“We just weren’t there,” Antonio Brown was telling me on that September Sunday afternoon in Cleveland. And he was right: The Steelers weren't there, even though the schedule had listed that day as their 85th season opener, even though the scoreboard would somehow show a 21-18 outcome in their favor.
“First game," AB continued. "First time out there together for a lot of us in a long time. We just didn’t have it.”
Insert all the requisite jokes about the Browns right here. But they didn't matter any more then than they do now, 15 games and 15 losses later, coming into Heinz Field this week.
Because so, so much went wrong for the visitors, particularly on offense, and it couldn't be clearer with hindsight that it all had to be self-inflicted:
• Ben Roethlisberger completed 24 of 36 passes for 236 yards but had a pick and was as timid in throwing downfield as we'd come to expect over the season's first half. He also freaked on both Mike Tomlin and Todd Haley at one point, visibly exasperated with the playcalling.
• Le'Veon Bell rushed for all of 32 yards on 10 carries, just 8 of those yards in the first half.
• Brown, the only offensive player to be razor-sharp from the season's first snap, had 11 catches, but no other wide receiver topped two. JuJu Smith-Schuster, still a gleam in the Twitterverse's eye, had zero catches and two lazy holding penalties.
• The first four drives resulted in punt, punt, punt and punt, with only three first downs in that stretch.
• One of the three touchdowns came on a blocked punt, and the offense otherwise squeezed out 290 total yards, 35 of those on the ground, and was penalized six times for 49 yards. To emphasize, those flags were on the offense alone.
And this against the Browns?
Ee-yuck.
Thursday afternoon at Rooney Sports Complex, I asked Todd Haley how much of that day he could even recall:
That's probably more than most will want to remember. But that's also as it should be.
Because all we've seen since then underscores that this group, this generational collection of talent built on a franchise quarterback, a franchise running back and the undisputed greatest wide receiver in the game, was well worth the wait. It was a wait, of course, as the gears still weren't cranking even halfway through their eight-game winning streak. But after shaking off the bye-week slumber in Indianapolis by slaughtering the Titans, 40-17, on Nov. 16 at Heinz Field, they've been everything that could have been expected and maybe a bit more:
Within that span, no NFL team, not even the Patriots or the suddenly high-flying Rams, has been better. For the season, the Steelers rank third in total offense, averaging 379.9 yards per game, and seventh in offensive scoring, averaging 25.2 points per game. Considering that they never once hit their self-hyped 30-point plateau until the Tennessee game, it's powerfully illustrated that they were only getting better and better until AB went down.
"It was rough, but it was the first game," Martavis Bryant was telling me Thursday. "A lot's changed since then, but mostly that we're communicating better. We're on the same page. When we break the huddle, we know what's up. We just make plays."
"I've been part of a lot of first games like that," Marcus Gilbert essentially echoed across the room. "But what's important is where we are now and how we've gotten there. We've grown as a line. We've grown as an offense. We've grown as a team. We feel like we can light it up against anybody."
That's because they can. Built on one of the NFL's most experienced and dynamic lines, the Steelers have gotten the best out of Roethlisberger, they've gotten a dual threat like no other in Bell, they've finally gotten secondary receiving behind AB, and they've even started to get the tight ends involved. The latter was never supposed to happen, and never mind adding a 21-year-old rookie receiver delivering serious splash week after week.
They're the foundation. That's how everyone expected it to be at season's outset, though the script was briefly flipped with the defense being upgraded, and now it's all back to normal in that regard. The defense won't be what it was, not without Ryan Shazier. That's not possible. But the offense looks like it's better than it's ever been in recent years.
If the Steelers win the Super Bowl, they'll do it by scoring. Which, given the talent distribution at hand, is exactly what they should want.
• First thing Wednesday morning, more than a dozen hours before the Steelers' players took turns popping off about James Harrison, I wrote this in that day's column:
It can’t be underscored how little impact this move will have on the locker room. Harrison was no more beloved in there than he was anywhere else. That’s not even necessarily a knock. Just his personality.
I wasn't guessing. This stuff was under players' breaths for months, but they did what they felt was right for the team and didn't stir up yet another distraction while Harrison was there.
Good for them.
But once Harrison left, and players began to hear people blaming the Steelers for his departure, they chose to speak up and support their head coach, their front office, their franchise. Because they knew of the garbage that all of those entities were taking from Harrison, and they'd had enough.
Good for Maurkice Pouncey. Good for Bud Dupree.
The team -- meaning the team -- is better off without him. They deserved better, and now they'll be better.
• That's it. Done with that topic. I swear.
• No issue here whatsoever with Le'Veon Bell getting Sunday off. Only hope that applies, too, for Ben Roethlisberger. If the Patriots lose to the Jets, the Steelers' backups had better be good enough to beat the Browns, anyway, or they shouldn't be in the league.
• Besides, home-field advantage means nothing against the Patriots since it's the same replay crew everywhere, right?
• Alejandro Villanueva's story has been told countless times, but the part that might get underplayed is how hard he's worked in progressing from the practice squad to a starting NFL left tackle to now being bound for the Pro Bowl.
He downplayed the latter honor in our talk Thursday because "that stuff is so subjective, and even Joe Thomas will tell you that." He's undeniably right. Names rule, particularly in a player vote, and Villanueva's become a big name in the league for reasons that go far beyond football.
That said, humility goes a long way toward bettering oneself, and it works to this day. Villanueva said he spends hours each week studying the work of David Bakhtiari, the Packers' superb left tackle and the universally regarded best pass protecter in the game.
"There's so much I can learn," he said. "The techniques he has, the adjustments ... he's just a brilliant football player."
• Villanueva completely schooled Jadeveon Clowney, upon a video watching of the game in Houston. Pro Bowl status verified.
• I met an extraordinary young man on my way out of the Steelers' facility Thursday: Cody Sabol, a painter who works only with his hands -- no brushes -- and produces beautiful canvas-covering work in a matter of minutes, was in the lobby at the invitation of Tunch Ilkin, showing passing players a tribute portrait of Ryan Shazier:
In addition to being part of Tunch's ministry, Sabol has another virtue going for him in that he's a longtime subscriber to this site, as I learned. So we'll just support him right back by letting you know his work is on display at CodySabolArt.com, where you can see his hands in motion. It's breathtaking.
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WHAT'S BREWING
• Don't miss any of Audrey Snyder's weeklong coverage from Arizona of Penn State at the Fiesta Bowl. Her latest was a Q&A with Sandy Barbour on a bunch of AD-type topics, including the Pitt series.
• Chris Bradford's flying to Raleigh for tonight's opening game of the Penguins' three-game trip. Matt Gajtka has the next one in Detroit, then Bradford in Philadelphia. I'm staying put to do more football. That time of year.
• Reminder: All of our recurring features -- the weekly ones, plus those in the Daily Fun Thing cycle -- as well as most of our multimedia will take this week off so that our staff can enjoy a little more time off for the holidays. We'll do the same for Morning Java, though the Postgame videos will continue.
• One exception: Dale Lolley was loaded with so much Insider-type material about James Harrison that he just went ahead and did one, anyway. Here it is, just on that topic.
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Audrey's in AZ, and Bradford's in NC:
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