Veterans expect to bounce back
Team has a history of following bad with good
The Steelers have had more than several lopsided losses since guard Ramon Foster joined the team in 2009, some even more embarrassing than what happened Sunday night in New England.
There was the 34-7 loss in Baltimore to open the 2011 season, a game in which the Steelers committed seven turnovers, five by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
There was the Nov. 3, 2013 loss in New England in which they allowed the most points (55) and offensive yards (610) in franchise history, not to mention 33 first downs.
And there was the 34-3 beatdown in Philadelphia in Week 3 in 2016 in which the Steelers rushed for only 29 yards and did very little against their cross-state opponent.
In each instance, the Steelers bounced back the following week, sometimes in a big way, sometimes for the rest of the season. They followed the loss in Baltimore with a 24-0 shutout of Seattle (what a coincidence) and finished 12-4. They bounced back from the Patriots ambush with a 23-10 win over Buffalo and won six of their final eight games. And they came back after the loss to the Eagles to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 43-14, and make it to the AFC championship. The average margin of victory in those three games was 22 points. All were at Heinz Field.
Their resolve will get tested again Sunday at Heinz Field against the Seahawks (1-0) when they try to recover from their most lopsided loss in New England. And Foster, who was around for all those bounce-back games, thinks they are up to the task. And he cites coach Mike Tomlin as the reason.
“There’s a standard here, and we didn’t just didn’t live up to it,” Foster said. “Guys do take that to heart. If you’re man enough, you weren’t mad at what [Tomlin] said about we weren’t ready for prime time. It was a reality. We showed we clearly weren’t ready for it. It’s our job to beat that stigma. If we want to be great like we have been in the past, we got to fight, we got to bust down walls, to be who we want to be.”
Foster said Tomlin comes into the Monday team meeting and doesn’t sugarcoat anything during their film review, even if it involves veteran players.
“He didn’t lie about what he said and guys haven’t been sensitive to it, either, by reacting a certain way,” Foster said. “That’s why I don’t think he gets enough credit for being a head coach. A lot of people would have gone in there and made a million excuses. Collectively, we weren’t ready. Our team is built to push through that type of stuff.”
Inside linebacker Vince Williams, who has been with the team since 2013 and experienced a couple of those blowout losses, said the Steelers have always been able to bounce back because “we got a good culture here” in the organization.
“It’s just inherent, really,” Williams said. “The dudes that come in and go through a training camp with us, they catch on pretty quick of what we’re about.”
Opening-game blowouts have not always been an accurate predictor of doom for the Steelers. In addition to 2011, when they finished 12-4 after losing in Baltimore, they finished 11-5 in 1997 after losing to the Dallas Cowboys, 37-7. So hold off on those 7-9 predictions after the 30-point loss in Gillette Stadium.
“Opening games are always difficult and you don’t know what you’re going to get,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “Not
everybody starts the way they think and not everybody stays the way they start.”
‘Show up and do my best’
Unless you’re an oil tycoon or billionaire businessman, a $2 million bonus is nothing at which to sneeze. Especially for an NFL kicker whose job security can be as tenuous as a snowblower salesman in Florida.
But Chris Boswell insists he did not think about his $2 million roster bonus that was delayed until he proved he was cured of his 2018 malaise by the end of the preseason.
“The job is motivation,” Boswell said. “If you’re thinking about the money, you’re thinking about the wrong stuff. The money will come the longer you play. You got to keep your job long enough.”
Boswell was due his roster bonus in midMarch, but the Steelers gave him an ultimatum: Agree to delay the $2 million payment until late August or be cut immediately.
They wanted to be sure Boswell showed signs of recovery after missing more kicks (seven field goals, five PATs) than any other kicker in 2018. It was a startling reversal for Boswell, who had missed only 15 kicks, including postseason, in his previous three years combined with the Steelers. But it was more in line with his senior season at Rice, where he converted just 14 of 21 field goals and missed two PATs.
“I don’t really care whether it was delayed or not; I’m still going to show up and do my best,” Boswell said. “I wasn’t going to settle just because I made my $2 million bonus. Just proving myself again is a big enough motivation than the money you put on the table.”
His holder, punter Jordan Berry, was aware of the delayed roster bonus, but said he didn’t focus on the money being dangled at the end of the preseason, only on helping Boswell get back to his successful form.
“I didn’t look at it from a contract standpoint,” Berry said. “You want him to kick field goals and we want win games and you want him being as good as possible.”
So far so good for Boswell. He did not miss a kick in the preseason and made his only attempt, a 19-yard field goal, in New
England.
Boswell said he didn’t know if his problems last season were mechanical that caused a mental issue or a mental issue that caused mechanical problems.
“I don’t even know,” he said. “It’s a little bit of everything. If I would have known that
answer last year it wouldn’t have been so down for me.”
Can you hear me?
In 2008, 14 years after quarterbacks were allowed to have direct communication with a sideline coach via an audio helmet, defenses were given the same benefit.
But identifying the right defensive player to have the audio system in his helmet is not as simple as it might appear.
The Steelers decided to have outside linebacker T.J. Watt be that guy against the Patriots because they planned to have him on the field for nearly every snap. He had a green dot on the back of his helmet that alerts officials he is the player with the audio system.
Typically, the Steelers have one of their inside linebackers get the live helmet, but Tomlin decided against that because he planned to rotate his three inside guys — Vince Williams, Mark Barron and rookie Devin Bush. Two defensive players can get the green dot, but only one can play.
“It’s not easy because you’re responsible for a big part of the communication to relay the call to everybody and also want to do your job at same time,” Barron said. “So I don’t want to say it’s easy. But it’s something that has to be done. To play defense, you got to be able to communicate.”
Communicating is not a problem with Watt, who got a little rehearsal for wearing the green dot in the third preseason game in Nashville, Tenn. But getting his breath to call out the signals was an issue in New England.
“I exert a lot of energy while playing, so the toughest part is just having the wind to call the play,” Watt said. “It’s something that’s very minute. I don’t think it was a problem at all.”
Watt said he still has the audio system in his helmet so he expects to do the same against the Seahawks. So long as he catches his breath.