PITTSBURGH - It certainly wasn't a thing of beauty, but there were no judges to deduct tenths of a point for his effort, either.

Instead, defensive end Aaron Smith's lumbering 49-yard return of a fumble recovery Sunday was just fine as far as the Steelers were concerned. The play set up a second quarter touchdown by running back Jerome Bettis that gave Pittsburgh a 14-7 halftime advantage en route to a 24-21 victory over the Oakland Raiders.

The play, which was made possible courtesy of the first of two sacks by linebacker Clark Haggans of Oakland quarterback Rich Gannon, was the highlight of a productive 15 minutes for the sixth-year pro from Northern Colorado University.

"I saw Clark hit him and the ball pretty much just bounced right to me," Smith said about the genesis of the fumble return. "I didn't hear the whistle, so I scooped it up and still didn't hear a whistle, so I started running."

Smith said he hadn't carried the ball like that since his high school days in Colorado Springs, Colo., so it wasn't long before the inevitable happened.

"About 20 yards into it, I was tired," Smith said, smiling. "I could feel the monkey on my back."

Head coach Bill Cowher enjoyed the inherent humor in watching one of the big guys carry the ball.

"After I scanned the field and there were no flags, I kept looking and he was still running," he said.

However, Cowher also appreciated the inherent danger in such a play as well.

"I knew he was not going to score," the coach said. "He had a lot of guys around him, and I'm glad he didn't try to pitch it.

"There's a part of me that says there are faster guys around him, but we had the ball and too man bad things can happen when you do it."

Smith said he was on the same page with his coach.

"I thought about it, but there was too much going on and I'm not used to holding the ball, so I figured I should just hold onto it and not give it back to them," Smith said.

Later in the second quarter, Smith also sacked Gannon and forced a fumble on the play, but Gannon recovered the ball.

The fumble recovery was Smith's first since the 2002 season, when he logged three in the regular season and one in the playoffs. The forced fumble was his first since the 2001 season, and the 6-foot-5, 298-pound lineman now has 50 percent of his 2003 sack total of two.

That 2002 season was Smith's best in a Steelers uniform since the team tapped him in the fourth round of the 1999 NFL Draft. He recorded 68 tackles that year, including 60 solos, 5½ sacks and three forced fumbles.

His best season for sacks was 2001, when he notched eight.

However, Smith is focused on the bigger picture of the Steelers' close win over the Raiders and the season ahead.

"We had a letdown and gave up some big plays. We need to fix that, but I think, overall, we played well," Smith said.