Trey Edmunds' first touch of the football on this sunny Sunday afternoon at Heinz Field was a teamwide work of art.
And I mean that in the intangible sense, too.
This was the first quarter. First snap of Edmunds' first series filling in for injured James Conner and Benny Snell in the Steelers' backfield. And with his first stride to the right, his first impression was as follows:
Man, football can be beautiful, huh?
"That," as a beaming Zach Banner would tell me later, "is how it's supposed to be."
Watch it again. Gets prettier with each replay. Banner's No. 72, the first one circled. He and Vance McDonald sealed their Colts to the inside. David DeCastro pulls from right guard way out to take out a corner. And Maurkice Pouncey, still agile as he ages, pulls way, way out to chip a linebacker.
From there, it's 45 yards of grass.
And at the end, two defensive teammates awaited near the sideline, bounding up and down like schoolchildren in celebration. One was his brother, Terrell, and the other was his 'dawg,' as Kam Kelly described their relationship for me. Even more excited than the brother. Grabbed Trey by both shoulders and shouted into his mask, per his recollection, "That's you! You're doing this!" Wouldn't let him be for nearly a minute.
"Trey, man ... watching that run, that meant everything to me, you know?" Kelly would elaborate. "He's undrafted. Like me. Has to show more. Has to prove more. I love him. I'm so happy for him."
There's a lot of that with this group. It's a good one. In a good many ways.
The Steelers stuck this one out, of course, by a 26-24 count. Which also is good. They've won four of five after opening 0-3. They might not rally past the Ravens in the AFC North, particularly not after those guys beat the Patriots in Baltimore late Sunday night, but it's hardly hopeless. Besides, they and the Raiders, also 4-4, would be the top two teams on the wild-card periphery, behind these Colts at 5-3 and the Bills, owners of the phoniest 6-2 record in league history. So contention's more real than anyone could've anticipated.
Heck, all of this is. Step back and think about it: Ben Roethlisberger went down in Week 2, and this team's on an actual bleeping roll in his absence.
So why is it, then, that I'm just not feeling it?
____________________
Oh, yeah, that's right: The offense is going nowhere.
The defense has become a bona fide blast to watch. It isn't just T.J. Watt anymore. The drafting of Devin Bush, the trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick and the emergence of Bud Dupree -- the unquestioned 'monster' of this game, as Mike Tomlin casually dubbed him -- has transformed this side of the ball from weakness to strength in a seeming snap.
The special teams have come through, too, on this day in the form of a forced fumble by Ola Adeniyi, a blocked extra point by Cam Heyward and a 51-yard field goal by Chris Boswell. Everyone fairly fusses over Ryan Switzer's fair catches, but I'll take this kind of splash every day and especially Sunday.
But all this ...
... sorry, I'm not about to be blinded by a couple of uplifting outcomes and pretend this offense is a problem that's on the path to being solved.
Because there's no sign of that. None. Not in anything other than occasional spurts.
The line isn't holding the pocket, the quarterback's holding onto the ball too long, Rudolph won't pull the trigger, Rudolph's misfiring too often, the run-blocking isn't there, the running backs are badly misreading the blocks they do get, the receivers aren't getting enough separation, the quarterback's not noticing when they do, a must-have catch by a No. 1 wide receiver becomes an interception, someone else fumbles ...
"Yeah, the state of the offense," Rudolph began when asked about, you know, the state of the offense. "I think the offense has morphed and evolved through eight games. I think, with me being at the helm, we've gotten better and have shown growth. We're still not where we want to be, obviously."
Obviously. The Steelers' 202.4 passing yards per game rank 27th in the 32-team NFL, they average 88.4 rushing yards for a rank of 26th, and their 16 offensive touchdowns are tied for 25th.
It wasn't OK with Ben, and it's only worsened without him. Especially this: In 21 trips to the red zone, they've produced eight touchdowns, a 38 percent rate that's 29th in the league. On this day, it was 1 for 4.
"We have to focus on getting in the red zone," Rudolph stressed on his own. "We've gotten into the red zone a few times, and punching those in for six ... we're right there, close."
There was a lot of that in this room. Right there. Close.
"It's a play. It's one play every time," Diontae Johnson told me. "Just need to get that extra yard."
Fine. Assume that's true. So who'll get that yard?
Three wholly unsolicited suggestions:
1. Don't think you stink.
This'll sound terribly simplistic, but it's imperative. Just as these Steelers as a whole never allowed themselves to be defined by 0-3 or 1-4 -- and that's to Tomlin's credit, above all -- the offense needs to be the same way.
Banner worded this forcefully.
"We can't point fingers. Because if we started doing that right now, we'll be pointing all over," he'd say, bringing this up unsolicited. "At the same time, don't accept it. And the one thing I can tell you for sure: Guys don't accept it. That's a good thing. I've been on teams where guys accept it. I'm not going to name those teams, but I've been on teams where things don't go well and ... hey, f--- it. Not in here."
