Steelers' Bell leads defensive attack

The secret to the success of the Pittsburgh Steelers for the last 30 years has been the combination of a strong running game and a stout defense.
And those Steeler defenses -- the Steel Curtain -- have always had All-Pros at virtually every position.
Pittsburgh's newest stud may be Kendrell Bell, a rookie linebacker out of Georgia, who was the Steelers' second-round pick in the April draft.
Monday night, in Pittsburgh's 34-7 rout of the Tennessee Titans, Bell was the playmaker on the Steeler defense.
He led the team with eight tackles, including one of the Steelers' three sacks.
Disrupts play: But, what the numbers didn't show were the number of plays Bell, just 21, disrupted, and the shots he delivered to Titans running back Eddie George.
The Tennessee All-Pro running back was held to 13 yards on 10 carries and had just one carry in the second half.
"Without Eddie back there they are totally different," said Steelers strong safety Lee Flowers. "I think he was hurting. I am going to be honest; I have seen this guy for seven years run extremely hard.
"Tonight, I don't know whether it was his ankle, I saw him grab his knee a couple of times. It was not the same Eddie and they are not the same team without Eddie George back there. It is just like us without Jerome [Bettis] back there."
According to the Titans, George injured his left knee and right ankle.
Still, the Titans had trouble moving the ball in the first half, too, their only score coming after a missed Pittsburgh field goal gave the visitors a short field.
"We knew that Eddie George gets a lot of yards by the cut back," said Steelers inside linebacker Earl Holmes. "You have to be gap sound. We worked on that all week long -- if anybody overpursued [to] make sure we had some guys playing the backside gap."
Holmes impressed: Holmes was impressed with the play of the rookie Bell.
"He kept hitting on Eddie. He stepped up and made big plays for us.
"Lethon [Flowers] was hitting on him [George], myself, Kimo [von Oelhoffen], everybody was pounding Eddie. The next thing you know, I did not see Eddie any more.
"We are a physical team. We are going to keep going after people."
The same could be said for quarterback Kordell Stewart, who threw for more than 200 yards for the first time since Dec. 10, 2000, against the New York Giants.
"They were doing everything they could to stop our running game," said Pittsburgh tight end Mark Bruener, "and they were effective with it with the number of players they had at the line of scrimmage. So we had to use alternate measures. It was a big game for our passing game; it really showed that we are capable of doing some good things with that phase of our offense."
Tennessee coach Jeff Fisher defended his game plan.
"We just didn't make the plays," he said. "I think anyone that plays this football team, in order to have a chance to win, is going to have to stop the run first. Kordell came out and he made some plays. We were very close to making some plays ourselves.
"I think tonight is an example of a football team [the Titans] that has to do everything exactly right in order to win," continued Fisher. "That's where we are right now."
First place: Where the Steelers are is, well, first place. And they're there because they have Jerome Bettis running the football and a defensive unit that is difficult to move the ball against.
Add to all that, the return of Slash and some receivers he can count on to catch the football and the Steelers can once again be a contender for the postseason -- and more.
XRob Todor is sports editor of The Vindicator. Write him at todor@vindy.com.