Excitement. Anticipation. Nerves. All were running like a freight train through Tyler Matakevich's head during last Sunday's game against the Falcons, and understandably so. With Vince Williams out of the lineup, the 25-year-old special-teams ace was pressed into service, making the first start of his three-year NFL career.
And when he'd run off the field following a series, he was greeted by a familiar face and an iPad in hand.
Ryan Shazier's season and possibly his NFL career is over, but he still has, as Mike Tomlin likes to say, his hand in the pile. He's still teaching, still inspiring teammates.
"It's incredible," Matakevich was telling me Wednesday at the Rooney Complex. "He hasn't changed since the day I walked in the doors. The way he's been helping me out, especially the last week with Vinnie being down ... Shoot, he was there every step of the way. Without him helping, I don't know where I'd be right now."
Ten months and 10 days after suffering his career and life-altering injury, Shazier -- just as he has all season -- will stand on the Steelers' sideline at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday. That the linebacker can even stand is nothing short of miraculous given what happened there on that awful night last Dec. 4, when, on the second drive of the game, he suffered a spinal contusion while attempting to tackle Cincinnati wide receiver Josh Malone on what seemed an innocuous play.
The Steelers are reminded of that game every time the linebacker walks, with some visible difficulty, into the locker room or the practice field. The team -- along with the league and the city -- has rallied behind the 26-year-old, who has been ever-present this season while serving as de facto coach.
Shazier is not being made available to speak to the media leading up to this week's game, however, he is doing as well as could possibly be hoped for according to teammates.
"To go through what he went through and where he's at mentally, I don't know anybody who could possibly do that," Matakevich said. "He's the only guy that I've ever seen handle something like the way he's handled it. It's truly a blessing."
When the Steelers make their first visit back to Cincinnati this Sunday afternoon, surely a flood of emotions will come rushing back to them. The sight of their teammate being placed on a backboard and his neck braced, the hospital visits, the many prayers and the long -- and still ongoing -- road to recovery.
"The way it happened," Cam Heyward was saying the other day, his normally booming voice trailing off. "It wasn't like it was inflicted through the Bengals. They were just as sympathetic as we were. We'll have Ryan there, and it will be a big step for him. It was an unfortunate situation that happened."
The Steelers can take some solace in knowing that Shazier's injury, though catastrophic, was a freak accident and largely an accident of his own doing. The NFL has since addressed the kind of hit on which Shazier was injured. It was practically the same hit that he used to knock the Bengals' Gio Bernard out of a 2016 playoff game.
The new @NFL Use of Helmet rule explained with video examples. Watch: pic.twitter.com/r2qPWEqMeN
— NFL Football Operations (@NFLFootballOps) June 2, 2018
Though the Shazier injury may have been the most consequential play last December, it was nearly the only one that was accidental. Many fans -- hardcore and casual alike -- were turned off by last year's display of violence.
JuJu Smith-Schuster was suspended for his hard block on Pittsburgh supervillain Vontaze Burfict, knocking the linebacker out and then taunting him by standing over him. Then-Bengals safety George Iloka was also suspended for a hit to the head on Antonio Brown in the end zone.
Unnecessary roughness is part of almost every NFL game. A potential career-ending injury is only a play away, but perhaps even more so in a series as hotly contested as Pittsburgh v. Cincinnati. But players can ill afford to fear their -- or their teammate's -- football mortality.
"You can't think about it," Matakevich said. "You just have to get past it, as hard as it is. You're going to think about that stuff. How can you not? But all you can do is stay focused and do your job."
Week 13 of the 2017 season was just the latest chapter in the bizarre and ultra-violent rivalry that's developed between the Steelers and Bengals in recent seasons. Baltimore might be the Steelers' biggest rival and Cleveland might be their traditional rival, but the Bengals have become their nastiest rival.
It might have started in the 2006 wild card game, when Kimmo von Oehlhoffen went low, taking out Carson Palmer's knee:
Or maybe it started in 2013 when Terence Garvin broke Bengals punter Kevin Huber's jaw and a verterbae:
However, it escalated to new lows when Reggie Nelson ended Le'Veon Bell's season in 2014. Afterward, Tomlin confronted Nelson on the field.
The following season, Burfict ended Bell's season and then celebrated it. Williams threatened to "paint" Burfict on social media.
