Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger smiles during a timeout late in the fourth quarter of a 21-9... Posted on 12/11/2005 3:55:14 PM PST by Hacksaw
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger smiles during a timeout late in the fourth quarter of a 21-9...
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The field was soft and muddy and the snow was falling heavily on one of those nasty-weather days most NFL offensive players despise. To Jerome Bettis, the conditions were next to perfect.
Bettis, the NFL's No. 5 career rusher but a forgotten man much of the season, plowed through the muck and snow for two touchdowns and 101 yards and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat Chicago 21-9 on Sunday to end the Bears' eight-game winning streak.
A season-long lack of offense finally caught up to the Bears (9-4) as their normally exceptional defense was merely average, failing to generate any turnovers despite a day seemingly made for mistakes. Instead, it was made for the 260-pound Bettis, a power runner who doesn't need snow tires when the temperatures fall and the going gets rough.
"He's a mudder," wide receiver Hines Ward said. "Those were great field conditions for him. People think he's down and out and he had a game like he had today."
Bettis, held to 22 yards on 14 carries in his previous two games, had his first 100-yard game in the regular season since getting 117 on Dec. 26 against Baltimore. Bettis' previous season high was 56 yards against Cincinnati on Oct. 23, and he had only 186 yards in Pittsburgh's first 12 games.
Before Bettis got rolling, Ben Roethlisberger -- all but ignoring the deep pass due to his bad thumb and the bad weather -- threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Ward on Pittsburgh's first drive after hitting Willie Parker for 45 yards, both on screen passes.
After that, the Steelers (8-5) played a nearly error-free game to end a three-game losing streak, stay alive in the AFC playoff race and cut the Bears' lead over Minnesota (8-5) to one game in the NFC North.
Bettis had 60 career 100-yard games before Sunday, but even he didn't know if had another left in him.
"Absolutely not. My role is to come in and spell Willie Parker," Bettis said. "But this game was set up for me with the weather and the conditions."
At one point, Ward walked up to Bettis and reminded him that nobody runs in bad weather like he does.
"We were desperate," Ward said. "It's a one-game season every week for us. We've got to play like it's the playoffs, because we don't have a lot of room for error."
The Steelers' three touchdowns matched a season high against the Bears, and their 21 points were the most against Chicago since a 24-9 loss to Cincinnati on Sept. 25. The Steelers outgained the Bears 363-268 and outrushed them 190-83 after being held below 100 yards rushing during each game of the three-game losing streak.
"We're a lot better defense than we were out there," coach Lovie Smith said. "It was a bad day for the Bears."
With the Bears' defense allowing only 68 points during their longest winning streak since the 1985 Super Bowl championship team won 12 in a row, rookie quarterback Kyle Orton kept winning -- even while fumbling 11 times and throwing 13 interceptions.
But when the Bears (9-4) finally needed him to bring them from behind, Orton (17-of-35, 207 yards) couldn't do it, or come close. Still, Smith never considered pulling him for Rex Grossman, who is back after breaking an ankle during the preseason.
The Bears drove to the Steelers' 3 following Ward's third touchdown catch in two games, but Orton was sacked for an eight-yard loss on second-and-goal and threw incomplete on third down. That forced them to settle for Robbie Gould's 29-yard field goal and a 7-3 deficit.
"I'm not happy with that one," Orton said. "We've got to get better."
Six Bears possessions and punts later, the Steelers led 21-3 after Bettis scored on runs of 1 yard midway through the second quarter and 5 yards in the third quarter.
Roethlisberger (13-of-20 for 173 yards, no interceptions) threw almost no high-risk passes a week after having a career-high three interceptions in a damaging 38-31 loss to Cincinnati that left the Bengals in control of the AFC North. The Bengals (10-3) stayed two games up by beating Cleveland 23-20 Sunday.
"We saw something in the Bears defense that made us think we could run the ball against them," Roethlisberger said. "We wanted to get back to what the Pittsburgh Steelers are supposed to do." ^Notes:@ The Bears played without both starting safeties, Chris Harris (knee) and Mike Brown (calf). ... Thomas Jones, the Bears' 1,000-yard rusher, had 72 yards but hasn't had a 100-yard game in seven games. ... Bettis' 100-yard game was only the Steelers' fourth of the season; they had 11 while going 15-1 last season. ... No NFL team has missed the playoffs after going 15-1 the previous season.
Please ping the Burgh list. I see this was moved to chat - this is certainly more important that "PatrickHenry"'s evolution threads!
Damn, I wished I had taped this game - Good Steeler weather and a win to boot.
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It looked like Chicago had never played in snow before.
oh give them a break, you are happy dancing over there like a dang 5 yo; )
You got that right, Jerome was in HOG HEAVEN!
Great game! Thanks for the ping,martin!
GET ON THE BUS!!!(n'at)
Maybe the headline should be, "Chicago Breaks Steelers' 3 Game Losing Streak".
