CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- "I'm tellin' ya," Kevin Dotson would, in fact, tell me. "Run-blocking's hard."
To which Dan Moore would interject from the next stall a lot louder: "It's hard, man!"
I wasn't about to douse this concept, of course, and not just because I don't make standard practice of counter-arguing with 330-pound beef-eating behemoths.
At least not to their faces.
But between me, you and the Steelers just having pushed -- and I mean pushed -- the Panthers all over Bank of America Stadium on this Sunday afternoon to prevail, 24-16 ... let's just say their concept wasn't about to be an easy sell.
See, because this occurred on the offense's opening drive:
Nice 10-yard pickup for Najee Harris, right?
It's not a perfect picture of blocks around him, but that's an absolute beauty from Mason Cole, sealing off Carolina's Yetur Gross-Matos to the right, then further flicking him aside presumably just for fun. He's No. 61, for those not inclined to pay close attention to this sort of stuff.
OK, this is a couple snaps later:
Although much has to go right for Najee to get these 8 yards for another moving of the chains, nothing stands out more than the long-beleaguered left side of the line -- that's Dotson and Moore -- building the initial wall, after which Moore smartly broke off upon noticing Carolina's omnipresent safety Jeremy Chinn cheating up to the line, then getting a piece of him.
"That's the one," Dotson would tell me. "That's the run where I knew we were going to put it all together."
"Which one?" Moore came again from the next stall.
Dotson: "That 8-yarder early on."
Moore: "Oh, yeah, Najee was coming. Did you even see him?"
Dotson: "Blew right by me."
The latter then turned back to me and added, "You know how you and I've been talking all season about how we're missing this little thing or that little thing? And how we're getting there, we're getting there, we're getting there?"
Yep.
"Oh, it's there."
The offense as a whole ran for 156 yards on 45 carries -- with the latter figure being the one that's staggering -- and Najee'd wind up with 86 of those yards on 24 of those carries. None of his was longer than that 10-yarder, and he'd have a modest 3.6 average. But in complete context, since he's never been the type to break the big ones and run up averages, that's how he rolls when at his best.
Or steamrolls, I should say, as seen with his 7-yard touchdown to punctuate that drive:
Najee's got the stiff-arm-that's-more-of-a-Mike-Tyson-punch in peak form here, to the extreme that, after Najee shoves away Chinn, it'd appear that Carolina's last man standing, corner Keith Taylor, conveniently curves away from having to encounter his own.
At the same time, check out the entire line producing a pileup in the middle while Pat Freiermuth, whose bum foot prevented him from being targeted for passes, showed his blocking-tight-end chops with a burial of the other safety, Xavier Woods.
Excellent, all of it. But also, to echo the gentlemen's sentiments above, hard.
I brought up that 8-yarder with Najee, and he took it even further than Dotson or Moore.
"Look at the room they gave me," he'd say. "Look at what they made all day long. And look at how in sync we were all along."
He shook his head slightly. He and I'd had multiple talks on this topic, as well.
"You know, it was always going to take time. It just was. We were all new to each other. We're mostly young. But when it gets like this, when you start feeling that confidence, that trust in each other."
Another head shake.
"Man, it's nice."
Look, I'm not here to do any pumping up. These Steelers are 6-8, they're all but mathematically removed from anything meaningful, they've got holes drilled throughout their depth chart and, as if that weren't enough, they have to deal with a dope on special teams, of all things. And specific to the line, they're anything but home-free. Much as it's been satisfying to all concerned to see Dotson, Moore, Cole, James Daniels and Chuks Okorafor gel, my first-round pick would still be applied there, all else being equal.
Generally speaking, there's a challenge ahead, and it's immense.
But when I examine this rebuild that's already silently under way, I'm eyeing the offense first and foremost. And what I see, collectively, amounts to one that'll ultimately look a lot it just did here: Mitch Trubisky, admirably filling in for Kenny Pickett, was smart, safe, efficient and diversified enough in completing 17 of 22 passes for 179 yards, no touchdowns but also no picks and just a single sack. Diontae Johnson, who'd been a No. 1 wide receiver in ink only, caught all 10 targets for 98 yards to finally look like the possession/third-down producer that's so very much needed. George Pickens made a catch that was ... damn, I'm running out of adjectives for this kid. The tight-end tandem's maturing, too.
And none of that means a whit without Najee and the line.
Don't separate them, either. Doesn't work like that.
