DK'S COLUMNS

Kovacevic: There's a ton of toughness fueling all the Steelers' success

By Dejan Kovacevic

Nov 11, 2024 • 1:00 am

11.6Keye
133comment-bubble

LANDOVER, Md. -- Broderick Jones had beaten enough opponents backward, banged enough bodies across the board that, by the time he and his Steelers landed the final blow to best the Commanders, 28-27, on this Sunday afternoon at Northwest Stadium ... the big man simply wanted to soak it all up.

Away from his standard crowd.

Straight toward a very different crowd:

GETTY

Couldn't take my eyes off it. Loved it. On a lot of levels.

"Just takin' it all in, man," Jones would respond when I brought it up at his locker stall later. "We earned that. We've earned all of this. I just feel like everybody on our team has tremendous faith in one another. We play as one, you know? We come into a stadium, and we know there could be a hostile environment, we know not everything's gonna go our way, we know it's not gonna be perfect ... "

He paused to accepted a fist-bump from a passing teammate.

"But we've gotta be able to push through it. And we did that here. At the end of the day, we got the W, and that's what we came here to do."

Funny, but that's how Jones' year has gone, too. He's struggled, he's seen his starting job stripped away, he's had another opportunity, he's been far from perfect ... and he's now seeing some success.

Individually, according to one old guard:

Collectively, too, of course:

NFL

Alone atop the AFC North. Third in the conference. Tied for fourth in the NFL's overall standings.

And want to know why?

Stop fretting so much on what they aren't doing, and focus on what they are doing.

_________________________

Mike Tomlin messed up multiple times, according to no less an authority than the head coach himself. The one who chose to accept the opening kickoff upon winning the coin flip that'd result in a three-and-out. The one who approved the early fake punt from the Pittsburgh 15 that'd result in a dropped pass and, ultimately, a way-too-easy Washington touchdown.

"You know, from a tactical standpoint, I was really aggressive today, and it didn't always serve us well," Tomlin would say, strikingly, as he seldom engages in specific self-criticism. "We took the ball to start the game, and we didn't do anything with it. And they got the last possession of the first half, the first possession of the second half, and I thought those 14 points they got really changed the texture of the game."

Yep. Touchdown drives of 94 and 71 yards put the Commanders up, 24-14, soon after halftime.

"But you live, man," Tomlin continued. "You can't come into hostile environments versus a good team and not aggressively pursue victory. Same with the fake punt. That's me. I own that. I'll do it again. We didn't execute it, and so it was a bad idea. But our guys fought. They didn't blink."

Nope. They tend not to do that. No matter the magnitude nor the timing nor even the origin of the negatives that'll pop up.

The NFL's premier special teams unit screwed up that fake punt, even if only because of James Pierre's butterfingers. But then that same unit, a short spell later, countered with this:

"I saw it in warmups," Skowronek would recall of foreseeing Olamide Zaccheaus' two muffs on this day, and bear in mind Skowronek was among the first players from either team to take the field, well before formal warmups and walking around in bare feet as he'll usually do. "You saw the conditions with the wind swirling. That's hard to catch a punt, especially with people running down to tackle you. You saw him muff the first one. Over the course of the year, we've seen it more with Corliss Waitman's ball because he's a lefty. The ball's got a different spin."

That's not luck. That's preparation. And that's why both Skowronek and Pierre swarmed Zaccheaus. They believed something good could happen, they pushed to make it happen, and it happened.

Skowronek pounced at the Washington 14, but the Steelers' offense again appeared to stall. And in addition to awful it'd be to settle for a field goal after splash of that size, the offense also had been 0 for 4 on third downs. But then Pat Freiermuth, who's been patiently, professionally awaiting his promised mega-role in the passing game, countered with this:

"That felt good," he'd tell me. "Not gonna lie."

It should. He's been running some variation of that same route since mid-summer, albeit only in practices until this, so often I'll bet he sees those steps in his sleep. Not luck. Preparation. Belief.

Next one's my favorite:

Patrick Queen's been driving everyone around him nuts for ... wow, months, it seems, because he's delved so deeply into being the wearer of the green dot and running this defense responsibly that, in some ways, it's delayed his own arrival to Pittsburgh. It's frustrated him. He talks about it nonstop, even after he's played well.

This is the real Queen: A team-high seven tackles, two for losses, plus a pass defensed. Also and less tangibly, he covered all of creation.

