Le'Veon Bell had no choice.
"The hard way," he'd tell me, halfway beaming at his locker stall in a way a running back seldom would after being held to 48 yards. "That was it: Lower the boom, get through. One way."
Right. The hard way:
It was hardly Jerome Bettis flattening Brian Urlacher, but it might be as close as I'll come to finding one moment that most sweetly summarizes these Steelers' season to date.
This one play. Because this was what they're all about. It was the second touchdown of what wound up yet another final-minute victory, a 39-38 thriller over the archrival Ravens that clinched yet another AFC North Division championship on this chilly Sunday night at Heinz Field. And it was quintessential, as I saw it, Bell's bulldozing of Baltimore's Tony Jefferson, a pancake that should be atop the menu Monday morning at Pamela's in the Strip, for it embodied this group's response to pretty much everything that hasn't gone their way.
There's a problem?
Fine, punch someone in the nose.
There's no way around it?
Punch harder. This time in the mouth.
Punch from the opening kickoff. That's what Rosie Nix, the offense's heat-seeking fullback, did in destroying Baltimore's Chris Moore moments after the coin flip.
Punch to the final snap. That's what T.J. Watt, the defense's heat-seeking outside linebacker, did in overpowering right tackle Austin Howard, then hunting down Joe Flacco on the Ravens' last scramble, popping the ball out of bounds for a sack with seven seconds left:
In a bizarre scene, because the fumble went forward, officials silently allowed those seven seconds to tick away while Flacco and his boys were still huddling.
But, hey, bizarre has been the way, right?
As has winning. That's eight in a row now. Top seed in the conference at 11-2, a qualifying hair ahead of the Patriots, who finally, finally, are next.
Which is quite a script at this stage when considering previous chapters saw the star running back hold out of camp, a heroic combat veteran standing alone for a national anthem, a spat between the star quarterback and star wide receiver, speculation that the star quarterback was contemplating retirement, a franchise-icon linebacker declaring he wished he'd never come back and -- by all that is holy -- JuJu Smith-Schuster's bike being stolen!
"We're the ultimate reality show," Cam Heyward would say. "I don't know what we're doing. But I love it."
____________________
I purposely left out Ryan Shazier. His situation is far too serious, of course, to be cited with those distractions.
Besides, he's anything but a distraction.
See, the Steelers didn't win this game for Shazier. They won it with him.
[caption id="attachment_503088" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
The many tributes to Ryan Shazier Sunday night at Heinz Field. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
Teammates' tributes began with the first to emerge for warmups, highlighted by James Harrison taking the field shirtless, continuing through Heyward carrying Shazier's No. 50 jersey, carrying right through someone placing his helmet at the edge of the field well after the game had ended.
"I was trying to hold it together," Heyward recalled of running out of the tunnel. "I told Ryan I was going to do that. I wanted him to know he's with us. The kid means a lot to me. He's my brother, and I love him. You don't want to see anybody go through that, especially a guy with his heart and character. Hopefully, soon he can be on the sideline with us."
He'd join them in another way.
In the locker room right after the game, Mike Tomlin arranged for his team to FaceTime with Shazier in his hospital room and present him with the game ball in a scene that several players described as being deeply moving.
"A very emotional group in there," Tomlin began his postgame presser. "AFC North champs. Ryan had an opportunity to share that moment with the team, and that's a special thing."
It certainly looked that way from the Instagram video Shazier's family shared from his end of the exchange, the first glimpse the public's gotten since the injury:
There would be more. Art Rooney II promised Shazier on the FaceTime call that the Steelers were bringing him the AFC North championship cap and T-shirt that was being passed around the locker room. And the game ending just before midnight apparently wasn't an issue.
"Tonight," Vince Williams, Shazier's best friend on the team, replied when asked when those would be delivered.
Reminded that visiting hours were long over, Williams came right back with enunciation, "We are going to give him the cap and T-shirt tonight."
Heyward shed a little more light.
"Hospital security had better be ready," the big man said. "Because he's getting his cap and T-shirt tonight."
Many of the players clearly felt more comfortable discussing Shazier, and that doubtless had to do with many of them paying him a visit as the week passed. Ben Roethlisberger summed that up best by describing a team that, at around midweek, was still reeling from the incident.
Asked if it was tough to focus on football, Roethlisberger replied, "It was, to be honest. It was really tough. I went and saw Shay on Thursday after practice, and it was like a weight was lifted off my back. I told the guys about it on Friday when I went in, and guys just started to go visit him. Everyone has felt the same way. When you walk in and see him and see the smile and give him a hug ... it really has taken that weight off us and let us breathe a little easier. We love our brother."
