Lolley: Brown punching ticket to Canton

Nov 17, 2017 • 6:15 pm

In the aftermath of the Steelers' 40-17 rout of the Titans on Thursday night, their precocious rookie, JuJu Smith-Schuster, was interviewed by NBC's postgame crew and asked about working every day with Antonio Brown.

"Man, he's the G.O.A.T.," Smith-Schuster said.

Smith-Schuster is still just 20. His knowledge of the history of the NFL and who is the Greatest of All Time might be a bit limited. But he might have a point about Brown, who had 10 receptions for 144 yards and three touchdowns against Tennessee.

The Titans tried to match up man-to-man against Brown, most of the time with rookie Adoree' Jackson. That's a mismatch no matter how you look at it, and I asked Brown if he felt disrespected when he saw that:

But back to Smith-Schuster's point about Brown being the greatest.

Jerry Rice is the standard for NFL receivers. He played 16 seasons in the league, catching 1,549 passes for 22,895 yards and an astounding 197 touchdowns. Those are astronomical numbers. In terms of catches, yards and touchdowns, he's the guy against which any receiver will be judged.

But there have been others who could be in that category, starting with Don Hutson and Lance Alworth -- look them up, younger readers -- and going all the way down through the ages to Randy Moss and Larry Fitzgerald. They would all be in that conversation.

So is Brown.

Now in his eighth season, he has 702 receptions for 9,403 yards and 56 touchdowns. He's the fastest player in NFL history to reach 700 receptions in his career. And at 29, he still has plenty of prime years ahead. After all, Rice had his best seasons -- three straight years of 100-plus catches -- from ages 32 through 34.

Brown's workouts are maniacal. He's every bit the health nut as Tom Brady. Brown and Brady have something else in common, as well, in both being sixth-round draft picks. And Brown, like Brady, has continued to play with that chip on his shoulder. For Brady, that has continued despite the fact he's won five Super Bowls. For Brown, that fire still burns brightly because he hasn't yet won a Super Bowl.

As he has told me many times -- we did a radio show together for three seasons -- he doesn't feel he can be considered among the best in the history of the game until he wins a Super Bowl championship.

Can he continue to produce once Ben Roethlisberger hangs it up? That will be the million-dollar question.

But the Steelers bet on Brown when they gave him a four-year, $68-million contract extension in the offseason.

• The schedule hasn't been as soft as some seem to think. After beating the AFC South-leading Titans, the Steelers have now knocked off four teams currently holding winning records -- Tennessee, Kansas City, Minnesota and Detroit. Yes, they lost at home to Jacksonville. But a 4-1 record against teams with winning records is pretty darned good, no matter how you look at it.

• For the past year, we've heard that beating the Patriots will require the Steelers to play press man coverage on the outside. It's been like that's the only thing you need to do to keep Brady under control. Certainly, having the ability to press the New England receivers helps. But it's more important to have a big push from the middle of your defense to put pressure in his face. Cam Heyward now has seven sacks. Inside linebacker Vince Williams has six. Stephon Tuitt, who missed most of the first half of the season, has two in the last two games.

• The Steelers went into Thursday night looking to take things easy on Le'Veon Bell, this after he had another 30-touch game last Sunday in Indianapolis. Ideally, they would have liked to limit those touches against the Colts, too, but that turned into a 20-17 dogfight. So they didn't run Bell as much against a patient Tennessee defensive line. The Titans play a two-gap style, per what Dick LeBeau prefers, that doesn't allow for many gaps for a patient Bell to burst through. Instead, the Steelers ran Bell just 12 times and threw it to him 11, completing nine for 57 yards. Now, he gets a couple extra days of rest.

• Just in case last week's come-from-behind victory over the Colts didn't show you Roethlisberger still has it, he came out and threw for 299 yards and four touchdowns against the Titans. He was 20 of 23 passing in the second half. But there's a reason why the Steelers don't want him running the no-huddle all the time. He was sacked three times and hit five others. With Roethlisberger being 35, the Steelers don't want him taking all those hits. Unless they need it.

• The Steelers gave up yet another big play, this a 75-yard touchdown pass to Rishard Matthews on the opening snap of the second half. They also allowed a 42-yard completion to a tight end, Delanie Walker. That means they have given up eight of their 10 longest pass plays in the past three games. That's not a good trend. At the same time, all of those big plays have added up to three touchdowns.

• When people tell you how great Bill Belichick is -- and he's a great gameday coach -- remember that he had Mike Hilton on his practice squad and let him go. He also gave away Jacoby Brissett for basically nothing. Hilton has been a big-time addition for the Steelers as the nickel cornerback after signing with the team last December following his release by New England.

• Todd Haley will never get credit because it's easy to second-guess an offensive coordinator. But his gameplan against Tennessee was nearly perfect. Spread the Titans out and use some quick throws to not allow the blitzes to get there. Things slowed down a bit in the second quarter, but Roethlisberger missed on some throws thanks to pressure the Titans were bringing. Roethlisberger challenged his offensive line -- and himself -- at halftime to play better. They did.

• Martavis Bryant drew the audible wrath of the home crowd after he dropped a pass on a short passing route late in the first half. In retrospect, it was probably better that he dropped it. He was hemmed in and would have been unlikely to get out of bounds in that situation, which would have taken a bunch of time off the clock since the Steelers had no timeouts. Bryant redeemed himself a couple of plays later when Brown fumbled at the end of a long catch that got the Steelers into field goal range. It was a hustle play and certainly not one that is made by a player who is pouting or not a team guy. Bryant also had a big catch on third-and-10 to convert a first down after the Titans scored to make it 23-17 in the third quarter.

• The Steelers had one kick return for 21 yards by Terrell Watson and remain dead last in the league in kick return average. I continue to be amazed that opposing teams kick the ball into the end zone and allow the Steelers to take a touchback rather than kick it short to a team averaging 16.5 yards per return.

• So what should Steelers fans be looking for from Sunday's games? New England, Jacksonville and Kansas City all have what could be considered layups. The Patriots play the Raiders in Mexico City. The Jaguars are at Cleveland. And Kansas City plays the Giants at the Meadowlands. At this point, you should be rooting for a loss by any of those three teams. The Patriots have the toughest game of the three because the Raiders need the game to keep their season alive.

WHAT'S BREWING

• It's Saturday, so it's Site Stuff day.

• The Penguins are back home tonight against the Blackhawks, and beat man Matt Gajtka, DK and Matt Sunday will have you covered.

• We're seeking a full-time, full-everything general sports reporter to support our coverage of all three major-league teams. If you're interested and have major-league beat experience, email us, including resume: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com

VIDEO

If you missed it, this was our group's Steelers Postgame show: