Kovacevic: What if, for Ben's finale, he leads his flawed team to playoffs?

He had to know it was coming. 

There’s no conceivable way Ben Roethlisberger stepped up to that podium Sunday evening in Heinz Field unprepared for a question that the whole football world's wanted to have answered for days, weeks, months ... heck, years.

And yet, when I went ahead and asked it, he hesitated in a way that he hadn't at all while quarterbacking his Steelers past the Ravens, 20-19, with 17 fourth-quarter points for the 51st such comeback of his career, tying Tom Brady for third on the NFL's all-time list:

My verbatim question, referencing a tweet Saturday from ESPN's Adam Schefter: "Ben, I'm hoping you could speak to the relevance of the report that says that you’ve basically told everybody that you're going to retire after this year."

"I haven't told everybody that," he'd reply with a small smile. "Honestly, we just got done with this game, I'm exhausted, and we play in a couple of hours, it feels like. My focus is on Minnesota and what we have to do to get ready. I'll address any of that stuff after the season. I've always been a one-game-at-a-time and a one-season-at-a-time person, and I'm going to stay that way."

And might that one-game-at-a-time approach be affected by wondering if he'll soon be done?

"No. I've been doing it a long time. You know, I've enjoyed this game, and this game specifically, and winning at home in front of our fans. It's awesome."

This time it was a big smile.

And that really was that.

Oh, it came up with Mike Tomlin, and he struck a similar stance.

Asked if Ben might be distracted by some perceived farewell tour, Tomlin came back hard: "There's nothing to manage. Ben doesn't allow it to become an issue. Ben's been pretty solid in terms of his expressions that he is singularly focused on what he's dealing with now. He'll deal with those other things on the other side of this journey, and I'm with him on it. It is not a distraction."

He then took an apparent jab at Schefter, and understandably so considering not a soul within the Steelers' gravity -- myself included -- had assumed anything other than Ben being done after this season: "I thought it was funny that it was seemingly a story this weekend, to be quite honest with you."

It came up with Cam Heyward, as well.

Asked if he'd spoken with Ben on the matter, he replied: "A little bit, but that’s between me and him. I’m happy with the way he played tonight to pick up a critical W for us. Our quarterback came through at the end. I’ll leave it at that."

Mm-hm.

There's no secrecy, no subterfuge, and absolutely no surprise. Nor will there be any when Ben ultimately makes the announcement that his 18th NFL season was -- past tense -- his last.

But that, as all concerned insisted, isn't the issue now. Rather, it's writing out that final chapter: How will it unwind? Or unravel? What'd be seen as a success? Or failure? What'd make for the most fitting farewell?

My own feeling: Get this deeply flawed team to the playoffs.

Sounds fair, right?

I mean, there's nowhere to hide from a 6-5-1 record, from being bludgeoned not once but twice by the Bengals, from tying the bleeping Lions, from having just a 19% chance of making the AFC's seven-team field, per ESPN's Football Power Index. That's hardly doom, considering the monster problems facing the Ravens and Titans, two of the 8-4 teams ahead of them, but it's hardly a foothold.

Imagine if, with five games left that include one each against those same Ravens and Titans, the Steelers pull it off.

No, they're still not getting much beyond that, if at all. No amount of John Leglue can mend that broken offensive line, no one's about to bring back the pre-surgery Devin Bush, and no one's about to predict greater glory for a collective that ranks 22nd in both total offense and total defense. This team is what it is, moxie sold separately.

But if there's a playoff appearance in this setting -- just that asterisk in the standings -- no one could convince me it wouldn't be primarily due to Ben capping off one last late rally of his own.

No, he wouldn't be the team's most impactful player. T.J. Watt reminded everyone on this Sunday who's the league's most impactful player.  And he wouldn't even be the player who's done the most to overcome a positional shortfall. That's been Heyward with a bullet. Ben would be, however, the only player at any position of any experience level on the offensive side of the ball with the smarts, the savvy, the toughness and tenacity to do, plain and simple, what's necessary to win.

That, my friends, is what we witnessed again here:

There they are. 14 of the 17 fourth-quarter points. On 9-of-10 passing for 129 yards and a perfect 158.3 rating. Two touchdowns to Diontae Johnson, and the two-point conversion to Pat Freiermuth -- with the sweetest, softest touch -- that'd account for the margin of victory.

As miserably as the offense malfunctioned in the first half, as many times as Najee Harris slammed into a figurative wall for a yard and a spec of dust, as many times as that line blocked nothing but the North Shore wind, the plays that needed to be made were made by someone long accustomed to making them.

And per his trademark, Ben heated up as the game deepened, wrapping up at 21 of 31 for 236 yards, two touchdowns and, for the sixth time in seven games, zero interceptions.

What changed?

Yep, Ben's beloved hurry-up. Matt Canada stayed in his ear via radio, but everything moved more in motion, forcing the Ravens to stick with defensive packages rather than John Harbaugh's preference for mixing, matching and confusing. Toss in some play-action, a couple pump-fakes, and Baltimore finally had to back out of the box. The latter allowed Harris and fourth-quarter cavalry Benny Snell, of all people, to begin poking through on the ground.

"When you're playing that style of offense, they tend to get more vanilla, and you kind of dictate what they do a little bit more," Ben elaborated. "We went to a lot of run-pass options. The line blocked. Naj ran really hard. So did Benny. When we got it to the outside, guys made plays."

All of which might be why Tomlin, according to a couple players, would present Ben with the game ball.

Or maybe it was something else.

Ben was asked if, regardless of his retirement plans, he savors a game like this any more than he might've in the past.

