TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Jerome Bettis passed for a touchdown and ran for another score Sunday while Pittsburgh equaled a club record with 10 sacks en route to a 17-10 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Nicknamed "The Bus" for his bruising running style, Bettis also showed he could throw, finding backup tight end Jerame Tuman with a 32-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter to give the Steelers a 7-3 lead.
Bettis' other career touchdown pass came against the Baltimore Ravens two years ago.
Limited to 25 yards on the ground in the first half, Bettis broke out in the second half, running through one of the NFL's top defenses. Bettis carried 17 times for 143 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that opened a 14-3 lead.
"People don't think of us as a hard-hitting team, but when we get on the field, we are," Bettis said. "Our offensive line controlled today. They're playing Pro Bowl type football, which makes it easy for me."
Bettis, who surpassed 10,000 yards rushing in his career earlier this season, has four straight 100-yard games and 50 in his career.
Tampa Bay fell to 1-16 under coach Tony Dungy when allowing a 100-yard rusher.
Ranked first in the NFL defensively, the Steelers constantly harassed Tampa Bay quarterback Brad Johnson. Outside linebacker Joey Porter led the charge with four sacks and defensive end Kimo Von Oelhoffen added three.
It was the third time the Steelers recorded 10 sacks in a game, the last time coming four seasons ago at Arizona.
"We're known as the no-name defense who just comes out and plays football and that's all right because we're going to come out and show up every Sunday and play football," said cornerback Mike Logan, who had a fourth-quarter interception.
Kris Brown added a 35-yard field goal in the third quarter for the Steelers (4-1), who have won four straight games following a season-opening loss at Jacksonville.
"I think we're getting better and we're getting confidence," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. "We're a very close and unselfish team. It's an 'us against the world' mentality. We worked very hard to get here and now we have to turn it up a notch."
Tampa Bay got its only touchdown while working against a prevent defense, when Johnson threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Frank Murphy with 28 seconds remaining.
Keyshawn Johnson had a big game for the Bucs with 10 receptions for 159 yards.
"I was shocked by the way all of us played," Keyshawn Johnson said. "It was a display of poor football by us. I think we stopped ourselves. I don't think their defense did anything that we didn't see on film. We have to do a better job protecting our quarterback, and just do a better job as a team."
Martin Gramatica kicked a 31-yard field goal in the second quarter for the disappointing Bucs (2-3), who have lost three of their last four games.
"We had to get into the throwing game in the second half, which isn't what we wanted to do," Dungy said. "We had some protection breakdowns. We're frustrated but we still have a very good football team."
The Bucs had some of their only success offensively late in the first quarter after embarking on a 14-play, 81-yard drive that consumed nearly eight minutes and lasted into the second quarter.
But after marching inside the Steelers' 10, Tampa Bay had its drive stall when Brad Johnson was sacked by corneback Deshea Townsend. Gramatica came on and kicked a 31-yard field goal to give the Bucs the lead.
With their offensive line unable to contain the Steelers' swarming defense, the Bucs also could not muster any kind of running game. Warrick Dunn was held to a mere 31 yards on 13 carries.
Pittsburgh answered the Bucs' score, moving 80 yards in eight plays. Kordell Stewart, who struggled for much of the game, was big on the drive with completions of 16 yards to Troy Edwards and a 22-yard connection with Hines Ward.
After Stewart put the Steelers in position, they turned to Bettis to culiminate the drive. Bettis took a pitch from Stewart, ran to the right and pulled up before finding Tuman behind the defense. Tuman caught the ball inside the 20 and raced untouched into the end zone to give the Steelers a 7-3 lead with 6:07 left before the half.
"We knew they were expecting us to run in that situation and it was a good pass and great catch," Bettis said. "I was a little nervous. The last time I threw that pass it was intercepted. This time, I made sure I threw it long."
"We were running so well. It was just a matter of them calling the play and the Bucs being in the right defense," said Stewart, who went 10 of 16 for 100 yards and two interceptions. "We executed it to a `T`. Jerome Bettis did an excellent job."
Bettis, who was shut down in the first half, took over after intermission with his offensive line opening huge holes along the way.
On their first drive of the second half, the Steelers needed just three plays to go 57 yards for a touchdown. Bettis ran over right guard, broke through the line and the 255-pounder outraced the Tampa Bay defense to make it 14-3.
The Steelers built on the lead later in the third quarter with Bettis again ripping up huge chunks of yardage.
Bettis had runs for 15 and 24 yards on a 10-play, 68-yard drive. Brown capped the march with a 35-yard field goal, extending the lead to 17-3 with 4:49 left in the quarter.
The Bucs finally reached the end zone in the final minute on Brad Johnson's five-yard pass to Murphy. Johnson finished 24 of 40 for 283 yards with one interception.
