BALTIMORE -- Maurkice Pouncey never had to speak a syllable.
Neither did anyone else associated with the Steelers, from absolutely all that was shared with me Sunday in the cramped but coolly celebratory visiting locker room at M&T Bank Stadium. There wasn't any hotel meeting this time. There wasn't any pregame let's-go-over-this-again. There wasn't any admonition of any kind, from Art Rooney II, from Mike Tomlin, from team leadership, from anyone.
"Not. One. Word," David DeCastro assured me. "Not about that stuff."
That stuff, of course, was the national anthem fumble or flap or however one would choose to characterize all that went wrong a week ago in Chicago.
And this stuff, of course, was ripping apart the Ravens, 26-9.
"Oh, man, that felt good. Really good," Jesse James would tell me, while tending to his bandaged left shoulder. "How long has it been since we've won here? 2012?"
Yep. the second of December, 2012. The Charlie Batch hug game.
A four-year stretch so embarrassing to anyone who follows the Steelers that the kid from Glassport could casually cite the year.
And the end of the stretch began, as had to happen, with the now nationally known 2 p.m. meeting Monday at the Rooney Sports Complex, where both minds and hearts were as open as the voices expressed, by all accounts. Differences were aired. Commonalities were embraced. But when that was done, according to several veteran players, there were no follow-ups, no reinforcements.
"No one had to say anything," Ramon Foster reinforced at the stall next to DeCastro's. "That was over."
It showed.
Once they were out on the field, when there was a brief pre-anthem announcement the NFL hastily arranged this week, asking everyone in the place to express themselves as they wished in light of our mounting racial, cultural and other divides, most of the Baltimore players elected to take a knee. That prompted vociferous booing from most fans in the place, a striking sight in light of the Steelers at the opposite side standing in unison.
I won't judge the Ravens' action. This isn't a political forum.
"We knew it was possible we were going to get it," Baltimore's Terrell Suggs said. "We just wanted to show our fans that we do still stand in solidarity. We don't want people to think we're disrespecting the flag or the military or anything like that."
The Steelers, again, didn't budge. I couldn't even see one of them looking to his left or right to check on whether anyone had broken ranks.
I won't judge the Steelers' action. This isn't a political forum.
After that, both teams stood tall for the anthem, which the league switched to come after the coin flip so that it could be televised for all the interested eyes.
I won't judge that, either.
But you'd better believe I'll judge all that came with the kickoff and beyond, because all that repeatedly came to mind through the whole affair -- well, apart from one weird lapse through an ultra-conservative third quarter -- were Pouncey's three headline-blaring words from earlier in the week: "Make it right."
That was his vow. That was as close as anyone on the team came to making a statement that captured both the backlash from the Steelers' fans following Chicago, regardless of leaning, as well as the backlash from ... ugh, losing to the bleeping Bears with 220 rushing yards rammed down their throats.
So, I had to ask Pouncey after this one: Did the Steelers make it right?
And as for any statement?
"This was a big-ass statement."
Ha! Worded like a world-class offensive lineman!
But he's right about the scope of the thing, formidable as that scope can be. Because it's as if the Steelers took to the field to come home with the cumulative package, before and all through the game:
• Le'Veon Bell sounded determined -- almost uncomfortably angry for him -- all week long about not having been at his best, and he laid down 186 yards from scrimmage, a very Le'Veon level that was crafted on 35 carries for 144 yards.
Same average carry as Chicago, 4.1, but a whole lot more emphasis, as was evident with a move-heaven-and-earth opening salvo on the first drive. Which, you might recall, was what Todd Haley had told me Thursday he'd be pushing.
Credit the line, credit the stubbornness of combating an eight-man box at times, but above all credit Bell, who "ran like Le'Veon can run today," as Foster put it.
As for Bell, he continued to sound a bit humbled, as he had for a few days.
"The holes were pretty big," he said. "As a running back, I'm foaming at the mouth. Ben put us in the right place, and we all played well."