"You should always savor moments like this," he replied, this time without pause. "I try and reiterate that to guys: Whether you're in your first year or fifth year or 20th year, you should always appreciate this moment because God has blessed me in an amazing way that I can throw a football like not many people in the world can, and guys can run and catch and do things that not many people can. We should always count our blessings that we're able to do this. You never know when it is going to be taken from you, as we, unfortunately, have seen."

A Ryan Shazier reference, of course.

"I just think that we all should really take advantage of these opportunities — win, lose, or draw — to be appreciative of the opportunities we get out here to play football."

Savoring seems like an inspired idea, doesn't it?

At least five more games with him at the helm. Maybe more.

• It's funny, we all say we want our truly special talents to stay in our favorite team's uniform forever, but that comes with a price: When they slow down, when they start looking more mortal, they do so right in front of us. And it's a heck of a balance to demand more in performance while also respecting the past.

Always savor the truly special talents, I say, in whatever stage of their careers we're witnessing.

• T.J.'s one of those in every way. After missing the entire week of practice in COVID protocol, he rolled out of bed to record 3.5 sacks, six quarterback hits, a forced fumble and the rush that might've forced an errant throw on Lamar Jackson's climactic two-point conversion incompletion to Mark Andrews.

He's now got 16 sacks, most in the NFL and two more than the Browns' Myles Garrett, who's still the most commonly cited favorite for Defensive Player of the Year.

This despite T.J. missing 2 1/2 games:

It's not even a debate between these two, for crying out loud.

Also noteworthy, to say the least: T.J.'s now the second player in NFL history to record 14-plus sacks in four consecutive seasons, joining the legendary Reggie White, who achieved it twice, in 1985-88 and 1990-93.

• There were two tremendous lines afterward about T.J. missing a week of practice, one from him, one from his coach.

From T.J.: "If I could do it all over again, I’d practice. I’m sick of running around in my back yard. I’m sure my neighbors think I was crazy."

From Tomlin, when jokingly asked if T.J. will now ever practice again: "Yes. And there won't be music, either."

Ouch, Chase Claypool!

• Tomlin offered all kinds of uncharacteristic humor, actually, as further evidenced by this snappy response when I asked if he'd seen in this game the effort and physicality that were missing in Cincinnati:

That's outstanding.

• No issue here with Harbaugh going for two. And not just because it's human nature to want to see any and all Harbaughs humbled.

He played the analytics, as the Ravens tend to do. Nothing amiss with that. Within a decade, I'm predicting, we'll see the end of punting. Numbers tend not to lie.

Also, and probably more pertinent, the Baltimore defense just lost superlative corner Marlon Humphrey -- for the season, as it turned out, to a torn pec -- on Johnson's second touchdown. With the depth chart already decimated at that position, Harbaugh saw scoring from 2 yards as a smarter play than depending on his secondary.

"Trying to win the game right there," he'd say. "We were pretty much out of corners at that point in time. It was an opportunity to try to win the game right there."

Right. Didn't connect. If it had, he'd be a hero. Heavy extremes at work.

• What I didn't like from the Baltimore perspective was the play call. I'm leaving the ball in Jackson's hands. That way, even if something goes wrong -- which it did with T.J.'s rush -- he can still make it right. Instructing him to throw to a tight end who wasn't at his best -- two drops already for Andrews -- was odd.

• Humphrey's loss could be the last Jenga piece bringing the tower down. The Ravens already were the phoniest 8-3 team on the market.

• I'd say that'd leave the Bengals alone for taking the AFC North, except that they're still the Bengals until they stop following up self-proclaimed transformational wins with immediate maulings:

• All I've done is cut up Snell since his arrival, so I'll seize this opportunity to doff the cap for a job well done on his two critical carries on the game-winning drive that totaled 5 and 8 yards, both right up the gut. Not easy to do when cold. Never easy to do behind that line.

I asked Tomlin about that, and he lit up in replying, "We want to stay committed to the run. They were doing a good job of stopping it. We wanted to keep 22 fresh, and so we needed to supplement him, and we did. He got good assistance from Benny. We're appreciative of those efforts."

• What if Johnson were routinely targeted a dozen times a game?

• I'm Team Leglue, if only because I'm Team Anyone Else when it comes to that line. So it was tickling to hear Tomlin call Leglue's showing in place of injured B.J. Finney at left guard "awesome."

Totally agreed. Awesome.

Time to find more Leglues.

• The official attendance, which the Steelers still base on old-school turnstile count, was 59,303. Which was roughly 9,000 shy of capacity even though all tickets, as ever, were sold.

And it was a tremendous crowd, too. Because both things can be true. The place was vocal, engaged, upbeat and chanting when warranted, groaning and jeering when warranted, and through the roof when Andrews dropped that pass.

Tomlin picks his spots when mentioning fan support, but he did say after this, without prompting, "I'm appreciative of the atmosphere that Steeler Nation provided working in the comforts of Heinz Field."

Maybe it's better this way. Anyone who doesn't care enough to use their tickets -- or get them to someone who will -- wasn't going to contribute much of anything, anyway.

• Minneapolis on a Thursday. Short week. One practice. Two-and-a-half hour flight the day before. The only team to tie the Lions against, now, the only team to lose to them.

Still on board?

The quarterback sure is.

And so's this guy:

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics

THE INJURIES

• B.J. Finney, left guard, re-injured his troublesome back in the first quarter and was almost immediately declared out

• Robert Spillane, linebacker, has an injured his knee and was also placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list Tuesday

• Joe Haden, cornerback, was inactive for a third consecutive game with a sprained foot

• Isaiah Buggs, defensive end, was inactive with an ankle injury

THE AFC NORTH

• Baltimore
• Cincinnati
• Cleveland

THE SCHEDULE

Next: Off to Minneapolis mid-week ...

THE MULTIMEDIA

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THE CONTENT

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