TAMPA, Fla. -- Pittsburgh Steelers safety Lee Flowers started his tirade on the sidelines, even throwing his helmet into the bench, sending pieces flying everywhere. But that was aimed at no one in particular.

When it carried over to the locker room, he designated his targets and fired away loudly, sending many media members who had just entered ducking for cover.

What could make a man on a team that had just won 17-10 over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road so angry? Aren't the Steelers now 4-1, having won four consecutive games?

Kimo Von Oelhoffen gets one of his three sacks of Brad Johnson. (AP)

"It's about respect," Flowers screamed loudly. "Don't y'all get quiet now. You're the ones who printed that ----. You're the ones who put that stuff he said in the paper."

"He" happens to be Tampa Bay running back Mike Alstott, who was quoted earlier in the week as saying he felt the Bucs should be able to run on the Steelers after Kansas City rushed for 164 against them last Sunday.

The quote was distributed to the Pittsburgh defense, igniting a fire that showed Sunday. They manhandled the Tampa Bay offense, limiting the Bucs to 278 yards -- just 64 on the ground -- while sacking Brad Johnson 10 times, tying a franchise record.

With no run, Johnson had nowhere to hide.

"We knew if we stopped the run, we'd get the sacks," said Steelers linebacker Joey Porter, who had four of them. "Nobody was given us credit for what we've done. It was all about who we've played."

The Steelers came into the game having beaten Buffalo, Cincinnati and Kansas City, not exactly league heavyweights. That's why there might have been some doubts about Pittsburgh's lofty ranking as the NFL's top-rated defense.

There should be no doubts anymore.

Ten sacks is enough to make any quarterback stand up and take notice. Pittsburgh will get after it, which is why Flowers was so angry after the game.

No respect?

"Look at ESPN and the newspaper clippings, and it's all Tampa this, Tampa that," Flowers said. "It was so much disrespect saying they have the best defense. What about us? Our defense was pretty pissed off. I'm tired of it. Now they'll say Tampa just didn't show up. Well ---- that. We beat Tampa. Now they're sitting over there all sad. I'm tired of people talking about all their All-Pros. Well, then they need to get up out of there then, because they ain't doing anything."

The Steelers are doing a lot.

Pittsburgh dominated both lines of scrimmage, mauling a supposedly physical team as if they were the Pop Warner club from down the block.

The Steelers ran for 220 yards as their offensive line pushed around the light Buccaneers front. Jerome Bettis had 143 yards on 17 carries, including a 46-yard touchdown run. He also threw for a 32-yard score, hitting tight end Jerame Tuman.

It was vintage Steelers football. Pound, pound and pound some more.

"When you run the ball as well as we did today, it's tough for those guys to keep coming," Steelers guard Alan Faneca said. "They were sucking for air."

Added Bettis: "Our offensive line controlled today."

With Bettis pounding away, quarterback Kordell Stewart threw for just 100 yards, which is a formula Pittsburgh has used in winning four consecutive games. When Bettis is running like he did Sunday, and the defense does what it did, it's a blueprint similar to the one Baltimore used to win a Super Bowl last season.

That's a bit premature, especially with home division games the next two weeks against Tennessee and Baltimore. But seven of the last 11 games are at Pittsburgh's new Heinz Field.

That's a big advantage, made even bigger with that defense.

It is a defense that has been special so far, giving up 34 points in the past four games.

The Steel Curtain? Not quite, but they're getting there.

"People say we have a no-name defense," said Porter. "We have a name. We're the Big Nasty Defense."

That's what it said on his shirt. Underneath were three shorter sentences that read:

New Home

New Attitude

New Era

"This is the best defense in the league," said Porter.

Once they shut down the Tampa Bay run, it made for an impossible situation for Johnson. The Steelers came at him early with a variety of blitzes, which seemed to confuse him.

In addition to Porter's four, defensive end Kimo Von Oelhoffen got three sacks. The others came from defensive backs, with Deshea Townsend, Dewayne Washington and Mike Logan all getting one.

"You could see as the game went on he was thinking about us," Porter said.

Johnson finished 24 of 40 for 283 yards, but struggled to get the ball down the field because of the rush. The only touchdown scored by the Bucs came with 28 seconds left on a 3-yard pass from Johnson to Frank Murphy.

Tampa Bay appeared to recover the onsides kick when Brian Kelly jumped up to pull it out of the air, but the ball was taken from him underneath the pile. After reviewing the play, the officials ruled Pittsburgh did recover.

Flowers could finally celebrate.

Or could he?

"We still won't get the credit we should," Flowers said. "People don't know how good we are. This is a good defense. People will have to start paying attention now."

That's especially true with such a vocal leader screaming out to be heard.

"That's Lee," said Logan. "He gets so mad that he starts saying stuff like that. Since he is our leader, we all feed off it. It gets us going."

In a Big Nasty sort of way.