Steelers, Bears Fail To Electrify Irish Fans Pittsburgh Outplays Chicago In American Bowl Exhibition

In the storied home of Gaelic football and hurling, the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Chicago Bears 30-17 Sunday before 30,269 mostly baffled fans.

The first NFL game played in Ireland - an American Bowl exhibition aimed at promoting the game abroad - drew a crowd that was smaller than the throng of 38,000 that attended a college game here eight months ago between Notre Dame and Navy.

Half of those were Americans who made the trip, and this time the locals had to fill most of the seats. They saw the Steelers looking much sharper than the Bears in the first preseason game for each team.

Kordell Stewart, who is taking over as the Steelers’ No. 1 quarterback after being a multi-purpose threat at several positions, was almost perfect right from the start. He engineered two scoring drives in the first quarter - the only one he played - to help Pittsburgh take a lead it never relinquished.

Stewart was 7 of 11 for 132 yards, including a 44-yard pass to former Colorado teammate Charles Johnson to set up Jerome Bettis’s three-yard TD run for a 7-0 lead.

The Steelers stretched the lead to 10-0 with 5:28 left in the first quarter when Chris Jacke hit a 43-yard field goal after Stewart connected with Johnson for 18 yards and Yancey Thigpen twice - each time for 21 yards - in another easy-moving drive.

The only bright spot for the Bears was fourth-round draft choice Darnell Autry of Northwestern. Autry scored on a 46-yard run in the third quarter and recovered a fumble in the fourth.