It was fun, but now it's done.
No, I can't and won't dismiss that the Steelers could still make the playoffs. If they win Sunday in Baltimore, if the Ravens rest enough starters, if the Titans lose, if the Texans rest enough starters, if the Raiders do something or other, if the Colts are struck down by a comet, blah, blah, blah.
But really, beyond the cute, cuddly aspect of completing the always-unlikely achievement of upending what should've been a disastrous season into an actual achievement, I'm not sure what more there'd be to gain from an appearance. It's not as if they've got a prayer to advance past the anthem.
What matters most now, at least from this perspective, is what 2019 will mean toward 2020. So, toward that end, here's my early, maybe premature list of three priorities, in no particular order:
• Draft a running back
Doesn't need to be the first round — obviously, it can't in 2020. Few teams do that anyway. But get a durable, dynamic ball-carrier who can relegate James Conner to backup duty. Conner's signed for another season at an affordable cap hit of $934,572, so there's no point cutting him. But his availability, now more than ever, has exposed his value. If he can only handle limited snaps, set the stage that way. Jaylen Samuels doesn't profile as a true back, and Benny Snell's got tons to prove.
• Liven up the line
Ramon Foster's fallen off, and he might need to be released for that reason alone, never mind clearing up cash in an attempt to keep Bud Dupree and/or Javon Hargrave. Foster's replacements are already in-house, with Matt Feiler capable of sliding to left guard, and B.J. Finney capable of backing up there and center. Zach Banner and Chuks Okorafor can slug it out at right tackle, with my money on Banner.
• Same on the other side
It'd feel like sacrilege to some if the Steelers invested significant resources -- top pick, big free-agency money -- on defense. But that wouldn't necessarily make it misguided. Cam Heyward's still an impact performer, but the defensive line's getting up there, too. Cam will be 31. Stephon Tuitt will be 27. Now's the time to begin grooming successors, in particular for the captain. No point in risking the defense stepping back with all it's progressed.
Sure, there's little stuff, too. A stretch-the-field receiver, for instance. A push at left tackle for Alejandro Villanueva. Some safety depth.
But you know what I won't add here?
Right. Quarterback.
Ben Roethlisberger. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPSIn fact, I won't even seriously entertain it beyond this single paragraph. Ben Roethlisberger will be back. He's stated as much emphatically, and the Steelers themselves were prompted to confirm that anew in response to an erroneous ESPN report yesterday. He'll be fresher and more energized, I'm betting, than he's been in years. Mason Rudolph showed legitimate improvement over a challenging season, physically and mentally, and he's absolutely an NFL-level backup. I'd apply the same thought to Devlin 'Duck' Hodges, who'll have more experience in the league than almost any No. 3 anywhere.
Fix what's broken, fine-tune the rest, and hope for the best from the franchise's star.
• What a weird season. The Steelers haven't scored 30 points in a game all season, and they haven't given up 30 since the opener in Foxborough. In the modern NFL, both are dramatic outliers.
At the same time, I've sensed at least a slight softening of the defense in these past two losses, especially in the ground game. The Bills pounded out 130 yards, and a visibly motivated Le'Veon Bell barreled mostly up the middle for 75, including a dagger of a 7-yard first-down run right through a stacked box. That type of thing hadn't been happening previously.
One focus of mine Sunday in East Rutherford was canvassing the defensive players to see if they're tiring out from having spent so much time on the field all season.
Suffice it to say, they wanted no part of the subject.
"Naw, man," Vince Williams came back before I'd completed my question. "We're a team. We're going to stay together no matter what. This is how we roll."
"I ain't gonna say we're getting tired," Javon Hargrave told me. "We're just coming up short."
• In case I haven't already written this a dozen times in recent weeks, T.J. Watt is the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year, and it's no longer remotely interesting.
• This is anything but a criticism of Watt, so please take this in full context: Sometime soon, the NFL will have to crack down on how defensive players can attempt to punch footballs loose.
You know, like what Watt did Sunday in unwittingly assaulting poor Sam Darnold in the privates:
Players have been punching footballs loose forever, but it's never been preached and practiced at a level like what we're seeing in 2019. Where once the routine tackle was atop everyone's list, players are now forgoing that in favor of the punch, even if that means risking a bigger gain by the ball-carrier.
As Watt worded it Sunday, "Hell yeah, I was trying to make a splash play. I'm trying to create a splash play on every single play. If you don't have that mentality as a defender, then why are you even playing the game?"
Still, there's no clear line as to what constitutes legally/illegally just whaling away at a ball-carrier, and that'll need to be established sooner rather than later. Because these punches are looking increasingly dangerous, and not just to Darnold's future offspring.
• I kicked up a lot of dust in the week leading up to Sunday about Randy Fichtner's work, but I honestly thought he fared fine against the Jets. The playcalling was more grounded, the balance was better, there was better use of the middle of the field and, hey, the wildcat was kept in its cage. I saw this offensive outcome as being far more about poor execution.
• As an FYI to newer readers, when I choose a single column topic following an event I cover, it's almost never because I see any one individual athlete or coach as being singularly to credit or blame for the victory or loss. These are team sports at the highest level and, as such, there are countless participants influencing the outcome.
So no, as I clearly wrote in the JuJu Smith-Schuster column from East Rutherford, he wasn't singularly to blame for the loss. It'd be psychotic to suggest as much.
