be able to run the ball."

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