"It was a good one, but I’m going to leave it at that. I think there are a lot of things we can still improve."
See, this is what makes Cam Heyward pure Pittsburgh, at least in my eyes.
It's not that his birth certificate shows he was born in the city. Nor that the guy's as everyman as it gets. Nor that he's among those golden few professional athletes who genuinely give to the community more than they get back.
Nope, it's the uncanny, innate knack for being able to complain in the face of the very rosiest of circumstances.
A Pittsburgher buys a Porsche and complains about the tunnel traffic it'll endure.
A Pittsburgher jogs along a sunsplashed riverfront and frets that it might rain next Friday.
A Pittsburgher ... finds fault in the beloved local football franchise even when it's won all five of its games.
Including ... yeah, Steelers 38, Browns 7.
"I think we had 48 yards rushing given up," the big man continued from what's above, "but then we kind of gave away some yards at the end."
Right. Meaningless yards. Fourth quarter of a blowout.
"I didn’t finish a sack. That’s going to make me go crazy tonight."
Right. Meaningless miss. He also was magnificent within a defensive front that conceded next to nothing to what had been one of the NFL's top-ranked rushing offenses.
"There are things we can still improve at," he'd conclude. "The good thing is we’re 5-0, but this is something we have to continue to improve on. We’re not going to rest just being 5-0. We’ve got to continue to get better and keep working."
Like I said, he's one of us. This is what we do.
But what happens if, along the way, these increasingly tantalizing Steelers just keep getting better? Just keep checking boxes? Just keep shredding skepticism the way they do opposing quarterbacks?
____________________
This isn't some high-browed stance, mind you. I've shared some of that skepticism. Openly. With the occasional snarl or snark.
But another peculiar trait we Pittsburghers share is that we love events. We browse at the Three Rivers Arts Festival even though we're guaranteed to get soaked. We march in the St. Patrick's Day parade even though most of us can't tell Ireland from Iceland. We show up for something called PickleFest on the Ninth Street Bridge even though we've got no freaking idea what it is.
Make no mistake: These Steelers aren't just an event. They're looking like the event in the NFL.
From the broader perspective, this is the second 5-0 start in the team's nine-decade history. The other came in 1978, which they'd finish 14-2 and with a Super Bowl championship.
From the current perspective, they're one of three 5-0 teams standing in the league, along with the Seahawks and Titans, their opponent next Sunday in Nashville, Tenn.
From the statistical perspective, they're the league's only team to rank in the top five for both scoring offense (fourth at 31.2 points per game) and scoring allowed by the defense (second at 18.8 points per game).
It's all taking on a very real feel. And all the more so, I should say, from the Pittsburgher's perspective, because they keep cutting off our most common complaints.
I can rattle off 10 in the time it takes that Porsche to see Downtown at the far end, and here they are in no order at all:
GETTY
The Browns' Baker Mayfield walks off after a failed third-down conversion Sunday.
1. HAVEN'T BEATEN ANYBODY!
Well, maybe they still haven't. The Browns' 4-1 start might've been as phony as most every mirage they've concocted since Tim Couch broke his first huddle. Every once in a great while, they'll get the citizenry up there all stoked over a couple wins or a big-money free agent, but it only ever amounts to more misery.
All-time record at Heinz Field: 1-20
All-time vs. Ben Roethlisberger: 2-23-1
All-time vs. Roethlisberger here: 0-12
Such lists can go on for miles, and they're a blast. My favorite: The Clairton Bears have won nine times at Heinz Field in the same span, and they, too, get only one crack a year. Out of 143 high schools in the region.
Regardless ...
"This is a good football team that came in here," Roethlisberger brought up, basically on his own. "And it was AFC North. Our first AFC North game."
Check and check.
"We were varsity today, really, all across the board," Mike Tomlin mused with the opening words of his press call. "And we met a challenge versus a very good Cleveland Browns team that was very hot."
Check and check.
Just as it wasn't the Steelers' problem that their first four opponents are now a combined 5-17-1, it wasn't their problem that Cleveland's No. 1-ranked rushing attack, averaging 188.2 yards per game, squeezed out only 75 on this day. Kareem Hunt, the starter, found only 40 yards on 13 carries. Nor was it their problem that big-shot quarterback Baker Mayfield was benched after a 54.9 QB rating. Nor that big-shot receivers Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry combined for five catches. Nor that big-dirtbag edge rusher Myles Garrett was a non-entity.
The schedule shows who's next. All a team can do is to prepare to beat that opponent.
How do the Browns feel they fared?
"Obviously," Mayfield bemoaned, "not good enough."
Obviously.
Oh, well. Cross one off the list.
2. WHERE'S MINKAH?
I invested most of my column covering the Steelers' previous victory complaining about Minkah Fitzpatrick's usage and performance, only to witness this defining moment on this day:
"We needed to set the tone," he'd say of his 33-yard return that put the Steelers up, 10-0, "and I think a pick-six was definitely the way to do it."
"Minkah's an 'A' player," Tomlin said. "He's capable of these plays."
Cross off another.
3. THOSE $&%^@ THIRD DOWNS!
A week after the Eagles went 10 for 14 on third down, including a few particularly maddening big plays, the Browns got ... one.
Like, all day. On a dozen tries.
In addition to going 0 for 3 on fourth-down tries.
Better yet, the Steelers' solution apparently came as the result of a significant strategic change, coupled with corresponding execution.
"We had a better plan," Tomlin said, in a rare acknowledgment of, well, a significant strategic change. "It starts with us as coaches and then the guys performed better and they finished it off. But we both were JV last week, players and coaches, and we got better this week."
That began with Minkah's pick, of which Tomlin observed, "I think it sent a message to them that third down wasn't going to be easy sledding today."
It continued with the day's other interception ...
... by Cam Sutton, but only after a rabid pass rush flushed out Mayfield and brought about the awful decision to throw against his body inside the sideline.
That's a lot of activity up there.
Minkah's explanation of the change: "We just decided to play a little tighter, a little more man-to-man, make him throw out of the pocket. And I think we just executed better. We practiced third-and-medium, third-and-long this week in practice because we were playing poorly last week on third down."
Crossed off.
4. WHAT RUNNERS?
Sure, the Steelers had frozen Saquon Barkley in place and ranked second in the NFL in rushing defense, at 64.0 yards per game. But here, like the complaints about the schedule, it'd been accepted that they hadn't yet faced anyone who was any good at it.
Mm-hm. So, this is what the NFL's No. 1 rushing offense looked like on fourth-and-1 ...
... and once all of Sunday's games were done, the Steelers had the NFL's new No. 1 rushing defense.
If I might, I'd like to ask you to watch that sequence up there a few times. Heyward leads the push on Hunt, but look at all the bodies piling up behind him. Then look at how the Steelers smartly focused only on Hunt and not on the motion behind him.
Crossed. Off.
We having fun yet?
5. WHY RUN SIDEWAYS?
Three of James Conner's four full games have seen rushing totals of 106 yards, 109 and, on this day 101 on 20 carries. That's pretty good.
But it still stuck in the civic craw, and not without cause, that he was held to 44 yards on 15 carries by the Eagles, mostly because he seemed obsessed with sprinting toward the sidelines. Or juking when he needed to just stick out his jaw and go forward.
Not here:
"I was just running hard," Conner said afterward, arms folded, with a shrug. "Trust what I see and go."
Between Conner, Benny Snell and Anthony McFarland, the Steelers handed off a striking 25 times in the second half, prompting Ben to joke, "It felt like an old Bill Cowher offense." Which is funny, but it's also been among the team's most consistent strengths from the opener onward.
But let's wait to cross this one off jointly with the next.
6. O-LINE'S IN TROUBLE!
No, it isn't. If anything, every time a starter's gone down to injury, it's only exposed largely unknown depth a layer below.
Zach Banner beat out Chuks Okorafor for right tackle in training camp, and he did so on merit. But all that's happened since Banner went down in New Jersey is that Okorafor has excelled against some of the NFL's most dangerous sack guys. He did so again on Garrett and, more notable, Okorafor and rookie right guard Kevin Dotson did most of the blocking damage in the run game.
Dotson, a fourth-rounder in the Steelers' most recent draft, is way beyond his years at the moment.
Check out this pull:
"My routine coming into every game is to make it as much like practice as possible, so I’m not in my head as much trying to just revert back to that practice stage," Dotson said after this. "I just try to make it as normal as possible, so I don’t get in my head."
Now, cross all of this off.
David DeCastro will only make it stronger.
7. IS CLAYPOOL REAL?
After Chase Claypool's four touchdowns a week ago and comparison references reaching as far back as the great Gale Sayers, it's fully understandable that there'd be at least ...curiosity as to whether or not he could follow that up. And when he wasn't targeted at all in the first quarter of this game, I'm betting that grew.
To which, I offer, his first target:
My goodness. I feel compelled to share that, once Ben lofted this baby, my reflexive thought in the press box was, 'No chance.' I was sure it'd been yet another of his many overthrows.
Maybe it was. But with this kid's stride, reach and soft hands, we'll now never know.
Another joint cross-off awaits.
8. CAN BEN STILL GO DEEP?
Yes, actually, he can.
His overall numbers wound up on the dull side -- 14 of 22 for 162 yards, touchdown, zero picks -- but what stood out for me, maybe more than any facet of the entire afternoon, was Ben's rising above Cleveland's clear plan to try to make him go deep. The Browns beautifully knifed off his beloved slant patterns early, essentially daring him to throw over them.
Which he'd do, quite literally, to James Washington late in the first half for the backbreaking 24-0 lead:
I asked Ben how that felt, and he answered, "Yeah, they made some plays on our quick passing game early on. They were ready for it. So we decided to take some shots downfield, and I know James had a couple big ones, so that was neat to see. Neat to see guys making plays down the yard."
Neater still to see this guy generating them.
Cross off the crossing patterns as being the sole weapon.
9. THE COORDINATORS ARE IDIOTS!
Maybe they aren't.
Week in and week out, at least to date, the Steelers have had the upper hand in schematics and adjustments. Can't just rip Randy Fichtner and Keith Butler when they lose. Also, as crisp as special teams have been, Danny Smith's name is worth a special mention. Alex Highsmith, yet another rookie, was superb with three gunning tackles in this game, but the kick coverage has been terrific throughout.
10. THE HEAD COACH IS AN IDIOT!
Maybe he isn't.
"Part of being good in this league is identifying problems and eliminating them," Tomlin would say after this game. "Hopefully before they happen but, once they happen, you have to eliminate them quickly."
He's done that, maybe as impressively as at any point in his long career here.
Cross that off, too. Until his next loss.
____________________
Maybe that'll come next Sunday against those Super-Spreaders down in Music City. But maybe it won't.
Derrick Henry's the best back in the league, a human beast. Ryan Tannehill's capable of offsetting Henry with play-action and accuracy that only Carson Wentz has shown the Steelers to date. It's a group that's overcome their own collective stupidity in Mike Vrabel's brutal mismanagement of coronavirus protocol, but that only makes it stand out all the more from the football standpoint.
Me, I'm putting all of my own skepticism on pause.
It'll hurt the defense not having Devin Bush, no question, and I didn't deliberately underplay that by waiting this long to get to it. He wasn't delivering much splash, but he's the reason the Steelers have been able to blitz at will without worrying about screens, draws and other counter tactics. Because he could go sideline to sideline and nullify it all. No one on this roster can replace that.
But show me a team that solves problems, and I'll show you one that's equipped for precisely such a situation.
When I asked Tomlin how he might navigate Bush's loss, the final two words of his response leaped out at me: "We'll put together a formula that allows us to function in the interim. Believe it."
OK.