This was the topic I chose. Because it was the topic I chose.
• On a related note, it's equally crazy that there are any people anywhere still claiming JuJu didn't have a chance to catch that pass.
Here's a different angle to illustrate one of the two points I made in the column, that he barely got off the ground with his leap:
Here's a different angle to illustrate another point I made, that the ball made contact with his hands:
Add those two up, and it explains this reaction from Duck once he regained his feet:
But hey, don't believe me. Go ask him. Or anyone else in that room. Every last one of them saw it exactly that way.
• I can't concoct a sliver of disappointment with this season. I just can't. At least not collectively. A few individuals, such as JuJu, Conner, Foster, a couple others, could have been better. But to enter Week 17 with a chance at the playoffs while lugging around the NFL's No. 30-ranked offense, that's way more good than bad.
• Last team standing Sunday in Baltimore: Ravens. You don't get to 13-2 because of one or two players -- John Harbaugh made known yesterday in Owings Mills, Md., that he'll rest Lamar Jackson, Pro Bowl guard Marshal Yanda and several other banged-up players -- and this offense still won't have any answers by then.
• Last team standing when it's all done: Chiefs.
• I've gotten word that Sidney Crosby's set to make a major step in his recovery as soon as Friday, the NHL's first day back from the mandated Christmas break that begins today. In what capacity I'm not certain, but the Penguins will hit the ice for the first time Friday morning in Nashville before the game there that night. They'll fly back to Pittsburgh for another game the next night, also against the Predators.
I'm not suggesting he'll play this weekend. That'd be nuts, as he'd need to practice with the team for a spell, and that's not currently possible. But it's yet another sign that his recovery from core surgery is going smoothly.
Jared McCann pursues a puck ahead of the Oilers' Connor McDavid Friday night in Edmonton. - AP• One player worth watching closely in Sid's absence has been Jared McCann, if only to continue evaluating his top-six potential. Which is why it's been at least mildly disappointing that he's got one goal in the past dozen games, that coming this past Friday on that sweet breakaway in Edmonton.
Within that, though, it's an easy problem to pinpoint: Kid needs to shoot more.
In a seven-game stretch within those dozen, he totaled 10 shots in his 184 shifts, or one shot every 18 times over the boards. Conversely, in the 13 games this season in which he's registered just three or more shots, he's scored eight of his season's 10 goals.
Hm.
I mean, he can really gun the puck. Makes no sense that he hasn't utilized that more often, and it's incumbent on him and Mike Sullivan's staff to make that happen more often. The best habits are formed in youth, and he's still only 23.
• If I'm Sullivan, I'm essentially letting Tristan Jarry call his own shots for the foreseeable future. Meaning, with the back-to-back weekend, if Jarry's strong against the Predators one night, he's right back in there the next night.
Not to bury Matt Murray. I believe in the guy and the goaltender. But this is well past the point of Murray simply needing to show the beginnings of a rebound. He now has to beat out Jarry for No. 1. And regardless of the circumstances the other night in Vancouver -- I've written for years that's an un-winnable game when playing in Alberta the previous night -- he's got to be way better than he was there or in Detroit.
• The Oilers are 4-9-1 in their past 14, including a 4-2 loss last night in Vancouver and, shortly before that, the loss this past Friday to the Penguins in Edmonton. And I share this only to additionally share a quiet wish I have that Connor McDavid eventually gets the hell out of there and makes the huge difference for hockey that any generational talent should.
• Meanwhile, the team missing the most complete player on the planet, plus roughly a quarter of the regular roster, plus their expected starting goaltender for all intents and purposes, is somehow 7-2 this month.
As always with this starcrossed franchise, count the blessings, not the curses.
• The Pirates have signed a couple small-time players, hired a couple coaches, and still haven't come close to anything resembling a splash. And I'll keep saying it: That's fine, possibly even ideal.
The splash needs to come in the form of potentially elite arms, acquired in intelligent trades of valuable assets for real pitching prospects. No team wins without great pitching, and Ben Cherington's in no position to cross his fingers and hope that Neal Huntington's barren cupboard comes through. He must be proactive in this regard, public sentiment be damned.
Start with Starling Marte. Go further if needed.
• Robot umpires are on the way, very clearly, based on Major League Baseball getting that concession from the human umpires' union in the new labor agreement reached in the past week.
Which is welcome news. So long as it's limited to balls and strikes, and so long as it, you know, works.
Everything I've heard from baseball people to date, including those who were around the system just now in the Arizona Fall League, is that it's great at making horizontal calls, meaning the pitches that cut across corners, but that it's also terribly inconsistent at making vertical calls on breaking pitches. Some pitches that have bounced in the dirt have been called strikes, creating some embarrassing moments for the human umpires forced to concur with what Hal 9000 is calling from cyberspace.
Get it right. Really right.
• If I'd make a list of the top everything in Pittsburgh sports over the past decade -- players, plays, games, seasons, whatever -- they'd be appropriately packed with material related to the Steelers and Penguins. But not the top moment.
Nothing touched this ...
... certainly not for anyone fortunate enough to be inside PNC Park on that night.
Maybe now that there's a fresh start at 115 Federal, there'll be more than one of those in the next decade.
• From our staff and families to yours on this Christmas Eve, here's hoping for the happiest, healthiest and safest of holidays!
