Jets Make It Close, But Can’t Stop Streaking Steelers
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PITTSBURGH – On the day Jerome Bettis and Curtis Martin went over 13,000 yards rushing, Bettis will be remembered most for, of all things, his passing.
Bettis flipped a 10-yard touchdown pass to Jerame Tuman three plays after surpassing the 13,000-yard barrier early in the fourth quarter, fooling what had been a nearly impenetrable Jets defense and sending the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 17-6 victory yesterday.
Bettis, unused early this season except during goal-line situations, also ran for a late touchdown – his career high 12th this season – after rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s longest completion in four games, a 46-yarder to Lee Mays.
Until then, their offense didn’t look Super Bowl-ready – they have been held to 19 or fewer points in four consecutive games – but the Steelers (12-1) overcame a spotty game by Roethlisberger to win a club record-tying 11th in a row. The 1975 Super Bowl champion Steelers won 11 straight during a 12-2 season.
Roethlisberger kept his unprecedented rookie winning streak going, too, winning his 11th in a row in the NFL and 24th straight the last two seasons, counting his final 13 games in college.
Pittsburgh’s victory, its 15th in 17 games against the Jets (9-4), also secured the AFC North championship that has been a foregone conclusion for weeks and kept the Steelers in the lead for home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. New England also is 12-1 after beating Cincinnati 35-28, but lost earlier to the Steelers.
Bettis’s third career touchdown pass in six attempts came on Pittsburgh’s only sustained drive of the day until that point, an 80-yard possession keyed by Roethlisberger completions of 26 yards to Hines Ward and 21 yards to Duce Staley. On third-and-3, Bettis rolled to his right after taking a pitch from Roethlisberger and casually tossed the ball to a wide-open Tuman, who also caught Bettis’ last scoring pass in 2001. Bettis also had a TD throw in 1999.
The Jets’ defense had shut out three consecutive opponents in the second half and six this season until Bettis’s throw, which broke a 3-all tie and helped keep New York from being 10-3 for the first time since 1986.
Bettis also carried 10 times for 57 yards to push his career total to 13,037. Martin ran 24 times for 72 yards to move past Bettis into fifth place with 13,046 yards in the first game in NFL history in which two backs each surpassed 13,000 yards.
The Jets were the league’s second least penalized team until being flagged 12 times for 84 yards – all in the first half, when the only scoring came on Jeff Reed’s 34-yard field goal for Pittsburgh following Troy Polamalu’s interception of a pass by Chad Pennington.
The Jets threatened late in the half by driving from their 4 to the Steelers 30, but Pennington was intercepted by James Farrior. Pennington was 17-of-31 for 189 yards and three interceptions – only one fewer than he had all season.
“Everything in the world happened to us in the first half, everything went wrong and we were still right there,” Pennington said. “We made too many mental mistakes and it begins with me.”