Morning Buzz

Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who knows his beat about as well as anyone writing about the NFL knows their beat, has a very good story today — and a very ominous one for the 49ers. The Steelers have allowed no 100-yard runner in 27 games, and only one in 52 games.

They’ve faced LT and LJ and just about every other great running back you can think of, and no dice. Combine this with the fact that Gore himself has yet to break the century mark this year, and I think we know where this is headed: right into Alex Smith’s hands.

I’m not saying there’s any great shame in losing this game. But if the 49ers don’t even give their franchise quarterback a chance, couldn’t we all start to think they just don’t have any faith in him?

–On the other side: Football’s cybergeeks have a “Curse of 370,” meaning the number of carries at which a running back suffers irreversible damage in the future. Willie Parker is headed well past 370 this season. To which his new coach says: “We’re going to ride Willie until the wheels come off.” Making Ben Roethlisberger throw is a good thing, and the Steelers will try to avoid it — they aren’t scared of him trying anything like the 49ers are with Alex, but they don’t put the game on him either.

–Steelers TE Matt Spaeth, who has TDs in each of the first two games because of a bruised quad. Not a huge deal; he’s the backup in the first place. Imagine that. Pittsburgh can find its backup tight end and the 49ers can’t find the No. 6 overall pick in the 2006 draft.

–Over on our side of things, Kawakami sees a blowout coming … or does he? The 49ers’ brass thinks their team is mentally equipped to play this game, which it hasn’t been since … oh, since T.O. and Garcia opened the 2002 season. Yow.

The spread is 9 1/2. I think that’s going to be a pretty operative number down the stretch.