"I told them," Cole Holcomb began with me, but without coming close to specifying who he'd told. "I told them: Don’t let me figure it out. Because when I figure it out, I’m gonna be dangerous."
A wide smile creased the big man's face. He was kidding. I think.
This was a couple days ago over on the South Side. I'd casually mentioned that I'd liked how he and the rest of the Steelers' inside linebackers seemed to be coming together, for all their usual fuss and fun about creating chaos and flying to the football. Meaning, of course, Holcomb, Elandon Roberts and Kwon Alexander. And I do. They've been as aggressive as they've been productive, whereas the early going for these three newcomers was all about the former.
A couple weeks ago, against the Ravens, they broke through with 23 total tackles. They were a collective force. And then, they were solid again, if not quite as spectacular, last Sunday in Los Angeles. They'd taken another step, maybe even another stride.
So, OK, what about everything else?
It's Week 8 in the NFL, the season record's at 4-2, the progress seems to come via some pieces here, other pieces there and ... man, I haven't got the faintest, foggiest clue what to expect from this next game today, 1:02 p.m. against the Jaguars at Acrisure Stadium, other than that ... hey, the linebackers are all right. As in, all of the linebackers, since the outside guys have been awesome all along.
Feels kinda pivotal, right?
And by pivotal, I'm applying the term in its literal sense: It's a pivot point. It can either continue progressing, or it get chewed up, spat out and required to start all over.
Case in point: Kenny Pickett and the offense run up 192 yards in the fourth quarter against the Rams, this after three quarters of across-the-board blah. Not just Kenny. Everyone. Maybe especially the line.
Which one's the default? Which way will the arrow point after today?
Mason Cole, Chuks Okorafor and others told me in L.A. they weren't close to where they needed to be as a unit. Jaylen Warren told me "it's getting there." Diontae Johnson offered much the same. Kenny himself, somewhat strikingly given his personality, spoke something similar in labeling the offense as "nowhere near where it needs to be."
All right, again, it's Week 8. It doesn't need to be wearing a bow by day's end, but it sure does need to show more than a cute, cuddly quarter.
Get direct. Pinpoint the plays that outperform others -- play-action, anyone? -- and flush the rest. Punch the opponent in the mouth for 5, 7, 9 yards, as happened late in L.A. Utilize the 90-percenters, the 80-percenters on pass routes, the close-to-sure things. Punch there, too. And within that, don't wait forever to mix it up. When the Rams emerged with a half-dozen big bodies in the box, Matt Canada, Mike Tomlin and company labored another two quarters and change before doing anything about it.
Punch and counterpunch.
Defensively, as already emphasized, more continuity's needed in stopping the run. If I had a dollar for every time Minkah Fitzpatrick's been pushed up to the line, including yet again in L.A., I'd be able to buy a SoFi-sized canopy to cover everyone from the rain today. It's a sickening waste of a truly elite asset. And it's been one of this season's most understated disappointments that Cam Heyward's absence continues to hit as hard as it does.
Do the job up front, so he can do his in back.
"We know that's how it's got to go," Markus Golden was telling me this week. "Let Minkah roam free."
Yep. Everyone involved with this defense, chiefly Teryl Austin and Tomlin, should have their stomachs turning over having the league's No. 30-ranked defense while also deploying the runaway front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year in T.J. Watt. He's singlehandedly changing games, and it's still scarcely enough to keep the defense off rock bottom in total yards per game.
Which way will that arrow point after today?
Football people love to talk about taking one game at a time but, in the same breath, they love to talk about building momentum. Well, momentum doesn't exist if it isn't carried, in some form, from one week to the next. And as I look at these Jaguars, 5-2 overall, winners of four in a row, and headlined by a franchise quarterback in the truest context in Trevor Lawrence, I see a balanced challenge, both sides of the ball, but a surmountable one. They don't have the Ravens' offense, which the Steelers shut down. They don't have the Browns' defense, which the Steelers (eventually) dinged up a bit. They don't have a Nick Chubb, a Lamar Jackson, a Maxx Crosby, an Aaron Donald, all mega-stars on teams the Steelers have beaten.
Put everything together, combine it with the home atmosphere, and it can be a W.
Plus progress.
Plus momentum that'd carry into the next two games against the Titans and Packers, both 2-4.
Pivotal like that.
► READ UP:
• Next opponent: Jaguars
• Matt Williamson's War Room
• Chris Halicke's Chalk Talk
• Staff predictions
• My column from L.A.