• Ben Roethlisberger found a lot of right places, largely because, seemingly addressing his own criticism earlier in the week, he looked away from No. 84 occasionally. Antonio Brown still got his team-high nine targets -- only four catches for 34 yards, though -- but Bell had six, Martavis Bryant five, JuJu Smith-Schuster four, Jesse James three ... and one was even wasted on Vance McDonald, who hasn't caught anything since his arrival other than some Chicago rockhead from behind.
But I digress. Ben's not all the way there yet, but he was sharper, smarter.
"I'm pretty hard on myself, so I didn't make all the plays I could," he said. "We took what they gave us."
That was the goal, actually.
• The offensive line, lauded before the season as one of the NFL's best, finally rose up. And that was without Marcus Gilbert and his hamstring, not to mention Foster having his bummer of a thumb all bandaged up and "couldn't even hold anybody," he'd add with a giggle.
"That felt good out there," DeCastro said. "That felt like us. Downhill."
• Felt good?
You want feelings? You want emotion?
See for yourself:
• Ryan Shazier was almost surreal. The defense overall offered a dramatic contrast from the missed-tackle convention in Chicago, and he who had a team-high three of those last week led the way with 11 tackles, 10 solos and, just for kicks, three passes defensed and a pick.
The man even mustered enough gusto to mimic Ray Lewis when celebrating the interception.
"We're in Baltimore," Shazier semi-sheepishly explained. "He always had a great rivalry with the Steelers. At the same time, I tried to make the home team a little mad because it feels pretty good to win here."
• Mike Hilton ... I'm falling for the guy. I am. Watch for yourself after his first NFL interception and an afternoon filled with bloodlust for the ball:
Dude's been doing it since Day 1 in Latrobe. Kudos to him, to anyone who ever shows up at a training camp with no chance and makes it and, yes, to Tomlin and staff for keeping their eyes open.
• Cam Heyward is back to being the team defensive MVP. Let's not assume, after that torn pec last year, that this was going to be a given. He's moving more people these days than a poetic preacher.
"We gave up those two big runs, and that just can't happen," he came right back when I tried to say something nice. That's his thing, you know. "I'm serious. We can't."
Enjoy your victories, my man.
• The special teams ... OK, so Chris Boswell shanked one. At least this week they didn't look like someone threw a match onto a Zambelli barge.
• Tomlin outcoached John Harbaugh.
It's OK to say it. It really is. I've been as hard as anyone on Tomlin in these matchups, and I've got no problem pointing out that, but for the Steelers' aforementioned lapse, the script was flipped 180 degrees.
Here's an example: Shazier pointed out to us how the Steelers' players were prepared to know exactly where to be in all situations, even if they didn’t necessarily know the route concepts they were facing. Specifically, that was built on the coaches having them ready to pass off receivers in zone coverages, as well as expecting where the Ravens might attack. That creates smaller throwing windows, which eventually lead to incomplete passes and turnovers.
Behold Hilton's pick and all the bodies in the vicinity:
"We work on that every day," Shazier said. "Every single day."
• The Steelers have taken early control of an AFC North in which they're the only clear contender for something bigger, the Ravens are a pretender until proven otherwise, the Bengals can only beat the Browns, and the Browns can never beat anyone.
"It's always good to have that edge in the division," James said. "That feels better than anything, to be honest."
All the feels. All real.
"We're a football team," Vince Williams was telling me once the room was finally thinning. "When we come here to do this job, our responsibilities are to each other as a football team. All the standing up, sitting down, kneeling ... that's not for us when it's time to play football."
They do OK with football. Nice to see, too, on so many levels.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
WHAT'S BREWING
• The Pirates' season ended Sunday, just down I-95 in Washington, and Matt Gajtka offered up the last of his season-ending summations. Our offseason news on the beat will be handled by Lance Lysowski, but I wouldn't expect much, only because Major League Baseball pushes hard for teams to go dark during the playoffs and World Series.
• You'll see plenty of material in the run-up to the Penguins' season opener -- and annual banner-raising -- Wednesday night. That will include a piece from Katie Brown later today and quite the surprise Wednesday morning from Adam Flango. I'll have a full column in there, too.
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