"We need everybody. I think it's going to take everybody to win this. It'd be big if everybody can be a part of this."
That was Stephon Tuitt. And believe it or not, that sentiment, shared with me Friday at the Rooney Complex, wasn't speaking to the Steelers' fortunes tomorrow against the Ravens, so much as the collective feeling of their fans.
It's well-founded, too, maybe more than the big man had grasped in the moment.
Actually, here's something very few people could know: In all of professional sports, there are only two franchises who announce attendance by actual turnstile count, and they're the Steelers and the New York Giants. It can't be clear why that is, beyond those being two of the NFL's most venerable and traditional institutions, but that's how it is. Most everywhere else, including the Penguins and Pirates, what's counted are paid tickets in circulation, meaning they've been bought by someone and that's that, whether they're used or not.
So when one hears that attendance this past Monday night at Heinz Field for the 27-3 victory over the Bengals was 57,959, that means that 57,959 very real humans passed through very real gates to sit in very yellow seats.
Know what else that means?
Uh, yikes.
Because the official football capacity at Heinz is 68,400 since the open-end expansion a couple years ago, the chasm between that figure and those very real humans was 10,441.
Dont' misunderstand, though, please: This isn't to suggest the Steelers are fading from our civic consciousness. That'd be insane. Going back to Three Rivers Stadium and November 1972, they've sold out 396 games in a row. That's the second-longest active streak in the NFL, trailing only the Broncos' run of 405 that began two years earlier. (The Packers have sold out every game at Lambeau Field since 1960, but not when they played three annual home games in Milwaukee through 1994.)
The streak's amazing. The streak's in no jeopardy, given a season-ticket waiting list that still runs into the tens of thousands.
Still, a no-show is a no-show. And for a Monday night against an AFC North opponent that, until very recently, had been the most outwardly detested, there were 10,441 of those.
Something was off.
And something needs to be mended.
"I think we know that," Tuitt continued after I'd mentioned some of the above. "I think we know it was a rough start for us, a rough start for everyone who follows us. Maybe we got a little of that back now, and maybe we can take it to another level."
Sure seems like a golden chance.
The Bengals are who they are, but a battle of 0-3 teams ended up optimally, I'd say, for the home side. Mason Rudolph, James Conner, Jaylen Samuels and the offense finally found some semblance of an identity. The entire defense -- and I mean, to a man -- tormented Andy Dalton all night and continued to take the ball away at a level unseen around here in half a decade.
It was hardly definitive, but it was fun. It was a relief.
But this one won't be about fun. It'll be Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
Oh, it won't be this ...
The loudest that it has have been at Heinz Field! Never Forget! #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/ZGNF0D9jEL
— SteelVideos (@SteelBlitzburgh) October 4, 2019
... but it'll be, remarkably, a chance at first place, pending the outcome of the Browns' Monday night game against the 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif. It'll be a chance to resuscitate what could -- arguably should -- have been left for dead after 0-3, certainly after Ben Roethlisberger went down. It'll be a chance to change the dynamic with a fan base that entered this fall with, fair or not, high expectations, but that was soon seen flooding for the exits in the third quarter of the opening loss to the Seahawks.
I asked Vince Williams how much it might mean to put it all together. Not just offense and defense, but team and city.
"It's incredibly huge, and I think everybody in this locker room realizes that. All of it," he'd reply. "For this team right now, we're in the critical moments. We know that. Our fans know that. And we know the Baltimore Ravens know that. But playing in Heinz Field ... we've got to make it different for them."
Different?
"Different for them. Not for us."
I asked JuJu Smith-Schuster:
I asked James Conner, too.
"You know, the saying goes that it's the biggest game 'cause it's the next game," he began. "But it's the division. It's the Ravens. It's 1 o'clock at our place. It's a good opportunity for us."
I asked Bud Dupree. Mostly because he was the guy doing this to the crowd Monday night:
MATT SUNDAY / DKPS"I can't wait, man. I can't," he'd answer. "If we take care of business, if we do it right here, that'll make people's confidence go through the roof. It picks everybody up, all of us. It takes us to another level."
As all concerned would acknowledge further into our conversations, that'll take more than dialing up 'Renegade' to 11 and other intangibles.
On offense, it'll take, I'll bluntly state, going beyond the gimmicky wildcat. It worked for one week, and it might still make for a useful formation. But John Harbaugh's got a rep for lining up a wall of purple to take away the run if he fears it, and getting cute won't overcome that. Rudolph will have to be cut loose to pop a couple deep balls, or just to connect on a couple intermediate routes. Screens might be a must, too, presuming one or both of JuJu and Vance McDonald sit out.
On defense, it'll take confining Lamar Jackson to the Baltimore backfield. It'll take continued pressure from Dupree and T.J. Watt -- funny how it's fair now to mention both in the same breath -- while also sealing the rushing edge. It'll take more hands on more balls by the secondary. It'll take even more strides forward from Devin Bush, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds across the middle.
On the sideline, it'll take a lot more of the aggressive, imaginative approach Mike Tomlin and staff took against Cincinnati, and a whole lot less of the let's-just-see-if-our-things-work insanity from Santa Clara.
And up in the sea of yellow ... it'll take a lot less yellow and a lot more yelling.
