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In view of the fact that Mike Tomlin has matched Cowhers record I give him the designation:
TCFCLTC-
The Coach Formerly Considered Less Than Cowher -
14 receptions for 149 yards.
Tight ends come up huge in Steeler win.
Post-Gazette
You need a map of the Steelers locker room at Heinz Field to even attempt to find the tight ends in there; you start with a hard out-and-up, and then you go deep on the right boundary, past the room where the coaches and the general manager and the front office types commiserate post-game, past the long row of defensive standouts, past the showers entrance and on into the lair of the wide receivers and the throne of Antonio Brown, beyond the empty locker stall that gives A.B. his cushion.
And you’re not there yet.
But soon, if the air is clear amid a heavy undergrowth of equipment bags and assorted obstacles, you’ll find numbers 81, 89, 85. You might even find the players who wear those numbers. If you reach the river, you’ve gone too far.
Ben Roethlisberger always knows where these guys are – Jesse James, Vance McDonald, Xavier Grimble -- which is why on Sunday night, when the Steelers had the quarterback on a pitch count of around 70, he targeted tight ends 20 times on 66 passes, finding them 14 times for a monstrously critical 149 yards throughout the highest-scoring Steelers-Ravens affair in history.
He even found, of all things, a fullback, not only in his own backfield, but almost open in the endzone for a one-yard touchdown pass, the first touchdown of Roosevelt Nix’s pro career.
“You know we live by the code the standard is the standard,” said Nix, who jerked Roethlisberger’s pass away from Baltimore safety Tony Jefferson during a 19-point fourth-quarter eruption that pushed Pittsburgh to a 39-38 victory and another AFC North title. “When it’s your time to step up, it’s your time – tight ends, linemen – we’ve got situations all over the field with people comin’ in, people comin’ out.”
After the soon-to-be-division champs blew a 14-point lead and dug themselves an 11-point ditch late in the third quarter, Nix’s catch made it 31-29 Baltimore with 9:15 to play. The Ravens would stretch the lead to nine points on Javorius Allen’s nine-yard run less than three minutes later, but Le’Veon Ball’s 11-yard touchdown made it a two-point game again with 3:15 left.
“That was insane,” said the tight end with the 10 catches for 97 yards, Mr. James. “It has to the highest scoring game (of this series) in a long time, maybe ever.”
Yes, ever. In a fairly vicious rivalry where 23-20 is generally considered a slugfest, 77 points and 958 total net yards made it seem like we’d all wandered into another division if not another sport.
But for all the brilliance of Roethlisberger (506 passing yards) and Brown (213 on the receiving end), the Steelers’ eight-game win streak would not have extended to nine without the tight ends, most especially James, the 6-7 third-year man out of Penn State who has inherited the remains of the HEEEATH roar that honors iconic tight end Heath Miller.
“We were beating the zone coverage,” said James, who’d never caught more than six passes in any of his 36 NFL games prior to Sunday’s. “Ben played a helluva game. We were makin’ contact catches when we could. We didn’t force anything. We played a good game.”And they were still primed to lose it when they took possession for the final time with 2:25 left at their own 17. That drive started like too many others over the years, with 15-year veteran Terrell Suggs on top of Roethlisberger in the Pittsburgh backfield for a nine-yard loss. Two plays later they were looking at 3rd-and-13 from the 14 on the wrong side of the two-minute warning.
Roethlisberger slung it over the middle to James between Jefferson and the linebacker Matthew Judon, and James grabbed it for 16 yards and a first down at the 30.
They were alive.
“They were running zone again,” James said. “Ben saw the first window that I came into, put it on my body, let me make the play. Made a catch in the contact and that’s what I needed to do; that’s what tight ends do.”
It took six plays from there to set up the Chris Boswell, the Wizard of Boz if you must, for his fourth decisive final-minute field goal in the past five games, but if the Steelers are going to overcome a defense that’s hemorrhaging without Ryan Shazier, they’re going to need all three tight ends.
“The more intense these games get, the more the tight ends have to be a sort-of a (security) blanket for the QB,” said Xavier Grimble, who didn’t catch a pass but was thought of highly enough by Roethlisberger that he floated a jump-ball to him off his back foot at one point in the second half. “Helping out, recognizing blitzes, everybody’s gotta work to get open when it comes to December football. The more these games mean, you gotta remember, the other team’s been watching 13 weeks of film on you. You’re gonna have unrecognizable blitzes comin’, all types of different defenses, lot of man coverage, so everybody’s gotta work to get open, especially the tight ends.”
Part of last night’s extreme tight ends contribution doubtless was traceable to the absence of Baltimore stalwart Jimmy Smith in the secondary, which left some middle areas unattended, but just as important as the damage done by Pittsburgh tight ends was the timing of such damage. James made first down catches of 11, 11, 18, and 16 yards, and McDonald, before he left with a shoulder injury, added 52 needed yards on four catches.
“Our guys made plays,” said Roethlisberger. “We like our tight ends on linebackers. We like when guys can step up and make plays, and we like when it’s other guys besides just A.B. and Le’Veon too.”
No. 7 might appreciate it most next Sunday here against New England, when he’ll need every conceivable option against the elephant in the room.
Gene Collier: gcollier@post-gazette.comSteelers 27
Rats 16Comment
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which is why the OP was so absurd
10 catches in 3 games for 71 yards is nowhere near stepping up
last night certainly wasComment
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I think it was more so for the 3 TD’s.
Ben doesn’t usually target TE’s 20 times in one game.
We threw the ball a lot last game. Maybe it was due to Bell going out or maybe it was just the way we game planned for them this time around.
My point all along is these guys can get open and catch the ball when given the chance. James rarely drops passes and McDonald is playing well too.
I really dont don’t understand why folks think we need an All Pro TE given all the other weapons on our team.
I hope we go pass happy vs the Pats as well. I think we can beat them in a shoot out.Steelers 27
Rats 16Comment
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Oi hope McDonald's shoulder is ok. What is it with these high-octane TEs we keep signing that can never see the field?
We got our "6-PACK" - time to work on a CASE!
HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!Comment
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I spoke to a few SF fans and they said he had suspect hands and we witnessed that early on. Never heard about durability issues.
Not it sure if the FO views his contributions as a disappointment. I think some fans may have unrealistic expectations from out TE’s this year. I don’t think he was signed to stretch the field or catch a ton of passes.Steelers 27
Rats 16Comment
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We gave up our 4th round pick in 2018 for Vance McDonald and the Niners' 5th round pick in 2018.
And since we'll be picking very later in each round and San Fran will be picking very early in each round, we basically got McDonald in exchange for moving down a few spots in the next draft from the very late 4th to the very early 5th.Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.Comment
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With Juju suspended and Vance back after missing a few games, our base offensive package in this game switched from our typical 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) to 12 personnel (1 RB, 2 TE, 2 WR).Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.Comment
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