After which he'd tweet out this gem:

And on the sequence above, I thought I'd noticed Jayden Daniels, Washington's wonderful rookie, say something to Queen afterward. Which Queen confirmed: "Yeah, he's like, 'No. 6! You gonna do that with me all day? You're everywhere, man!' It was kinda funny."

Daniels, owner of 459 rushing yards before this day, was held to ... five.

That was the plan. T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith would accordion-squeeze Daniels from the edges, Elandon Roberts would keep him in check at the line, and Queen would sprint sideline-to-sideline. No luck was needed. Preparation. Belief in each other to fill the respective roles.

Still, the Commanders led, 27-21, with less than three minutes left as the Steelers faced third-and-9 at the Washington 32. Chris Boswell wasn't about to close a six-point gap. George Pickens was now being double-covered and, maybe most ominous, the offense had just been even closer a couple minutes earlier, only to see Jaylen Warren fumble a foot shy of the goal line.

Up went one of Wilson's 'moon balls,' as he calls them, on a route designed for Calvin Austin ... though Austin had just been hurt and would watch this from the sideline:

Welcome to the Nation, Mike Williams, yeah?

"I had a good feeling," Wilson would tell me of the throw upon release, but I, candidly, didn't. Partly because it came with a prayer quality coming off his back foot. Partly because Wilson had put up a handful of those already, only for Austin or Van Jefferson to not even look over the correct shoulder to find them.

Williams acknowledged not having run the route once in practice after being acquired from the Jets at midweek, but also, "I think it shows that this week of prep, I was out there catching well, running some good routes, just showing what I'm able to do. I got an opportunity to close the game and did that."

Not luck. 'Prep.' Mutual belief.

Not done, though:

I hate that this otherwise stout defense gets occasionally gashed on the ground, and I hate even more that Keeanu Benton's so good at a position that's not easy for everyone to appreciate, so what's up there might as well be those two worlds colliding. Because -- and trust me, given the press box perspective from one end zone with a golden view of this -- if Daniels eludes Benton on that designed run, he's gone. As in, he's still running, like, laps on the Beltway.

But Benton shoves Washington guard Sam Cosmi to shed his block, then ricochets across in the same motion to utterly engulf Daniels, who'd have otherwise had at least enough of a gain to get within range of a go-ahead field goal.

"Can't say enough about Keeanu's QB draw stop," Cam Heyward would say. "Big, big stop."

Benton tried downplaying it when I brought it up, saying, "I had him by the hips. He wasn't going anywhere."

Let's not bring up luck again, all right?

The Commanders would face fourth-and-9 from that same spot, and Daniels would find big Zach Ertz at ... at ... did he make it?

He didn't. And that's because not one but two safeties, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Damontae Kazee, put every fiber of their frames into preventing another millimeter of movement.

“I knew it was going to be close,” Fitzpatrick told me. “I just wanted to keep him where he was.”

As if all that wasn't enough, one final scene saw the Steelers trying to kill the clock but falling a yard short on third down. So, on fourth-and-1 at the Washington 49, Tomlin went back to his aggressiveness well again and called -- or so it might've appeared -- for the offense to go for it.

Uh, no:

Zach Frazier grinned upon divulging that the offense had no intention of running an actual play -- which, amusingly, Najee Harris flat-out denied and Tomlin playfully declined to address by saying, "You know I'm a degenerate" -- but the execution wasn't a laughing matter. Wilson barked out emphatic cadence that earned credit from all concerned, poor Washington rookie Jer'Zhan Newton bit with the neutral zone infraction, and the Steelers leaped as if they were kindergartners who'd just learned it was Kennywood day.

This, too, gets dress rehearsals galore.

____________________

They’re doing things that win games. Little things, but lots of little things. Lots of little things that help them finish above that figurative line Tomlin’s always citing.

"Yeah, I feel like it was gritty," Mason McCormick would reply when I asked how much this one might've meant. "You know, the game of football is imperfect. But we just kept pushing. We just went out there and did what we do. We just kept pushing."

The sport might be imperfect, but that answer, I thought, was as perfect as it gets. I thanked the man for his time and began moving on.

He stopped me.

"But I also feel, like, it's just belief. Having that belief, that faith in the guys around you to make the plays. We did that here. We've been doing that. And it's awesome."

• Chris Halicke's Chalk Talk breaks down the big fourth-down stop.

• And Chris' Spotlight shines on Williams' storybook debut.

• Much more from both of us in our Steelers Feed, including a handful of exclusive entries.

• Thanks for reading our football coverage.

• And for watching:


• And for listening:

Show Comments
Loading...
Loading...
133
Show comments for this article