At various times throughout the game, the Steelers offense was brutally efficient, and the defense was playing in a fashion similar to the marauding units of the 1990s that came to be known as Blitzburgh. But it was some of the in-between stuff that nearly ruined Coach Bill Cowhers whole day. The Steelers took the opening kickoff, and using a blend of a physical running and some accurate passing from Tommy Maddox, they marched 67 yards in 15 plays to take a 7-0 lead on a 1-yard plunge by Jerome Bettis. By the time the game was 20 minutes old, the offense had added another touchdown to increase the lead to 14-0, while the defense was contributing a sack and two takeaways. The game was going exactly as the Steelers had hoped.

Well, the media said we couldn’t get any pressure on them said outside linebacker Joey Porter You said we had no pressure, no turnovers, so we had to put our focus towards that I guess. I thought that once the regular season came around that the pressure and the turnovers would be there, and to start off the season we got the pressure and the turnovers. Part of that had to do with the calls made by new coordinator Dick LeBeau, and part of it had to do with the Steelers winning some one-on-one matchups. hat has a lot to do with it, but at \\\\\\\"In a game, you game-plan. Preseason, we’re just out there running our plays and just trying to execute our defense. Now when you put a whole week, like the coaches did, into game-planning for somebody, they’re going to put us in situations to make plays. We were in situations to make plays and guys got the fumbles, the sacks, the interceptions and it made for a good day for us. It was a good day for the defense, with the exception of one pass play at the end of the first half and another