This untouched touchdown trot that split the Steelers' defense a month ago ...
https://vimeo.com/194290409
... also risked splitting its participants in so many more ways than that.
The Cowboys' Ezekiel Elliot sprinted right up the gut with nine tiny ticks left, turning what could have been, should have been a spectacular comeback into what some Steelers openly, emotionally described as the most devastating defeat of their lives.
Watch it again up there, if you can. Because it means more now than ever.
Watch Lawrence Timmons disappear into the Dallas pile. He's an inside linebacker, the position that's always most pivotal in preventing the run, and he's swarmed right from the snap.
Watch Ryan Shazier, the other inside linebacker. Especially him. He's responsible, more than anyone, for that specific gap that Elliott finds with ease. All he has to do is stay put, let the play develop, then wrap and tackle. But he didn't. He went for the highlight, the big hit. He flung himself into the pack.
And he got pancaked flat on his backside.
Afterward, Heinz Field's home locker room was a wreck. Stuff had been strewn everywhere. One player could be heard letting out a primal screams from the showers. Otherwise, it was silent. Some sat at their stalls for a half-hour, still suited up, still in shock. It was as crushing a scene as I'd covered with the Steelers since that ominous 0-4 start in London four years ago.
It was dangerous, too. Because once those players began getting asked about that particular play, fingers began pointing. Quietly, subtly, but surely, more than a few spoke bitterly about Shazier's choice.
As if it weren't an isolated case with him.
As if it weren't an isolated case with anyone.
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