BALTIMORE -- The visitors’ locker room at M&T Bank Stadium is among the NFL’s least inviting, its smallish square space split in half by a bank of tall, dank wooden stalls. The divided design’s no accident, either. It’s one of the oldest competitive ploys in organized sport, with the intent being to physically and, thus, psychologically keep the home team's opponent from connecting with each other.
Players hate the place. They pack up and bolt here faster than I’ll see them do it anywhere. Seriously, even Antonio Brown rushes into full peacock-scale attire and bee-lines it to the bus.
Not this time.
The Steelers’ 23-16 repelling of the archrival Ravens on this sunny Sunday afternoon had long since ended, and this room had long since emptied but for some strewn equipment, a bunch of rolled-up balls of tape, one custodian cleaning all that up ... and one human wrecking ball still sitting at his tall wooden stall. Staring straight into it.
“James Conner!”
The booming voice, unmistakably that of an urgent Mike Tomlin, came from a nearby hallway.
Then again.
Conner didn’t budge either time.
Finally, the coach strode authoritatively into the room, looked to his left, saw his starting running back, fresh off yet another superlative performance — arguably his finest, actually, with 163 all-purpose yards against the league’s No. 1 defense — and froze in his tracks, waiting for Conner to look back.
A couple seconds passed, and Conner did look over.
And their eyes locked.
And after no more than an additional couple seconds, Tomlin gave Conner a simple, silent nod. We all know the one.
Conversation over.
____________________
Show me a team that can break down its internal barriers, one that's building a collective confidence to match its skill level, and I’ll show you a team that can and will get better.
But show me a team that can do things that the other guys legitimately can’t stop, even if it's just a few things ... and I’ll show you a team that just might be headed somewhere special.
I loved how Tomlin worded it when asked after this, the Steelers' fourth win in a row and one that solidified anew their command of the AFC North at 5-2-1, about his team's resiliency: “I just think the further we go down this journey, the tape is the storyteller. If we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, they need no endorsement from me. You see it. It should jump at you off the tape.”
Yeah, that's it. It's about what jumps off the tape.
In fact, that thought meshed perfectly with so many of my own while watching this from the press box, enough that it felt like a worthwhile exercise to come up with a handful -- no, a fistful, given these guys' punch of late -- of ways in which the Steelers are flat-out imposing their will. Meaning, as mentioned above, things that the other guys legitimately can't stop.
Buckle up ...
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