Readiness is invariably an issue with any season opener in any sport. That's only natural. And it would have been fair a few days ago, I think, to be skeptical of the Steelers in this regard in two facets above all:
1. Ben Roethlisberger might start slowly again.
(Ding! Ding! Ding!)
2. The defense, with all these new schemes, new personnel and new priorities, would make a mess of communicating.
(Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz!)
"Hey, what can I say? We're good!" Sean Davis beamed back when I brought this up after practice Wednesday at the Rooney Complex. "No, I mean, we've got a lot of trust in each other. We've worked extremely hard to get on the same page all offseason long. There were a lot of pieces that changed, but I feel like we know this defense. We know what to do."
Even with so many young players?
"We're young, but most of us aren't new. I'd say we're all grown up."
That's fair. The starting 11 Sunday in Cleveland had seven players 25 or younger, eventually joined by 23-year-old Cam Sutton once Joe Haden went down. Terrell Edmunds was the only rookie. Edmunds and Sutton were the only ones without previous extensive experience in an NFL game.
But the bigger variable, at least from this perspective, was that Mike Tomlin and Keith Butler -- whoever runs the actual defense these days -- had invested the better part of their collective spring and summer in adding more packages than Santa Claus. The standard 3-4 remained the standard, but the scope of the additional looks was, at times, staggering. There's even a set now with seven defensive backs and a solitary Vince Williams behind the line.
What's more, a variety of new blitzes have been scripted, and it couldn't have been clearer Sunday that Butler won't be shy about calling them: According to the War Room study done by our Chris Carter, the Steelers blitzed on 30 of the Browns' 53 designated passing plays. Five of those resulted in sacks. Only two resulted in Cleveland first downs.
Those figures are staggering, even when weighing this particular opponent's pathetic offense.
And yet, what impressed me, above all, was what I didn't see. Because I didn't see players scrambling around pre-snap. I didn't see one player nudge another into position. I didn't see the safeties ... man, I barely noticed the safeties before any snap, and nothing could possibly reflect greater calm in a defense or greater value. Show me a happy-feet safety, and I'll show you a happy quarterback.
"We knew our signals, knew where we were supposed to be," Davis, who was superb in his debut at free safety, offered with a shrug. "When that happens, there shouldn't be a lot of doubt out there."
"It's about putting in the work and learning in the classroom," Mike Hilton, who was just as effective at nickel back, told me. "When you're out there, once the action goes, you can't be slowing down to think. You've got to know what you're supposed to do, and you've got to trust that the guy next to you is where he's supposed to be, too."
The big bodies up front have been together the longest, but they responded no differently.
"We went at this all offseason, preparing for these moments," Javon Hargrave told me. "But we've also got to the kind of defense where everybody can play different positions, take different roles."
That alone, as I reminded, can lead to chaos.
"It can," he continued, "but I believe it can be a good thing if you've got the right group of guys."
• I'll beat you to the punchback: Artie Burns doesn't exactly fit the above description.
Certainly not when behaving as he did Sunday, when he got wrapped up with the Browns' Jarvis Landry, did a little pushing and shoving, then tore off his own helmet. The latter got him a 15-yard penalty and contributed to Cleveland scoring on that drive. Worse, he'd also engage Todd Haley in a shouting match, then spent an inordinate amount of time on the bench pouting:
“During the game, the coaches were telling me to keep my cool,” Burns would explain. “I lost my cool a little bit. I have to keep my professionalism and just keep going through the battle. It was a couple of things that got me going. I just reacted. I lost my cool. I don’t see myself doing that again, losing my cool like that.”
I do, until proven otherwise.
• By the way, take note of Burns stressing that the coaches were "telling me to keep my cool." I'll bet it was way sterner than that. But sometimes, players just don't listen or don't keep it together.
• Bill Belichick would have strapped him onto a rocket ship to the moon, right?
• Sutton's the lead choice to stay on the field if Joe Haden's out again this week against the Chiefs, and he deserves special mention for all of the aforementioned defensive plaudits. Yeah, he failed to turn around on Landry's touchdown catch, but he bit right back when the Browns tried to pick on him again soon after -- "Same receiver, same route, same everything," as Davis rightly recalled -- and he picked it off.
That's mental toughness. I brought that up with Sutton yesterday:
• The worst version of James Washington is an upgrade over the best version of Justin Hunter. Patience from the coaching staff can be understood, but Washington's style isn't exactly complex: He fights for 50/50 balls, and he wins them. Draw a straight line on a chalkboard, plant an arrow at the end, and heave.
• David DeCastro showed me his right hand. It's swollen like he'd been stung by a swarm of bees. He'll play Sunday, even if he hedged that when we spoke, but it won't be the fractured finger that'll bug him when he does. It'll be the hand as a whole.
• Roethlisberger hurt his elbow in Cleveland. It didn't keep him from closing out the game. It kept him from practicing Wednesday. He'll play against Kansas City. All of which was stated by all concerned with the greatest of clarity. Only with the Steelers could this possibly be seen as controversial.
• T.J. Watt just might be too good to be true:
• Before I go too far in praising the defense, it should be reminded that Watt could have spent all of 2017 on the left side. He told me in Cleveland -- first breath of the reply -- that switching back to "my natural side" was what had him feeling as comfortable as he did Sunday. Just saying.
• I don't blame Jalen Ramsey for being an idiot. I blame the ESPN culture for calling endless attention to people with his personality type.
For whatever else he's said, whether related to the Jaguars or not, the moment Ramsey declared that he could be playing in the NHL if he had six months to prepare, he should have been ignored for all eternity.You know, rather than having some fool at the NHL pester some of its star players with the topic at the league's media event in New York this week:
• If Le'Veon Bell was on anyone's mind Wednesday, I didn't catch wind of it. Almost forgot to include him in this column, actually.