Steelers adjust with Shazier injured
PITTSBURGH » It wasn’t so much a conscious decision Vince Williams made to wear teammate Ryan Shazier’s jersey during Steelers practice this week. And there wasn’t anyone who compelled him to do it, either.
For Williams, donning the No. 50 of his close friend while he’s in the hospital with a spinal injury just felt ... right.
“I didn’t really think nothing of it,” said the veteran inside linebacker who started all 12 this season next to Shazier in the middle of the Steelers’ defense. “I didn’t really make a big deal out of it. ... Nobody even commented on it. I just saw (Shazier’s practice piney) over there, and I put it on.
“I knew I was going to be calling the signals, so I just felt like (the defense) had been seeing ‘ 50’ in front of the huddle for so long, it would just be familiar to everybody.”
Williams has taken over the defensive playcalling duties for the Steelers this week in Shazier’s stead, but the past five days have felt anything but familiar to players who had to watch Shazier be carted off the field and ambulanced to a Cincinnati hospital early during Monday night’s win against the Bengals.
Now, during a short week of preparation for playing another division rival in Baltimore, Steelers players have thoughts of Shazier weighing on them. Shazier underwent spinal stabilization surgery Wednesday and remains in a Pittsburgh hospital recovering.
Arguably, when combining the personal and professional aspects of the situation, no player has had a more difficult week to adjust to than Williams. First and foremost is compartmentalizing thoughts and well-wishes for Shazier, his teammate and friend for four years.
“Honestly, as hard as it is, you’ve just got to focus on the mission at hand,” Williams said. “It’s a division game; it’s a chance for us to close out the division. So we’ve got to go out and do our jobs, really.”
Football-wise, Williams has spent his week getting re-acclimated to calling out the signals for a full game, as well as get a new partner at inside linebacker up and running with the position’s responsibilities: the left inside linebacker spot will be manned by a combination of Arthur Moats (an outside linebacker in four seasons with Pittsburgh) and Sean Spence (signed as a free agent Tuesday).
“( Williams) has been with this defense for (five) years,” Moats said. “He’s made the calls before, whether it was the preseason or during the season as well. So it’s not going to be unfamiliar for him. He’s a guy who’s very cerebral, an extremely smart football junkie, so he knows everything and knows what to look for pre- snap. I feel like he’s going to flourish.”
The fourth-longest continuously tenured player on the Steelers defense, Williams concedes that “it’s going to be hard” to focus on football. But he also recognizes the irony that while Shazier’s injury makes him realize football isn’t the most important thing, it also has made him appreciate it all the more.
“Everybody knows how much this game means to Ryan,” Williams said. “I can’t really say we are going to play for him, but there’s definitely a little added incentive because we understand that you can’t take this for granted. It’s a blessing to be able to play this game. And it’s a very violent game; at any moment you could suffer an injury.
“So you can’t take any game for granted, you can’t take any play for granted. You’ve just got to play as hard as you can while you have the ability to be able to.” ENGLEWOOD, COLO. » Vance Joseph just may get doused on the sideline should the Denver Broncos finally win again Sunday.
It would be out of relief, with the team mired in an eight-game slide — the longest the franchise has endured in 50 years.
“Going to feel like a playoff win,” running back C. J. Anderson said of what a victory would feel like. “So we might just dump the Gatorade on V. J. We ain’t won in two months. ... We all are sick and tired of losing.”
The Broncos (3- 9) head into their game against the New York Jets (5-7) in an unusual position — underdogs at home by 1½ points. That’s how far the Super Bowl champions from two years ago have tumbled.
The Broncos’ QB carousel has rotated through Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch and back to Siemian, who gets his second straight start.
“We’re playing like we’re at the bottom of the NFL and we have way too much talent on the team to be playing like that,” linebacker Shaquil Barrett said. “We just have to figure it out and get it together.”
Many prognosticators predicted doom and gloom for the Jets this season. But here they are on the fringe of the playoff race behind the play of quarterback Josh McCown, who’s having the best season of his 15-year NFL career.
The 38-year- old was recently selected the offensive player of the week after he threw for 331 yards and a touchdown, and ran for two scores in New York’s 38-31 win over Kansas City. He joined Brett Favre and Ryan Fitzpatrick as the only quarterbacks to win the award with three teams in the past 15 years.
Even more, McCown became just the third player in NFL history to score on two runs in a single game at the age of 38 or older, joining Doug Flutie (41, 2003) and Jim Thorpe (38, 1926).
That’s some prestigious company.
“I’m just like, whatever works,” McCown said. “Whatever gets us in the end zone. That’s all that matters.”
With four games left, the Broncos are in job-saving mode. General manager John Elway recently said on a local radio station that he’s embarrassed by the current downfall. He added the coaching staff would finish out the season.
Jets coach Todd Bowles had some advice for his head coaching counterpart.
“Just keep your head down and work, get the guys better and go from there,” Bowles said. “That’s all we can do as coaches.”
DYNAMIC DUO
Robby Anderson and Jermaine Kearse are the first pair of wide receivers in Jets history to each post consecutive games of 100 yards receiving since Don Maynard and George Sauer in 1967.
There have been only seven games in the NFL this season in which two
Despite the victory against the Chiefs, the Jets had some serious flaws exposed in their defensive secondary. They gave up 474 yards, including 366 yards passing by Alex Smith.
The Kansas City quarterback threw four touchdown passes, two each to speedy wide receiver Tyreek Hill and tight end Travis Kelce. Smith also had a 70-yard run.
“We had a lot of issues, but that was the first time we didn’t play well in a while,” Bowles said of his secondary. “We’ll get back at it and get to work and try to fix that next week (against Denver).”