TAMPA, Fla. -- Antonio Brown saw Ben Roethlisberger coming.
He'd just plopped down at his locker stall late Monday night, his hair still dripping from the showers, a towel wrapped about his waist, completely commotion-free. No tweeting. No trade talk. No tantrum. Just a telling smile as he dried off and spoke with Theo, his constant companion and social media photographer, after the Steelers' sigh-of-relief first victory, 30-27 over the Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.
That's when the franchise quarterback approached, already all snazzed up for his pending press conference in the next room and looking super-serious.
The Steelers' latest drama, it appeared at least from this perspective across the way, was about to unfold.
Only it actually was about to fold.
I couldn't hear what was spoken, but Roethlisberger placed both hands on both of AB's shoulders, shared a few words, got a knowing nod from AB, then applied one final tap to his left shoulder.
With that, Roethlisberger strode next door, stepped behind the podium and, before any questions could be asked, the man said he was sorry.
"I'd just like to start this off by apologizing to Antonio Brown," he began, "for showing a little too much emotion on that last third-down play. So I'd just like to apologize to him."
Even though he'd just done so.
Here's why: On the Steelers' final non-kneeling drive in beating the Buccaneers, Roethlisberger called AB's number on third down and sought him out on a sideline route that didn't come close to connecting, mostly because AB never looked back at the ball.
Drama -- potential drama -- ensued, witnessed via the ESPN broadcast:
Yeah, right. If Roethlisberger, Mike Tomlin, the rest of the room and the bulk of the fan base fairly came down on AB for his sideline freakout on Randy Fichtner last week and all that followed -- I wasn't exactly an exception -- then it undoubtedly would serve everyone best if Roethlisberger cut this off before AB could find out, presuming he already hadn't.
"Man, Ben's a competitor, he loves me ... there's no apology needed," AB replied when this came up later with reporters. "No one playing this game is perfect. I mess up things. We all mess up. That's part of being human. He always makes me feel good."
He then grinned.
"It's like when your wife tells you that you look strong getting the groceries, it makes you want to get more groceries."
He burst out laughing. I didn't get it.
Doesn't matter. They won the damned game.
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"It's all about winning. Our business is winning," Brown would say. "When you're winning, there aren't any distractions. When you're losing, there are distractions and people trying to divide you. What we needed to do here was to take care of business. We needed to win."
They did. They won.
Look, there's a lot to dislike from the process. I was there, too. Taking a 20-point lead into halftime loses a ton when the other guys put up all 17 points of the second half. Artie Burns continues to get Artie Burnt. The defensive communication was still terrible, with one flag for 12 men in the huddle, another nearly thrown. The running game was a virtual zero until the final couple drives. The kicking game -- take your pick -- remains abysmal. And the penalty totals have crossed from coincidental to comical to obscene, now with 13 more for 155 yards, including two on extra-point attempts, for crying out loud.
As Joe Haden worded it more convincingly than anyone, "We needed to get a win. One win. We needed to start there. We've got work to do. We know that. But we needed to start right here getting this done."
They did. They won.
And that began with the return of Haden, not just to the lineup but to Cleveland-peak-years brilliance, with an opening-series cutdown of Chris Godwin ...
... and later, this touchdown-saving swat with the left hand:
I won't suggest the Steelers would have beaten Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs had Haden been healthy, but I also won't suggest they wouldn't have. He remains an exceptional performer at his position in the NFL.
Also, he brings stability to a group that sorely needs it.
"Joe got us going," Mike Hilton would tell me. "He got all of us going."
So did Vance McDonald on the other side of the ball, highlighted by this 75-yard touchdown catch for the Steelers' first score that left poor Chris Conte first as very public roadkill, then out of the game with a knee injury:
The only thing finer than the design of the play -- Randy Fichtner had three wide receivers all to the right, McDonald alone to the left just to get any kind of one-on-one matchup -- was McDonald's reply when I asked what was going through his mind in sizing up Conte as the lone man back:
Ha!
I don't invest much energy getting excited about McDonald. He doesn't stay on the field often enough. But when he does, and when Roethlisberger relies on him, JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Washington and Ryan Switzer as he did -- it gives the offense that consistent engine it's been missing forever. It can't all be about splash plays. There's got to be rhythm.
Show me Roethlisberger heaving 60-plus yards, and I'll show you a highlight. Show me 30 of 38 for 353 yards, with all of the aforementioned targets, plus Brown being targeted deep at least twice, and I'll show you a game in which AB could be held to six catches for 50 yards and it doesn't get anyone tried at the Hague.