"We're riding with that guy," Tomlin said. "He's strong. He's strengthening us."
____________________
Strengthening can be viewed in many forms in football.
On one hand, there's plenty of cynicism to be had when every other victory is some squeaker that requires Chris Boswell to beat the clock:
On the other hand, there's plenty to be said for simply winning, for finding a way.
Listen to Bell when I brought this up:
That's how one gets to be the NFL's leading rusher and still smile after being clamped down for those 48 yards. Because he also scored three touchdowns, one of those coming within his nine catches for 77 yards. He couldn't plow through the heart of Baltimore's defensive line, Brandon Williams, but he found a way.
Roethlisberger was brilliant all over again, largely underscored by becoming the first quarterback in NFL history with three 500-yard passing performances -- 44 of 66 for 506 with two touchdowns -- while he also kept the ball out of the hands of the league's most opportunistic defense.
Being blunt, Roethlisberger had given off every feel of a fading 35-year-old all through the bye week. His arm strength came into question, even his commitment, but he found a way.
Oh, I probably should mention this rather timely 34-yard toss on the Steelers' decisive drive:
Watch that again and again. Seriously, just let it loop. Unless you're John Harbaugh having to explain why he left poor Brandon Carr out there without a safety while trying to keep the Steelers out of Boswell's range, that pass is as beautiful as football gets.
The reception and the receiver were at the same level, with Antonio Brown running up 11 catches for 213 yards, including a 57-yarder earlier in the quarter.
AB always finds a way.
Process this: The Steelers at this very moment have the NFL's leaders in passing yardage, rushing yardage and receiving yardage. That's not once-in-a-generation stuff, my friends. That's once-in-a-lifetime.
It wasn't just the stars.
T.J. Watt and his fellow linebackers had a hard time both because of Shazier's absence and because, my goodness, the Ravens have themselves a wonderful young running back in Alex Collins, who scorched the Steelers for 120 yards and a 6.7 average carry. He wasn't unsealing the edge as much as he was strolling around Point Park.
But Watt found a way to make his usual multiple-splash showing, and his passionate reactions only underscored them.
I asked what was racing through his mind as he chased Flacco, and his answer matched the scene:
Jesse James and Vance McDonald have been beaten up as the offense's lone lament. Tight end isn't what it was with Heath Miller, and they've heard about it, oh, probably a dozen times daily since coming aboard. But with Tomlin observing that the Ravens were "minimizing some stuff outside" and leaving the middle of the field open, he and Todd Haley dusted off 10 catches from James, plus four more from McDonald before a shoulder injury.
James still hears the 'Heeeeeeeeath!' chants with each catch -- parenthetically, I can't believe that's still going -- but it's beginning to appear a trust is forming between him and Roethlisberger:
The tight ends might be finding their way.
Artie Burns spent the better part of his evening being ignored by Flacco, who wisely preferred to pick on Coty Sensabaugh over and over. But Burns would still be victimized, not by the Ravens but by two of the silliest pass interference calls one could ever witness, the second of those on a pass that might as well have jumped over the moon it was so uncatchable.
"Out of bounds, too," Burns amended when I mentioned it. "Make sure you write that it was out of bounds, too."
Hey, everyone, it was out of bounds.
What wasn't out of bounds was Burns' ebullient display when I asked him all that mattered from the game:
Ha!
That's who these guys are. Right there.
I asked Martavis Bryant, in polite terms, about the mess he kept making of kickoffs. He did a little explaining, but then pointed to his cap.
"AFC North champs, baby," he said. "That's the only thing after this game. The only thing."
"This is the NFL. You don't see teams blowing everyone out," Maurkice Pouncey fairly echoed. "We win how we win. But we do win."
The caps were being worn or waved everywhere.
Put these Steelers down, if you will, just because they make you fidget to the finish. Panic about the Patriots ... heck, right up to 4:25 p.m. next Sunday. That Big Brother syndrome, sadly, has become par for the course in a city that's usually a hell of a lot less weak-stomached when it comes to sports.
But results are results are results. There are two teams in the NFL with 11 wins, both are in Pennsylvania, and the other one, unfortunately, just lost Carson Wentz to a major knee injury.
Go ahead and predict failure for the guys who keep winning, the ones now openly speaking of a Super Bowl in Minneapolis. And who've very much earned the right to do precisely that.
Have a problem with that?
Better brace for that punch.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
[caption id="attachment_502959" align="aligncenter" width="1000"]
Steelers vs. Ravens, Heinz Field, Dec. 10, 2017. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
To continue reading, log into your account:
