The emotions were everywhere for these Steelers, maybe more than anyone could've expected entering a matchup of two 2-3 teams. But they really were everywhere. All week long, too.
All alone in its importance on the life scale, Jerry Olsavsky, the beloved longtime linebackers coach, lost his wife, Rayme, the mother of their three children, Friday morning. And as with everything in this franchise's family environment, that hit the other coaches, the front office, the staff and the players, as well.
As Ben Roethlisberger would word it after the 23-20 overtime victory over the Seahawks on this Sunday night at Heinz Field, when asked how it felt to be 3-3 before the bye week, "Yeah, considering where we were, it's the best we could do. We're going to take a little break with this bye. We're obviously going to spend some time early in the week with our hearts and just everything with Jerry O and his family. Just so sad. And we missed Jerry out there today. I know he wanted to be out there. Our thoughts and prayers and everything go out to him, and I think we'll need to spend some time this week really just trying to be there for him."
Yeah, they won. I'll get to that. Promise.
Of infinitely less weight but no less real in a football community, JuJu Smith-Schuster had season-ending shoulder surgery earlier in the week, moving Mike Tomlin and several players to make impassioned statements on the subject. And the awareness that the Steelers' recent Hall of Fame inductees and other renowned alumni, including the greatest of them all in Mean Joe Greene, would be on hand. And the NBC national television audience. And the throbbing prime-time crowd that'd been correctly anticipated.
And even during the game, there was the terrifying sight of the Seahawks' defensive end, Darrell Taylor, being immobilized and stretchered off the field following a collision in the fourth quarter that appeared to bend his neck awkwardly. He was able to move all extremities and cleared all CT scans at Mercy Hospital, and he was then cleared to fly back on the team charter, all of which moved Seattle coach Pete Carroll to say, "That's a really good preliminary report. We're thrilled about that news."
So was this guy ...
I pray Taylor is okay. God is strong he will help us over come all obstacles. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
— Ryan Shazier (@RyanShazier) October 18, 2021
... and Ryan Shazier's evidently where the minds of his former mates turned in the excruciating several minutes that Taylor stayed prone.
"When you're out there and see that, and with our memories of Ryan in Cincinnati ... that's tough," T.J. Watt recalled, referencing that fateful day four years ago. "We're all hoping and praying for the best."
One gets the picture.
All of which somehow became this picture:

SHELLEY LIPTON / GETTY
T.J. Watt swats the ball from the Seahawks' Geno Smith in overtime.
And then this picture:

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Devin Bush scoops up Geno Smith's fumble in overtime and is tackled at the Seattle 16.
And ultimately, this picture:

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Chris Boswell's mobbed by teammates after his 37-yard field goal in overtime.
Good for them. I mean that. All of them.
This group's gone from 1-3, laughed at by most, left for dead by the rest, to an essentially clean slate at .500, or "our goal before the bye," as Ben and other players described it. The bye itself affords an additional week for several banged-up or outright injured players to heal, and it's followed by a drive to Cleveland, where a W would mean so much more on so many levels than holding a winning record.
I'm not in the habit of raining on success stories, so I'm laying out all of the above ... before I do exactly that.
Sorry, but ... yikes, this entire event felt, at least from this press-box perspective, like it raised so many more questions than answers. And most disturbing, a couple of those questions were new entries.
Chief among them: How in hell does any defense at any level of football, never mind one made up of multimillion-dollar talent at multiple positions, get gashed for 110 rushing yards in a single quarter, as the Seahawks did to the Steelers in the third?
And how, within that, does it take Keith Butler the better part of a half to make his first adjustment -- sliding Cam Heyward a spot to the left to close off Seattle's preferred EZ Pass lane -- when Butler clearly had crafted his entire scheme on a premise that, without Russell Wilson or Chris Carson in the backfield, his opponent wouldn't dare to run?
And how, also within that, can any defensive player or positional coach sleep after the countless sloppy or missed tackles all through the second half?
And who, even further within that, is Travis Homer, listed fourth on Seattle's running back depth chart, to be going all Barry Sanders like this?
How, specifically, will Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick sleep after seeing film of those one-armed swipes above?
And for that matter, how much long-term cap space is Kevin Colbert saving with every egg Minkah lays this season?
Everyone does realize Minkah's next takeaway in 2021 will be his first, right?
And that his game is almost wholly predicated on takeaways?
And that the only thing he and Troy Polamalu have in common is that they both were in the building on this night?
And that the sequence below might not be part of his agent's presentation at those extension talks?
Broader but no less pressing: What will Tomlin and/or Butler do about having not one but two inside linebackers in Devin Bush and Joe Schobert who aren't stopping the run, like, at all?
More Robert Spillane ... because ... no?
Did Carroll just concoct this year's version of the John Harbaugh blueprint on a fatal flaw of the Steelers, bound to be copied for weeks or even months without a response?
And speaking of the Harbaugh blueprint, now nearly ready to celebrate its first birthday, did Ben's fourth-quarter completions over the middle, mainly to Pat Freiermuth, represent real progress for an offense that still treats the single-high safety the same way vampires treat crosses?
Or is that really on Ben, complemented by his continuing approach to checkdowns as a first option?
Is Najee Harris going to survive through Thanksgiving seeing 30 touches a game, as he saw in this one with 24 carries for 81 yards, six catches for 46 more?
Should it really take 30 touches to produce 127 all-purpose yards?
On that note, should it really take seven targets to get Chase Claypool two catches for 17 yards?
And why is it that, of the clear route miscommunications between Ben and a receiver, almost all of them appear to involve Claypool?
Related: What's Claypool even trying here?
Even if he gets away with the offensive pass interference -- which he commits all the time -- where's the focus in keeping both feet inbounds?
Whatever happened to all Something-Tron nicknames?
Hey, where'd James Washington go?
How's he wind up with one catch for 9 yards on the week JuJu's done?
Wait, Ray-Ray McCloud's going to be that guy now, as a couple of his teammates strongly suggested afterward?
Uh, why?
Now that Joe Haeg's replaced another offensive tackle lost to injury and out-performed that starter -- first it was Chuks Okorafor, and this time it was Dan Moore Jr. -- what are the odds he'll be whiplashed right back to the sideline again?
No, really, what about all of this?
Did this team just get better or take some sizable step backward?
Did I really just ask 30 critical questions after a critical win?
OK, well, while yet again respecting the result, as well as all related circumstances, I'm leaning hard toward this needing some significant -- and I mean significant -- strides to be taken seriously.

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
The Seahawks and Steelers both surround Seattle's Darrell Taylor as he's carted off the field Sunday night.
• Feeling the need to echo the kind wishes and prayers being offered to Taylor. Here's hoping for the best and, for anyone seeking the latest, here's the Seattle Times' coverage.
And by the way, though some small amount of dust has been kicked up over fans at Heinz Field doing the wave when Taylor was initially down, I can attest that it wasn't clear to anyone the severity of the scene. Or even that there'd been an injury. So many medical people surrounded Taylor that it wasn't clear what was happening at all. And by the time the Seahawks' Carlos Dunlap began gesturing for the crowd to stop, several Steelers joined him in doing so, and that was that.
If there's any place that would respect such a setting, given the recency of Shazier's injury, it'd be Pittsburgh.
• Neither of the mega-controversial calls in this game meant all that much toward the result, but they did make for tremendous theater.
Tomlin freaking out on the field -- by his standard -- was entertaining enough, but for him to actually answer a question about the officiating on the call he really hated in his postgame presser, never mind acknowledging, "I hated it" and calling it an "embarrassment" ... that's something.
I'm not going to get all animated over time/replay rules that only a handful of people on this planet fully understand, but I'll safely say that, if the officials' explanation to Tomlin was, indeed, that they were reviewing catch or non-catch with DK Metcalf before his fumble ... that's hilarious. Can't have a fumble without a catch. And it'd been universally acknowledged on the field that this was both.
As for the other, on Ben defying the now-dead tuck rule, Ben had the quote of the session, maybe of the season: "I was told that, even though the ball was going forward, my arm was going backward. I had to ask Josh Dobbs, who's an aerospace engineer, how that works."
And Dobbs' response?
"He said it's not possible. But I can't get fined for that because I'm just telling you what Dobbs said."
• T.J.'s pivotal play might've been even more impressive than most will know at a couple of TV glances:
So much more compelling from this angle, isn't it?
The Seahawks assign both right tackle Brandon Shell and right end Gerald Everett to fend off T.J. That's Everett ramming his right hand into T.J.'s facemask, an obvious but uncalled penalty. (Same thing, by the way, happens to Alex Highsmith on the opposite side.) Undeterred, T.J. keeps up the pursuit and, upon seeing Highsmith push Smith forward in the pocket, T.J. spins away from his dual attackers and punches away the ball from somewhat behind.
That persistence was applauded by Heyward with eloquence: "I love the fourth quarter and the overtime by T.J. All game, he was like, 'Man, I’m just not getting home.' I told him it was going to come, and just, 'Keep staying after it. You’re going to be great.' And when we needed it the most, he made his plays. What an emphatic play to end the game with a sack strip fumble. We needed it, and he’s a hell of a player."
• Don't bite my head off, but Cam was better over the full evening: Nine tackles, six solos, two for losses and a huge sack right in that same span.
No kidding, he's well into DPOY territory at this stage of the season. And I'll be damned if that isn't overdue.
• Who won the game?
What if I put forth that it was Najee?
This was third-and-15 in the final two minutes with the Steelers knowing they'd need points on this drive:
Familiar scene, huh?
Ben surveys, checks down, checks down ... and finds Najee surrounded by enemies brandishing bows and arrows. And he still leaps, squeaks, bowls, whatever it takes to get every available inch. All of which would be needed for Boswell's 52-yard field goal on the next snap.
The kid's just so good.
• Shed no tears for the Seahawks. Yeah, they're missing their quarterback and running back, so they hurt worse, but the Steelers don't surrender a gazillion rushing yards with Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu on the line. I'm not citing that as an excuse -- that gashing was an embarrassment regardless -- but I'm also guarding against singularly citing the absence of Seattle's backfield as a deciding factor.
Part of the game 'n' at.
• The bye week's next, then the drive up to Cleveland. And I've got to say, after a rare and blessed free Sunday afternoon to watch the NFL on TV, the Browns aren't anywhere near as special as people up there like to pretend. And that's to say nothing of Baker Mayfield being banged up (and really bad), both running backs being hurt, two wide receivers hurt and two offensive linemen hurt.
Eminently winnable, if not to be expected. But then, I thought that about this one.
• Just beautiful to see the Hall assembly at halftime: Troy, Bill Cowher, Donnie Shell, Alan Faneca, and the family of the late Bill Nunn. More beautiful, still, to see the number of fans -- maybe 90% -- who stayed in their seats to appreciate a moment that can't be matched by any one game.
Enjoy:
If you missed the halftime ceremony, here you go:https://t.co/ThrG3X9iPR
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) October 18, 2021
I'm all about Mean Joe being in the house, though. Larger than life.
Oh, and don't miss Dale Lolley's amazing interview with Troy.
• Never take this scene for granted, my friends:

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Twilight over Downtown, from Heinz Field's southwest rotunda, Sunday.
Nor the one inside Heinz Field that saw a season-high turnstile count of 60,821 turn out a collective roar that hadn't been heard in these parts for far too long.
From T.J. on that topic: "We had high expectations for this atmosphere and it absolutely exceeded everything that we could've imagined. Hats off to the fans for creating such a chaotic environment. Anytime you can get offenses on silent counts, it helps the pass rush a lot and, as you can see, we were feeding off of the energy every single play."
It's awesome to be getting there.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
THE INJURIES
• Neither the Steelers collectively nor Tomlin individually announced any injuries from the game, though Benny Snell, running back, appeared to hurt his left arm on a special teams sequence in the second quarter. He returned.
• Carlos Davis, Steelers defensive tackle, missed the game with a knee injury
• JuJu Smith-Schuster, Steelers wide receiver, was placed on the team's Reserve/Injured List following surgery earlier this week.
THE AFC NORTH
• Baltimore
• Cincinnati
• Cleveland
THE SCHEDULE
Next game: Cleveland ... but not yet.

THE CONTENT
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