"We've got to be together," Najee'd say. "In everything we do. And we're getting there."
All of this is cumulative. All of it counts. That's all I'm saying. Whether it's Matt Canada at coordinator or someone else, these are the strengths, the symbioses that are being put on film for the future.
It's hardly a bright future just yet but, to borrow, it's getting there.
GETTY
Najee Harris dives through a pack of Panthers in the first half Sunday in Charlotte, N.C.
• Heck, the most impressive runs might've been some of the shortest.
Trubisky was credited with six carries for nine yards, but four of those were successful sneaks, a season-long oddity in that they've been relentlessly successful no matter the quarterback. Even back in September, when a yard was beyond precious in any form.
One was a touchdown ...
... but Trubisky going aerial was the exception. Most often, it's been a burrowing process behind Cole.
I asked Cole what's going on down there that maybe we can't see.
"Well, there's stuff," he replied with a grin. "But I can't tell you that."
Oh, come on.
"What I'll say is that the guards and tackles are more involved than people might think when a play comes right up through me. And we've got people who are really good at this. We're proud of it."
He's right. Pay attention to the guards and tackles collapsing on top of their opponents. It's outright amusing at times.
• I spoke with all five offensive linemen after this game. Only Okorafor seemed slightly dissatisfied with the showing, but then, he's the one who conceded the sack to Carolina's terrific young defensive end, Brian Burns.
• I don't write this lightly about anyone I cover, but Marcus Allen, who, to reiterate from above, is a dope, should've been cut on the spot for his embarrassing unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that cost the Steelers a Carolina field goal.
Why won't he be cut?
This is just me talking, but Tomlin has a tendency to suffer fools who'll stray from the limits to do jobs that he feels -- and fairly so -- require straying from the limits. Allen's one of those. He embraced the semi-suicide mission that kick coverages can be, and he's been among the team's most effective at that.
But the grocery lines of America are filled with people willing to hurl themselves in harm's way for an NFL paycheck, and this guy ... wow, talk about oblivious to one's own fate or fortunes.
One of the dumbest sequences I've covered in any sport.
• That said, anyone obsessing over this vs. all the good that came from here ... yeah, no.
• Good for Trubisky. He was razor-sharp. He's more than capable, it would appear, of continuing to write his own story, as the head coach loves to say.
• This was cool, too:
Brotherhood@Mtrubisky10 🤝 @kennypickett10 pic.twitter.com/IDqQEpTPJ8
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 19, 2022
• Hasn't always been that way around here, huh?
• I'll even credit Canada, since there's literally no way around doing that after a team executes a 21-play drive that was officially 91 yards but was actually 106 yards if compensating for Johnson's own unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for taunting. It was the longest drive of the NFL season, by play count, and it marked only the sixth such occurrence since the turn of the century.
That's amazing.
Also, a new coordinator's needed in 2023.
• When a receiver's feeling it, like Johnson was, it's smart to keep feeding him. But sorry, I still can't help but have my mind blown by Pickens finishing with two catches for 53 yards, when one of them's a Randy Moss special for 38:
Imagine being the coordinator who witnesses that, then thinks, 'Nah, let's try something even better!'
• The defense needed a big rebound from being trampled by the Falcons and Ravens, but holding the Panthers to 21 total rushing yards?
Yowza!
I asked T.J. Watt about that:
He both looked and sounded so much more energized than he'd been in recent weeks. That, in and of itself, was uplifting.
• This secondary lacks playmakers, aside from Minkah Fitzpatrick. Also and related, these corners need to be replaced.
(In case anyone was wondering why this is a subscription site, because paying for analysis of that caliber only seems right.)
• Not interested at all in hearing about how bad the Panthers are. They entered with the same record as the Steelers, only they'd won a couple in a row, they were playing for something being only a game out of first place in the awful NFC South, their running game had averaged 156 yards per game even after trading Christian McCaffrey, and they'd forged a broader reputation on being physical.
The Steelers crushed them on all counts. Deal with it.
• Thanks for reading my football work. Can't wait to get home.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE INJURIES
The inactives: QB Kenny Pickett (concussion), LB Myles Jack (groin), CB Josh Jackson, G Kendrick Green, DL Jonathan Marshall
THE SCHEDULE
It's the Raiders on Christmas Eve, next Saturday, 8:15 p.m., at Acrisure Stadium. Chris and I drew the short straws.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything from our football staff of Halicke, Alex Stumpf, Ramon Foster, Matt Williamson and myself.