I liked that a lot. He's right. Acceptance of failure is acceptance that there's no upgrade to be had.
As Johnson put it, "We know the talent's here. If we didn't, it'd be different. We know we can do more."
And Alejandro Villanueva: "The coaches are doing a good job putting a plan to keep us together. This isn't the way we're used to doing things. Big kudos to the defense for keeping us in this, but we've got to work to get better. We will."
And James Washington: "Sometimes we have our hiccups. But it feels like we're growing."
2. Clean it up.
All those mistakes, hiccups, whatever ... those can be addressed.
It's been a challenge, as acknowledged, for everyone. New players make new mistakes. Both running backs in this game ran the wrong direction multiple times, visibly exasperating the linemen in front of them. New quarterbacks, more than anyone at any position, can force others into mistakes they don't usually make. Rudolph's start was his fifth in the NFL, and it showed. And new circumstances come with new Xs and Os, though those could be infinitely more inspired than they've been. There are times, it seems, Randy Fichtner and Tomlin are so safe with the playbook that their living-in-their-fears prophecies become self-fulfilling.
Ultimately, though, cleaning up happens best through individual improvement.
Rudolph can be far better. I believe that. He's got the arm, the smarts and the poise.
This touchdown to McDonald was his third read:
Jaylen Samuels fumbled, and all he mustered from 21 touches -- 13 through the air -- was an average gain of 3.9 yards. But he's already shown to be a strong complementary piece to Conner, including that wicked wildcat look.
Then there's JuJu Smith-Schuster.
If he doesn't let that routine catch slip through his hands for an interception, the game goes that much easier for everyone. Rudolph, for example, could find extra confidence that he can, as he did with that throw, trust his receivers in traffic. And if JuJu can navigate a way to be more productive than three catches for 16 yards, the rest of the corps benefits from the extra space.
It's not all on the quarterback when it comes to JuJu, and it's definitely not all on the double-coverage. He can do better.
To his credit, this is how he replied to my question about only getting a handful of targets:
That helps, too, at least publicly. He's frustrated, I've got no doubt. I spotted once where he ripped off his chinstrap upon being ignored -- wide open in the right flat -- when Rudolph looked yet again for a lateral toss to Samuels.
More than one pupil within JuJu's classroom is frustrated. Samuels wound up with 13 targets, one more than all of the wide receivers combined.
Which leads me to ...
1. Let the kid fling it.
Isn't this getting old already?
I could cascade this page with data, or I could just offer that Rudolph wants to throw deep and, more important, looks by far the most comfortable when he's throwing deep. So ... hey.
This was the 40-yard heave to Washington that would set up the winning field goal halfway through the fourth quarter:
That looks underthrown but, actually, Rudolph's arm was slightly bumped. It speaks volumes that the ball made it as far as it did.
It spoke volumes, too, that Rudolph called for Washington to run a basic post route directly behind Indianapolis' strong safety, Clayton Geathers, who'd been slipping perilously close to the line of scrimmage throughout the game.
"He just kind of stayed in the middle of the field, kind of flat-footed," Rudolph would say, although he incorrectly identified the safety's name as Malik Hooker rather than Geathers. Hooker wasn't on the field for that drive. Regardless, the positional tendency is what's relevant. "James was able to get behind him, kind of step on the corner's toes, if you will. He did a great job of coming across the field. It's a play he's made a lot, and he does a great job in really paralyzing the corner. He did a great job."
Washington, who knows Rudolph better than anyone in this setting, expressed appreciation for the risk.
“As a quarterback, I feel, you’re taught to never throw a single-high post,” Washington said, showing a small smile. “But Mason saw it, and I’m kind of glad he did. I enjoyed every minute of it.”
They both clearly did. Let both kids play.
____________________
Not to be a downer. An actual bleeping roll is an actual bleeping roll.
It might roll on, too. After Aaron Donald's 5-3 Rams next Sunday at Heinz Field, the final half of the schedule includes five games against the Browns (twice), Bengals, Jets and Cardinals, who are a collective 6-26. Those phony Bills are in there, too, and the finale's in Baltimore. There are no freebies in the NFL, but it's favorable.
That said, I wrote this from Foxborough, and I'll repeat it until it changes: With or without Ben, with or without extenuating circumstances, the Steelers will have to score to be taken seriously. Because banking on plus-minus points out of Adam Vinatieri shanking a 40-yard kick or Fitzpatrick sprinting back a 96-yard pick-6, that's bad business.
Tomlin lauded the victory and even achieving .500, adding the colorful context that, "We will work forever trying to get that September stench off of us." But he also didn't require anyone's prompt to broach the offense: "We're just trying to find our rhythm and traction, and we can’t have a lot of self-inflicted wounds along the way. We've had some. Thankfully, they haven’t prevented us from winning. We need to get better."
Sooner would be best, or they'll have 99 problems rather than just the one.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Colts, Heinz Field, Nov. 3, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS