Bengals Have a Bettis Idea, but Still Lose

CINCINNATI — Who needs receivers when you’ve got Jerome Bettis?

With three of their top five receivers sidelined and the Cincinnati Bengals geared to stop the run, the Pittsburgh Steelers stumbled around for a while Sunday before simply doing what they do best. They gave the ball to Bettis and let him bowl over the Bengals.

Bettis rushed for 135 yards--103 in the second half--and Kordell Stewart threw two first-half touchdown passes against Cincinnati’s run-fixated defense in Pittsburgh’s 26-10 victory.

The Steelers (5-2) won their fourth in a row and moved into a tie with Jacksonville for the AFC Central lead. And they did it even though they were down to three healthy receivers.

Of course, with Bettis around, receivers don’t matter as much.

“We came out with the mentality in the second half that we were just going to run right at them,” said Bettis, who has rushed for 100 yards in five of his last six games. “We were going to let them do all the stunting they wanted. We were going to take it right to them.”

Dick LeBeau, the former Steeler defensive coordinator now running the Bengal unit, stacked the line to stop the NFL’s top ground attack. Bettis was contained for a half but no more.

“Nobody has controlled him yet,” Bengal Coach Bruce Coslet said. “Once they got the lead, we knew they were going to give him the ball on every play.”

The Bengals lost their sixth in row and fell to 1-6, the same record that got Dave Shula fired last season. Cincinnati is 8-8 under Coslet, who conceded last week that some of his players have given up.

The Bengals came out with more emotion than they have shown all season and went ahead, 7-0, on Ki-Jana Carter’s six-yard run in the first quarter. But the Steelers were in control the rest of the way.