Minnesota is quietly sneaking up on Chicago.
At one point, Ward walked up to Bettis and reminded him that nobody runs in bad weather like he does.
Ha, like a hummer with sandbags in the back. :)
Martin, could you please add my husband "lightingguy" to your Pittsburgh ping list? (I don't think he's on it, anyway...) Thanks!
SD
Was wondering about that myself.
Though I'm still irate at the Steelers, for making me root for the Cowboys to help put us back in the playoff picture. I HATE rooting for the Cowboys.
Yeah, but that missed field goal at the end was sweet. Then again, I was also pulling for the Brownies to pull out the upset. So strange bedfellows indeed.
SD
Yeah I was hoping for a Browns win too, just to sweaten our playoff picture a little. Yup the end of the season makes some strange allies, for instance this week Bears fans should be rooting for the Steelers, if the Vikes win and the Bears have trouble in Atlanta the Bears playoff picture suddenly gets real nasty but if the Steelers beat the Vikes the Bears keep some wiggle room in the game against Atlanta. I love the final stretch of the season.
What I saw was a Bear team that did not show up to play; that had the crap kicked out of them; that was totally out-coached and could not regain its balance after the Steelers ripped them apart with screen passes. They would stop the STeelers then Ben would throw a three yard pass which would go for 20 yards and a first down. Completely humiliated and incapable of regaining their balance. They could not tackle anyone much less that big lummox. Are you sure they didn't have roller skates on?
Had they played like that the rest of the season their record would not be 9-4 but closer to 0-9. Losing our safeties did not help but they were completely dominated in the lines. I guess we didn't even have defensive tackles for all the impact they had.
Now lets see the STeelers do the same thing to the Vikes.
Stu was complaining about Cowher losing it last week but looks to me as though he came up with the perfect plan to use the Bears' strength, speed, against them. Our running game depended too much on traps and complex line moves to do much good in that weather and our coaches could not figure it out apparently.
It is still the best defense in the league though without Brown things are not going to get any easier. But yesterday the Steelers probably could have scored 40 points if what I saw is any indication.
That was Bettis' last hurrah. He has killed the Bears throughout his career. I remember one horrible game when he was with the Rams which he was a one man show.
However, I don't think this game will be anything but an anomaly. Our running game went to hell, we didn't come up with any of the four balls the Steelers put on the ground. Our special teams sucked and the defense was clueless. Then every break went in the Steelers' direction whereas we had had plenty of luck earlier.
My buddy was outraged that the Steelers got to challenge after they had gotten a delay penalty believing that this constituted a "play". I thought it was another great move by their coach. Anyone know the wording on how long one gets before a challenge is too late?
There was some serious bad tackling by the Bears, and bad tackling is always made worse when you put in a 260 lb RB.
Notice the game plan went back to playing Steeler football 2/3 runs with passes picked to take advantage of the run game. Exactly the game plan you said had no chance.
Next week is going to be tough because the Steelers are simply not a dome team. Hopefully we'll manage to smack the Vikes in the mouth and make it seem like an open air game. You better hope we win, if the Vikes get 1 more W in the next two weeks than the Bears you go into week 17 holding nothing but the tie-breaker and that game becomes winner take all, and depending on what happens in the NFC East and South the loser could be out of the season entirely.
Wasn't an anomoly, it was the difference between the AFC and the NFC, and the Steelers reverting to form. The Bears simply haven't had many challenging offenses this season. This game showed that the Bears have a good defense, possibly even a very good defense, but simply not a great defense, and they really need to fix the offense.
Delay of game penalties are not a play, a play happens when the ball is snapped, challenges are allowed up until the next play begins, no snap means no play means no problem. Actually Cowher said it was a mistake, he was watching the jumbotron and lost track of the play clock looking for one more replay, good challenge because it was a clear catch, but bad clock management.
Have to say I think that is the best complete game they have played all season.
Certainly in the last month. But we need to keep winning, I don't trust the tie-breaker with the Chiefs (mostly because I haven't figured out which tie-breaker they're giving us, they have the better conference record) and next week is going to be ugly (hate getting stuck inside two domes in one season, just ain't right).
He's now Pingified, 'n'at!
Bettis probably weighs 275. But that game plan would not have worked in good weather since the Bears speed would not have been negated. Had the Steelers played like that the rest of the year they would not be in a desparate chase for the playoffs.
It was Ben's passing which did the Bears in. Then the running game kept them from getting anything going.
My prognostications were all based upon the Bears actually tackling. I have not seen anything like that all year simply horrible. They could not have beaten anyone tackling like that.
Our offense has found a quarterback who will only get better so I am not worried about it long term. This is a team which was not expected to win more than four games after losing its qb before the season started. Orton has shown he can take the punishment which is the first requirement. Those howling to replace him with Grossman are out of their minds. We will pick up receivers and a tight end for next year and I have every confidence that Orton will do just fine.
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