The second meeting in 2015 featured a pregame brawl in Cincinnati where James Harrison, of all people, tried to play peacemaker.
In January of 2016, the Steelers won an epic playoff game -- thanks to Joey Porter instigating a fight with Adam 'Pacman' Jones -- but lost Brown to a concussion after another cheap-shot by Burfict:
And that's just the Cliff's Notes version.
Should we expect more of the same this year?
"Always, always," Marcus Gilbert was telling me. "Steelers and Bengals showdown. It'll be a fun one to watch. Everyone will be riled up."
Ramon Foster only half-joked that he was glad Sunday's game is a 1 p.m. kickoff. His rationale: The less time (theoretically) for fans to drink, the better.
"Might be less batteries and beer thrown at us and stuff like that on the field," he said. "Less stuff talked about our parents."
But what might be most interesting is how the NFL's new rules, particularly the strict enforcement of roughing the passer, will play out.
Coming off a four-game suspension for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances, Burfict played just 53 percent of the Bengals' defensive snaps in last week's win over the Dolphins in Miami. Surely, the Steelers can expect to see a little more of him on Sunday.
Burfict has been the central figure in the rivalry and has a history of going high and low after Ben Roethlisberger. In 2014, Roethlisberger accused the linebacker of trying to take out his knees. In the 2015 wild card game, he managed to temporarily knock Big Ben from the game by driving him hard to the ground.
"I have said this to him on the football field, he's a phenomenal football player," Roethlisberger said Wednesday during his weekly talk with reporters. "Very smart, physical, can make all the plays. You need to know where he is."
The Steelers stand as a 2.5 point underdogs, but the safest best against the Bengals has always been chaos.
How much can the Steelers count on the referees?
"You've got to play by the rules," said Roosevelt Nix, who was on the receiving end of a Burfict stomp to the chest in the first meeting last season. "I don't know if the rules changes are going to have a direct impact on the winner and loser."
Foster doesn't want help from the officials either. But he's optimistic that cooler heads and common sense will prevail on both sides. After taking seven more flags for 58 yards against Atlanta and drawing the ire of Tomlin against Atlanta, the Steelers remain the league's most penalized team with 459 yards in flags as compared to 324 for the Bengals.
"You can change a game by a call just by being aggressive trying to hit the quarterback in a matter of seconds," Foster was saying. "I think the teams have to be more conscious of it. Both teams are still vying for dominance in the AFC North. Messy play out there or bad penalties can really hurt your standing within the division."
Of course, somewhat lost in all this is that there is still an actual football game to be won. Kind of a big one, too. Beginning with Sunday's game against AFC North-leading Cincinnati, it marks the first of a critical three-game stretch against division opponents for the Steelers.
"It's like a web right now, you don't know what's going to come out on the other end," Foster said of the division's parity. "That's why I don't think the nonsense is going to be a part of the game. If it does, it will be a shock to me."
As much as they'd love to get their pound of flesh against Burfict and Co., the 2-2-1 Steelers need to win more.
They have certainly gotten the better of the Bengals on the scoreboard in recent history. Pittsburgh has won the last six meetings and nine of the last 10 dating back to 2013. And they are 17-3 all-time at the Bengals' home some 300 miles down the Ohio River.
However, winning this week might be easier said than done.
While most predicted a third-straight AFC North title for the Steelers (no team has won three in a row in the 16-year history of the division), they have struggled out of the gate and -- save for last week's win over the Falcons -- have appeared vulnerable on both sides of the ball.
A year ago, the Steelers went 6-0 vs. the division en route to a 13-3 record. Well, they've already tied Cleveland and lost to Baltimore. Led by the Andy Dalton to A.J. Green connection, the Bengals are a surprising 4-1 after overcoming a 17-point deficit last week in Miami. Green is tied along with Brown for the most TD receptions in the NFL with five.
It's early, true, but the Steelers appear to be in for a much tougher fight than previously thought.
"We can't let this slip away from us," Stephon Tuitt said. "We have to go there ready to fight."
It's a game that Shazier clearly would love to be able to play in. It's a rivalry game and it will almost certainly get heated. Gilbert says the Steelers are ready for anything. And if Burfict tries anything?
"OK, let's play ball," Gilbert said.