When he comes off the ball, powers into his block and helps get Jerome Bettis deep into a secondary, there isn’t a better feeling in football as far as Jon Witman is concerned. Yet what drives the Steelers’ fullback, what compels Witman to keep picking himself up and attacking in the face of pain and injury, is the feeling he gets when he fails to properly execute his block and his assigned target finds a way to get Bettis onto the ground. ‘It feels great when you get a block, but you feel like (crap) when you don’t,’ Witman said. Such is the snap-by-snap existence Witman subjects himself to on a week-by-week basis. ‘You saw it (last) Sunday. That one long run Jerome had (a 48-yard gain on Bettis’ first carry against the Bengals), everything worked exactly the way we wrote it up in the book. That felt good. You get one of those, you do one of these,’ Witman said, pounding his chest for emphasis. ‘Another time, I dove for my man and missed him, and he got Jerome. It was still a pretty long run, but Jerome probably would have had another 20 or 30 yards on that one. ‘When you know your guy made the tackle, I take that to heart. Coach (Bill) Cowher always says, ‘go to the next play,’ but I take it to heart a little bit. The way I look at it, you should get your guy every time. Obviously, that’s not going to happen, but when you miss and the guy makes the tackle, I feel like I failed my team on that play.

‘That makes me want to work that much harder and get it done.’ Witman, the offensive linemen, the wide receivers and anyone else that might have been blocking for Bettis got it done last week. ‘The Bus’ rumbled for 153 yards, and the Steelers piled up 274 yards on the ground. The reward for such excellence in execution is a date today in Kansas City against a Chiefs’ defense that will take the field determined not to allow the Steelers to repeat their dominance on the ground. ‘Kansas City’s defense is pretty darn good,’ Witman said. ‘They always have eight men in the box. We have to account for every single one of them.’ As the fullback in front of Bettis in two-back sets, it will be Witman’s responsibility to either take care of his assigned target or to clean up any defender that happens to break free and threaten Bettis before ‘The Bus’ can get rolling. ‘Things happen faster in a game than you can duplicate in practice,’ running backs coach Dick Hoak said. ‘You have to have a guy in there (at fullback) that’s ready to make those adjustments. (Witman) makes them very well. If something comes up in a game that you haven’t practiced, he can make those adjustments. He sorts things out.’ Usually, Witman’s assignment is a linebacker. But he must take care of the first man through in the event of a breakdown elsewhere. ‘A cover-your-(butt) block,’ Witman said, jokingly. ‘I have to take the closest guy to the ball carrier. If someone’s in your way, you have to hit them.’ Witman is as relentless in his preparation for such scenarios as he has been resolute in recovering from injuries since joining the Steelers as a third-round draft pick out of Penn State in 1996. Whether he’s been hampered by a double-hernia, the broken leg that ended his 2000 campaign in mid-October or the bad back that has him wincing at times this season and contemplating surgery upon its conclusion, Witman shows up and goes to work. ‘He’s physically tough and mentally tough, sometimes too tough for his own good,’ Hoak said. ‘He has that back and there are times when he probably shouldn’t practice, and he’s going to practice (anyway).’ ‘I look at it this way, I’m getting older and Danny (Kreider) is right there (at fullback). I have to bust my (butt) to keep a job,’ Witman said. ‘I know I’m beat up a little bit, but I can’t take time off. I need to stay in there. I’m playing year-by-year now. I don’t know how long they’re going to want me, when they’re going to think I’m too old to play. I just have to keep plugging away. ‘I missed a lot of time in the preseason. I’m really just starting to get back into it. The last two games I’ve picked up speed a little bit, started to feel comfortable, and my back’s starting to feel a little better. ‘You can’t be too dedicated in this sport. If I’m not in there practicing, learning what I have to do, I’m not going to be comfortable in a game. If I’m to the point where I can’t bend over and touch my kneecaps, then I have a problem. But I’m feeling better now.’ Witman’s concerns are genuine. Kreider stepped in when Witman and Chris Fuamatu-Ma’afala went down last season and wound up winning the Steelers’ Rookie of the Year award in Witman’s place. And the Steelers responded by releasing Witman in March, approximately two years after they had rewarded him with a multi-year contract extension, before re-signing Witman again last April. Witman emerged again as the starter at fullback this year, a position he’d predominantly held since 1998, in part because Kreider came up lame in camp due to a calf injury. The effort Witman has put forth since hasn’t gone unnoticed. ‘He’s been banged up and he’s still been fighting through it with his bad back,’ Bettis said. ‘You have to give him a lot of credit. ‘It’s noticeable to us. We’ve seen him in his bad times, when he can’t bend down and touch his shoes. We know what he’s had to do, having to take a (pain-killing) shot in his back, that kind of stuff. We see it, the running backs, more so than the other guys. And I definitely appreciate it more than anybody.’ Especially when the holes are opening up the way they did against Cincinnati. ‘Everybody was doing their job,’ Witman said. ‘The linemen were holding their blocks well. I actually had holes to get through to get to my guy. ‘It feels good when it’s working.’ And bad enough when it isn’t that Witman lines up the next time that much more determined.

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