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		Niners travel to Pittsburgh for Week 3 By David Zizmor September 19, 2007

	The San Francisco 49ers seemed to do a good job in their first couple of games, keeping themselves in the game and having their defense play well. The offense has just looked terrible there no two ways about it and Arizona and St. Louis are not particularly good teams and their defense certainly isn’t all that stout. Pittsburgh is a whole other story as this is a team known for having a tough defense and they have already shut down Cleveland. With the Niners coming to Heinz Field and they have not been lighting up the scoreboard. With a mediocre offense against a very good defense, it will be interesting to see how many yards the 49ers will get. The Steelers have a system in place and have been able to stop people for years under Bill Cowher and now head coach Mike Tomlin. This is a very difficult team to score against, and they have not been any different this season against a team like the 49ers. The Steelers are going to key on Frank Gore and force Alex Smith to feed him and so far, the Niners have not shown any creativity with their offense that would create maybe beating a team through the air. The 49ers really haven't done anything through the air this season Smith hasn't even thrown for even 200 yards in a game and has barley went over 200 yards during last season. Therefore, unless the 49ers have some tricks up their sleeve it is hard to imagine that their offense is going to muster enough firepower to hold up against the Pittsburgh defense. At the same time the Niners defense has been playing pretty well, as they had two very good offenses in check in the first two games they limited the amazing tandem of Larry Fitzgerald and Antwain Boulden to only 20 yards a piece in the opening game against Arizona. They are the two best receivers in the league and they did it limiting Tory Holt's production regarding last weekend against St. Louis. Pittsburgh don't have any receivers that are quiet the caliber of any of those guys, of course Hines Ward is one of the better receivers in the league but he's not on the burner like a Fitzgerald and Holt and he's not quiet a threat down field as Boulden is. Nonetheless, Ward is a good receiver and the Steelers have a young and upcoming Santonio Holmes who is a bit of a burner the Niners have done a good job covering those people and the Niners have done a decent job of limiting the running game. Edgren James had 97 yards against the Niners in the opening game at Candlestick he averaged about 3.5 yards a carry. Steven Jackson had an ineffective day he got his yards here and there but he was not a big factor in the game. Pittsburgh though on offense has a big offensive line that could make it pretty difficult stopping the running game which is centered on Willie Parker who’s been pretty good the first couple week and the Niners defense is going to have its work cut out for them. If the Niners defense can hold the Pittsburgh offense under 20 points its possible that the offense could maybe score a lucky point or two and make it a close one but this is the biggest test for the Niners so far this season and its going to be a really tough one. They're on the road in Pittsburgh not an easy place to win in the first place and the team that is really starting to feel confident for about the first time in about a year and that the Steelers had an off season by their standards last season when quarterback Ben Rothlesberger was coming back from a bad motorcycle injury. After that the Steelers really never got on track but they got to the playoffs for the first time in a while and the Steelers are looking strong so far early in the season they may not look like New England or Indianapolis but they're in that upper tier of teams in this league. If the Niners want to prove that they have a shot at the playoffs this would be a good message win but unless the 49ers have been playing possum the first couple of weeks and just were hiding some of their offense the 49ers can not muster up enough fire power to beat Pittsburgh. The 49ers kickoff with the Steelers on Sunday September 23rd at Heinz Field at 10AM. David Zizmor covers 49ers football and co-hosts Sportstalk on 1690 KFSG Sacramento.