This can't be overstated: The Steelers need Haden and McDonald.
They need James Conner, too, maybe now more than ever given Le'Veon Bell's increasingly evident exit. And though he'd been boxed in for 13 rushing yards on nine carries leading into the Steelers' final two non-kneeling drives, he burst forward in the fourth quarter when it was most welcome with rushes of 27, 9 and 17 yards.
"My line did a great job of making holes there," Conner said. "I owe it to them."
This also can't be overstated, because the line was missing its entire right side of David DeCastro and Marcus Gilbert, replaced by B.J. Finney and Matt Feiler.
"It's great to contribute," Feiler told me, "but especially there at the end. We knew how important it was that we get a couple good runs there, move the chains, run out the clock. It felt good for all of us to see James break out there."
More push from the defensive line is needed, too.
Bud Dupree had all the fun on the field after his pick-6 late in the second quarter, but Fitzpatrick overthrew his target, as I confirmed, because Big Dan McCullers got a piece of Fitzpatrick's hand:
Kickoff temp was 92 degrees with sweltering humidity following a snarling pregame storm, so Mike Tomlin and Keith Butler set up a heavy rotation of all defensive players, even mainstays. And it's a good thing they did because, according to Dupree, "We would have died," but it's even better that McCullers, a complete afterthought in 2017, made a play.
He smiled, too, when I brought it up. Which startled me.
"Never seen Big Dan smile, huh?" Stephon Tuitt would observe from the next stall. "I'm not sure I have, either. It's pretty, though, isn't it?"
More than anything, certainly as compared to the previous week, better pass defense is needed. And while, to repeat, Ryan Fitzpatrick occasionally conjured up some of his previous magic -- 30 of 50 for 411 yards, three touchdowns and a heavy spread of receivers -- the Steelers picked him off three times in the first half; by Hilton; by Terrell Edmunds for his first in the NFL; and by Dupree for the pick-6, three tackles, a sack and a pass defended. Heck, even the beleaguered Burns knocked a fumble loose.
This might be more pivotal than anything else above. These younger secondary guys impressed so much at Latrobe and through the preseason with their ability to get hands on the ball, and it couldn't have all been a summer mirage. That's why Tomlin and Butler reconstructed the defense to add emphasis on playmaking defensive backs, notably additional safeties.
Against Kansas City, it didn't work. Against the Browns and these Buccaneers, it ... somewhat did. There were 10 passes defended by the team, compared to one last week. It's progress.
No one wants to hear this, but the defense is young. None younger than this kid, though you wouldn't know it from how he thoughtfully addressed a question I had about accruing confidence:
The narrative here in Tampa felt like it was flipping overnight to turn on Fitzpatrick and eagerly await the imminent return of Jameis Winston, and even Fitzpatrick seemed to accept that in conceding, "I'm here just ready to do whatever it takes to help this team win" rather than cracking up reporters -- and social media -- by showing up in a teammate's over-the-top duds last week.
But that shouldn't diminish that these Buccaneers had come about all their points honestly, blessed with weapons across the board in boasting the NFL's No. 1 offense.
The Steelers beat this team. On the road. On Monday night. With the pressure of an ominous hole and a home date with the Ravens ahead. They won.
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Of course, Roethlisberger and AB did hook up for a fine score ...
... and I got the distinct sense from all through that room that they're eager to move past the messes seen to this stage. If this teammate or that teammate irritates them, they'll deal with it as they must, then focus hard on the task at hand.
I don't believe for a second -- nor has anyone ever espoused, for that matter -- that Roethlisberger and AB are some kind of buds. From the personality standpoint, they might be more oil and water than those actual elements. But they've always found some way to ... not just co-exist, but co-excel.
Maybe that's why Roethlisberger cited the win above any prior distractions.
"We always say winning cures a lot of things," he said. "But I still think the biggest issue was outside the locker room, people perceiving things. I'm not saying we don't have issues. Every team has a lot of different things going on. But I think this was made out to be a lot bigger than it really is."
Maybe that's also why AB offered impassioned, unsolicited support for Tomlin on the same week he was punished for missing a meeting.
"Coach Tomlin does a great job of keeping us together, challenging us together, calling each other out, even in front of the group," AB said. "He'll talk about who dropped a ball, who messed up. It's everyone taking accountability. And that's why we got this win."
He paused.
"This is what we want to do. We want to win. We got this one. Now we got Baltimore. We've got to go get better."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers at Buccaneers, Tampa Bay, Sept. 24, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS