Kovacevic: The task's tall, the odds small, but don't undervalue faith

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- "The best kind of leadership," Arthur Maulet was telling me this week ... before stopping himself cold and placing his index finger over now-sealed lips.

Which was awesome, considering the source.

Maulet had made his voice heard loud and clear a couple weeks ago in Orchard Park, of course, across the locker room, across the entirety of the Nation when he called out some of the Steelers right where they stood for having smiled, even laughed through a 35-point thrashing. He hated it. He let them hear it. And within a few seconds of having everyone's ear, he was told to pipe down, first by Minkah Fitzpatrick, then by Cam Heyward with a booming, 'HEY!'

None of it mattered. Not Maulet's scolding. Not Minkah and Cam shutting it down.

But don't take my word for it.

"What matters is what you do. What matters is what you get done," Maulet proceeded. "And right now, what matters for this football team is that we all feel the same way. Being a leader ... we've all got to be that right now. We've all gotta ride it"

Not always about football, is it?

"No, sir, it's not."

Other than the man calling me 'sir,' I couldn't have agreed more. Because, as I see it, the Steelers' Sunday night matchup with the Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium -- 8:20 p.m. kickoff -- isn't much at all, from the visitors' perspective, about personnel, packages and all that other fun stuff I'll usually bring up in these gameday columns. But sorry, not this one. This one'll be about the unbridled, unmistakable passion a week earlier that took down Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, and whether or not it'll be sustained.

Put it another way: It'd never occurred to me -- or most of the free world, for that matter -- that the Steelers could beat Tampa Bay with half a defense. But by the time the first quarter was a few minutes old, upon which they'd emerged like a boxer seeking a first-round KO, punching, punching, punching, with every run, pass, scramble, catch, tackle, coverage being fiercely contested, I didn't have any doubt they'd prevail.

As in, none. 

"Neither did we," Malik Reed remarked when I raised this with him. "When you're out there and you're flying to the football and you see everyone else doing it and you know you've got everyone moving at the same speed, everything changes."

"Football's fun when it's like that," Isaiahh Loudermilk essentially affirmed for me. "All of us were out there feeling that confidence that you love to have as a football team."

Love? 

How about need?

Look, there was a desperation to the previous game that was rooted solely in all the missing starters. I appreciate that. But that's easy to manufacture, to be candid. Players like Reed and Loudermilk, in replacing starters, are embracing every snap they get. They're lit from the get-go. But there's another level of desperation that should be equally embraced, even with Minkah, Pat Freiermuth and several others set to return Sunday, and that's rooted in the record still being a sorry 2-4. And two tough opponents leading into the bye week, between the game here and the one next week in Philadelphia.

The Steelers won't be favored in either, and they shouldn't be. The Steelers aren't expected by anyone to make the playoffs, and they shouldn't be. So all that additional adrenaline ... yeah, that's well past the optional stage.

KARL ROSER / STEELERS

Brian Flores watches practice Friday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

• In stark contrast, what isn't needed is motivation from Brian Flores' lawsuit against the Dolphins and the NFL. And good for Mike Tomlin for rejecting any response to a question on that front earlier in the week, as well as Flores for avoiding interviews himself. This is a regular-season football game. The lawsuit transcends the sport, and it's a singularly serious issue that shouldn't be conflated in any way with a W or L.

Not that this'll stop endless outside fuss over it all weekend.

• Concussions are a significant and relevant subject, obviously, with both Kenny Pickett and Tua Tagovailoa fresh off head injuries, and with the latter's injury having become a national hot-button. And I bring this up only to remind that the only people among us positioned to judge their participation are the neurologists. And even then, it's got to be a neurologist with access to all the medical records related to these players.

I've applauded the NFL's new precautions, just as I've ripped the league and the Dolphins for their bungling of Tagovailoa's recent injury. But these precautions still come in the context of an inherently violent activity. And it's an activity that's taken up voluntarily.

Translation: Smart, informed people have cleared them. And these two smart, informed athletes want to play.

• The local football team's one game off the AFC North lead, currently shared by the Ravens and Bengals at 3-3 each. That's nuts, but it's also true.

Regardless of wherever one sees all this heading, the only real objective of a regular season is to quality for the playoffs. Conference seeding, first-round byes and all that seldom amount to much, as history shows. Getting in is what counts. And that's more than plausible.

• One game back. Two-thirds of the schedule left. Keep repeating it.

• Now here's a reunion that'll resonate:

A mad Minkah tends to be a glorious Minkah.

• The Dolphins' offense will present challenges the Buccaneers couldn't, with Tyreek Hill and a broader abundance of speed, so outmuscling them won't be enough.

One unsolicited suggestion: Blitz.

Remember blitzing?

That's something the Steelers once did to a trademarking extreme, but they're all but out of the business in T.J. Watt's absence, bottoming out with a 2.4% blitz rate a week ago, the fourth-lowest by any team in the league this season. Which makes some sense. The focus has been on fixing the run defense and on surviving all the injuries to the secondary, and any bonus movement might do more harm than good.

But -- and hear me out -- let's also remember that Miami's coaches couldn't conceivably be expecting it ... and that the last thing they'd want to see is Tagovailoa immediately under siege ... and that one wonderful way to keep Hill from running amok is to keep him from getting the ball in the first place.

Just saying.

• Offensively, I'm wasting my breath here, but it'd be wonderful if there'd be an aggressive approach.

Yeah, I know, I know.

But Miami's defense, while right around average in most rankings, is dead last with one -- count 'em, one -- interception, for a total of four takeaways. Pickett's been at his best when he's thrown over the middle, which Matt Canada treats like a demilitarized zone. The receivers are all at their best in that territory, too. 

Stop being so freaking afraid and go at it. Heaven knows the Miami coaches won't see that coming, either.

• Is it wrong that I wake up Sunday mornings believing that Najee Harris rushing for 100 yards is a literal impossibility?

• No, really, if a coordinator has an option to ride, why not choose the pass across the middle, if only because it'll get the most out of George Pickens, Diontae Johnson, that version of Chase Claypool we witnessed a week ago, and a presumably healthy Freiermuth?

Take inventory of the weaponry, and then scheme out a plan.

• Hold up your right hand. Clench it into a fist. Gaze hard.

That's the number of people inside the Steelers' world who care less about Tomlin's streak of non-losing seasons. And I gauge that mostly on the number of times I've heard anyone on South Water Street ever mention it, which happens to be the same number.

Only on the old-school talk shows.

• Here's what does matter to those on the inside: Get to the playoffs.

That'll feel hollow to most of us, I'm guessing. But there are two massive pluses to the multiyear process if they do, the first being that they can -- if it happens -- quell any and all thoughts, including internally, about some full-blown rebuild while T.J. and Minkah are here, and the second being that a ton of individual improvement will have needed to unfold along the way.

• Thanks for reading my football work.