Veterans reflect on tough starts
How to avoid a lost season
If he’s being honest, he’s willing to broach the topic, but Mark Barron doesn’t even want to risk speaking it into existence in this city, for this team, with this locker room.
As the Steelers take an 0-2 record into Week 3 of the NFL season for the first time in six years, only a halfdozen remain from that 2013 bunch, one that actually skidded to an 0-4 start before fighting back to finish 8-8.
That same year, Barron was off to his own early hole in Tampa Bay, where the Buccaneers stood not-so-tall as the last team to win a game that season, after sputtering to 0-8. In fact, Barron didn’t enjoy a winning season in the NFL until his sixth year, in 2017 with the Los Angeles Rams.
So, in his first campaign with the Steelers, he knows what he’s seeing, what he’s not, and that it’s far too early to panic over a potential downward spiral.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Barron said. “I don’t want it to happen. I really just don’t believe it’s going to happen. I do know how it can go bad, but I don’t even want to speak on that.
“If it was going to happen, you could see it. You’d be able to feel it. It’s a lot of finger-pointing, amongst other things, but that’s not going on. And I believe we’re going to get it turned around. … I know exactly what it looks like. I know what it looks like in a lot of different ways.”
So do cornerback Joe Haden and defensive lineman Tyson Alualu, who had previously started 0-2 in Cleveland and Jacksonville, respectively, and did so four times apiece beginning with their rookie years in 2010 when they were both top-10 picks.
Tight end Vance McDonald, who returns to his original team NFL home this weekend, never lost a season opener in San Francisco, but his final year there, the 49ers finished 2-14. He knows the division that can seep into a group that’s struggling and struggling early, the seeds of discord that can be sown if you let it happen.
McDonald didn’t reference that 2016 team specifically but he can point to two things that threaten to overtake an NFL locker room when the going gets tough.
“A lack of trust, and doubting. Can’t do that,” McDonald said. “The longer we stay on track and trust the guy next to us, the sooner we’ll get out of the position that we’re in. … Human beings in general are [about] finding the easier way out. When you’re faced with adversity, that’s what you do, you’re trying to find the easy way out. With veteran leadership, you prevent that from happening and you keep guys on track the way we’re supposed to be going.”
The good news for the Steelers is that the veterans in their orbit have been part of this kind of season-opening slide. Ben Roethlisberger won’t be able to help them pull out of it, but left guard Ramon Foster has been here longer than anyone other than the injured quarterback. Right guard David DeCastro was a rookie when the team lost center Maurkice Pouncey to a knee injury in Week 1, then proceeded to lose to Tennessee, Cincinnati, Chicago and Minnesota going into their open date.
DeCastro remembers that it “wasn’t fun” but recalls more than anything the way the Steelers prepared like they were 4-0, then went 8-4 the rest of the way only to be eliminated from the postseason by one game when San Diego edged Kansas City in overtime after a missed field goal by Ryan Succop could’ve sealed it in regulation for the Chiefs.
“We missed the playoffs by six inches, didn’t we?” DeCastro said. “It’s one of those things where stats or whatever will say what they will, but you can’t let that affect you. You’ve still got a lot of football left to play, and I think guys realize that.”
Then again, that was the second season in a row the Steelers sat at home once the season ended. It was an impressive display of motivation to turn around that awful start, but 8-8 still isn’t acceptable around here.
If you ask Foster, he would agree with Barron that there are no signs of this squad “cracking.” Not even after losing their most important player and bringing in a new starter on defense after two consecutive defeats. Foster already is refusing to blame the logistical challenges of a trip to the West Coast, a long flight and a time change, for whatever might go wrong in San Francisco. It won’t be easy, but it’s the only choice they have.
“You’ve got to fight through a lot. You’ve got to beat the mental aspect of it, you’ve got to beat the outside chatter,” Foster said. “There’s a lot of things that go on, and then you’ve got to beat the team, too. … You try to overcorrect and do too much, the next thing you know, you might drop another one.
“It’s just a long battle to get back to 2-2 and get even, first, before we can start stacking wins. Get one, and start stacking from there. That’s just the mentality.”
Cam Heyward, the defensive captain, is singing the same tune. Keep calm and carry on. Heyward isn’t into doing damage control. Crisis management? Above his pay grade (figuratively speaking). You’ve seen the cartoon with the dog sitting at a table, calmly drinking coffee as he’s surrounded by fire? This is fine.
“I don’t deal with crises,” Heyward said with a grin. “That’s for the people who have the good jobs, the cool jobs. I love my job, but you can’t ask me to go into a burning building. We’ve just got to make sure we just do our jobs.” NOTES — Haden confirmed he was a full participant for the team’s Friday practice for the second week in a row, and that he has “full range of motion” in his right shoulder. “It bothers me a little bit, it hurts, but you’ve just got to get past that, knowing it’s going to be there a little bit,” Haden said, adding that he feels better now than he did this time last week. … Outside linebacker Bud Dupree practiced in full after being limited Thursday with an ankle injury.