Dwyer latest breakout running back

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Jonathan Dwyer walked into the Pittsburgh Steelers locker room a few hours before taking on the Eagles earlier this month, saw his name in black on the white message board and shrugged his shoulders.

The third-year running back expected there to be fallout over his costly fourth-quarter fumble a few days earlier in a loss to Oakland. While Dwyer hoped he’d get a chance to immediately atone for the first mistake of his career, the writing on the wall — literally — meant he was inactive.

Harsh? Maybe a little. Undeserved? Not really, at least not to Dwyer.

“I was inactive because of me,” Dwyer said.

And the somewhat impersonal manner in which it was handled didn’t bother him either.

“That’s how we do business here,” he said. “It’s very honest and straightforward and it makes me want to work harder to eliminate my problems and eliminate mistakes from my game.”

So Dwyer didn’t spend two weeks beating himself up while watching from the sideline in sweats as Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman went to work. He’s well-versed in the Steeler mantra of “next man up” and when injuries to both Mendenhall and Redman thrust Dwyer back onto the field last weekend against Cincinnati, he buckled his chinstrap, kept his head down and plowed ahead.

The result was a career-high 122 bruising yards in a 24-17 victory. On most teams, posting the highest rushing total in over a year would assure you of more than a handful of carries the next week.

“My game is just going straightforward and making things happen and being physical,” Dwyer said. “That’s who I’ve been ever since I was a kid. That’s not going to change.”

Not in Pittsburgh.

A half-dozen backs have topped 100 yards in a game at least once since Jerome Bettis retired after the 2005 season. From Willie Parker to Najeh Davenport to Mewelde Moore to the current trio of Mendenhall, Redman and Dwyer, Pittsburgh has a way of getting what it needs out of the running game from whatever name happens to be at the top of the depth chart, regardless of pedigree.

Though Mendenhall has been the entrenched starter since being taken in the first round of the 2008 draft, when he’s been hurt — which has been often — the dropoff has been minimal.

Last year it was Redman — who signed as a rookie free agent in 2009 — gashing the Denver Broncos for 121 yards in a playoff loss. Last week it was Dwyer — a sixth-round pick in the 2010 draft — repeatedly churning into the Cincinnati secondary.