That game was stupid.
"That game ..." Ramon Foster began, then ended with an expletive about that game.
"So bad," Lawrence Timmons would say. "I mean ... that's just so bad."
That game, he meant.
All around the Steelers' locker room at Heinz Field late Sunday afternoon, I was picking up that same spitting sentiment about that game. It wasn't about their performance. It wasn't the outcome, a 27-24 overtime victory, albeit over the Browns. And it most certainly wasn't that Cobi Hamilton, the latest grand marshal from the practice-squad parade, pulled down the sudden-death touchdown from Landry Jones:
No, what had these players seeing red, at least the vets, was that game's mere existence.
"It was just ridiculous to even ... I don't know, it's just not what you're about as a football player," David DeCastro came through, as ever, with the clearest reality. "You can tell yourself it's important. But you go out there, and you know it isn't."
More than a few acknowledged being primarily concerned about avoiding injury.
So start with that, because how the Steelers' regular season ended meant nothing compared to what comes next: Miami Dolphins, first round of AFC playoffs, next Sunday, 1:05 p.m. kickoff.
And speaking only for myself, I'm completely buying what these guys were selling.
Football isn't like other sports. Every snap comes with a risk of getting hurt. Every snap comes with a physical toll even if all goes well. Every one comes with mandatory mental toughness, too, because, as the Steelers found out in sleepwalking through the first half and a 14-point deficit against the University of Alabama's mythical archrival, there's no such thing as 90 percent effort level. It's all or nothing. It's punch or be punched.
Absolutely, I'll buy that their hearts weren't into it. I'll even appreciate why.
I'll go a step further, actually, and wonder aloud what in the world Mike Tomlin could have been thinking leaving Timmons, Ryan Shazier, Mike Mitchell, most of his offensive line and others on the field all day. The head coach had been on quite a roll, but this was a head-scratcher at best, bone-headed at worst.
All that said, nothing took place here that altered the very real momentum this remarkably resilient team has achieved by flipping a 4-5 start into a seven-game winning streak, an 11-5 finish and home field for the first playoff game. Not one of us foresaw that when Cam Heyward, their best defensive player went down. Even fewer foresaw it with Ezekiel Elliott gouged out our region's collective eyeballs a couple of months back:
Yeah, sorry. But it makes for the most pointed reminder of how far they've come.
It's been an incredible run, and it's come at the ideal time.
"We know who we are and what we've done," as Timmons worded it best. "We'll take the field for the next game the same way we have all through this. We're confident, we're strong, and we're getting better."
No question. And if they want it to continue, they'll have to get infinitely better -- meaning better than any stage of the season -- in the specific area of stopping the run.
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"It’s not a pretty day by any stretch, any way you describe it," he said. "But the fight, the fight is real, the fight has been on display all the way back to Latrobe with this bunch. I respect that element of it. But that can only carry you so far. We have to execute better moving forward."
I like how Dupree worded it: "It'll take a lot of hats."
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It's a good group. I've been saying that for quite some time, and it holds true.
When DeAngelo Williams scored his second touchdown, he handed the ball to DeCastro for the nouveau big-man spike that's making its way around the NFL. He might as well have handed DeCastro a live grenade:
"He didn't want to do it," DeAngelo told me. "I still don't know why."
I went and asked.
"Come on, for this?" DeCastro replied. "We've got big things ahead."
The chemistry, the accountability just course through a tale like that.
It's also a talented group, lest anyone forget after a long afternoon of pacing in sweatpants for Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown.
"That's the thing," Marcus Gilbert said. "We've got a lot of fight, like the coach says, and we battle and we're together. But we've also got some great players, some of the best in the game."
They do this time. As Tomlin went out of his way to point out, his decision to sit those stars -- which wasn't automatic for him, once upon a time -- had everything to do with finding out the hard way that the Standard tends to be a bit higher in the playoffs.
"I feel good about that," Tomlin said of emerging from this game mostly unscathed. "That's one of the reasons why we took the approach we took this week. We’ve been without Le’Veon Bell the last two years of the playoffs. We went to Denver last year without Antonio Brown. We’ve been to Super Bowls and so forth without Maurkice Pouncey. Good to have them."
At which point he interjected himself, "Good to get the win today, though."
OK, whatever. As long as the right lessons were learned from the running theme.
Shots from the Steelers' win over the Browns on Sunday. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
MORE STEELERS
Kaboly: Why did Tomlin play to win?
Dopirak: Wideouts help save game
Dopirak: Miami next Sunday, 1:05 p.m.
Morning Java: Browns downed again
DK Sports Radio: Tim, DK on Steelers