Kovacevic: Steelers keep winning, keep improving ... and that's OK taken at Acrisure Stadium (DK'S COLUMNS)

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY

Keeanu Benton and T.J. Watt rush the Giants' Daniel Jones in the second quarter Monday night at Acrisure Stadium.

DK'S COLUMNS

Kovacevic: Steelers keep winning, keep improving ... and that's OK

By Dejan Kovacevic

Oct 29, 2024 • 4:38 am

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Oh, they see it. They see what everyone around here sees, and with the same skeptical eye.

And yet, if I'd have to spin up a single sentiment with which to describe the seemingly seismic difference between how the Steelers see themselves and how so many might still see them outside their own orbit ... well, honestly, I'd leave that to Payton Wilson.

"I think we're just growing as a team," the kid was telling me late on this Monday night after the Steelers outlasted the Giants, 26-18, at Acrisure Stadium. "I think, every single day and every single practice that we have, our communications on defense are a little better, and things like that. But I also think, more than anything, you see the energy and the love."

Energy and love?

Man, I'll get to 6-2 and all alone atop the AFC North at the bye and all those other terrific tangibles, but sorry, I've always been way more into the team intangibles. Because all of us, my friends, can see what they are. What we can't see is what they can become, which can often be couched within how much they want to keep climbing.

"I think each week we go out there, the love for each other is just different," Wilson proceeded after I poked further. "Like every time someone makes a play, you see that energy, right?"

I nodded.

"It even goes on special teams. Like when we make a play, all the people around Danny Smith ... it just shows the love that's in this building and the culture that's here. And I gotta tell you, it's super cool and we're all so excited going into the bye ... you know, just ready continue to build."

Kinda had to catch himself there. They all do that.

____________________

Minutes earlier, DeShon Elliott was bantering back and forth with fellow defensive backs, even as he and I spoke. It wasn't about what he or they did right. It was about what he felt he'd done wrong. His mistakes. What went into them. How he might address them.

"It's a good team," Elliott would tell me once everyone was done. "And we can be better. All of us."

A bit later, over in Pat Freiermuth's corner, our exchange sounded much the same. He'd made a couple catches for 19 yards, he'd set a significant block on a touchdown, and his body language -- seated on a folding chair near his stall, still in uniform, hands clasped, staring down at the floor as I'd approached -- was fairly screaming about how he wants more.

"We're doing good things, we're winning, and that's great," he'd tell me. "There's more there."

Walking toward the exit, I exchanged a few thoughts with Arthur Smith, and Russell Wilson soon came across to join the conversation. Same stuff. Sequences that could've gone this way or that. Close calls by either Smith or Russ. Pivoting points that could've flipped the result from two touchdowns and four field goals to four touchdowns and two fields, or something more representative of having 426 yards of offense and four forays into the red zone.

Again, this was all over.

"It wasn't as fluid as we'd like, man, but that's football," was how Mike Tomlin worded it. "But we’ve got to guard against style points and things of that nature. It was prime time television, football against a team that came in here with a good mindset."

Yep. The Steelers won a remarkable 22nd home game in a row on Monday nights, and the Giants were way more game than their 2-6 record might suggest, something that very much caught the attention of the home team.

"We shot ourselves in the foot some early, settling for three points, and we gave up a couple big plays that allowed them to generate some scoring drives," Tomlin continued, referring to the 9-9 tie after a half. "But I just liked the overall look of the group at halftime. We acknowledged where we were. We acknowledged we needed some plays, man, to break this thing open. And I had a bunch of guys who wanted to be the reason why we were successful."

Yep again. That's become a staple for the Steelers, both the slow starts and now being the NFL's most prolific second-half team.

And it was, indeed, 'a bunch of guys' getting it done, from whom I'll single out a handful:

• Calvin Austin's 73-yard punt return in the third quarter brought the game's first touchdown and a lead that'd never be lost ...

... in addition to a breakthrough he'd been anticipating ... my goodness, for years. He kept telling me all through 2023 he was this close, one dart, one dash away, only to have it all unfold like a symphonic crescendo.

"Finally got it," he'd say after this one through that childlike smile. "And it felt so good."

Even better, he'd allow, than his other composition:

• Credit Russ on that one. In addition to putting up the prettiest pass anyone's seen on this North Shore in some time, he smartly summoned Freiermuth back to the line for protection -- a process baked into the plan by Smith -- to pick up a surprise stalker on the New York side.

"Great call by Russ," Freiermuth would tell me. "I saw it, too, but Russ has to make the call."

This was Russ' second start for the Steelers, his first without having to shed 10 months of rust, and he'd again put up some Russ-like production: 20 of 28 for 278 yards and the touchdown, plus three additional deep completions of 43 yards to George Pickens, 36 yards to Van Jefferson and 29 yards to Darnell Washington.

Which is to say nothing of not one but two Pickens touchdown catches being nullified, the first by a Broderick Jones penalty, the other because his right foot touched in-bounds twice but never the left foot.

Neither of which was the fault of the throws.

Russ is the quarterback. Insert appropriate punctuation.

• Najee Harris ran for 114 yards on 19 carries. It was his third consecutive week at 100-plus and, more striking by far, his third week of blowing around, through and even over opponents:

That's 322 total yards in those three games, a 6.0 average carry and a full-season pace of 1,825 that ... well, let's not rewind. What's being witnessed now isn't just Harris' best running of the season but of his NFL career.

"Special," Russ called him.

"So confident right now," Dan Moore would say.

I've got a term, too: Different. No idea why. Not really worried why.

• Beanie Bishop might not start again at nickel corner, and he knew that beforehand, with Cam Sutton set to return after the bye from his NFL suspension for domestic violence. But if this was it, he went out with a bang and a half:

"I told Alex Highsmith I was going to end the game that drive," Bishop would recall. "That's just something I pride myself on, trying to go out there and get a stop to finish the game."

Three picks in two games. A bit better every weekend. Bright future. A player who's earned every step of his way so far, from undrafted free agent out of West Virginia to a roster spot in Latrobe to correcting all kinds of early errors to ... eh, don't make me say what I want to say here.

Intangibles matter, remember?

• Then there's one Trent Jordan Watt.

I don't commit nearly enough full columns to his literal greatness, and I've been guilty of that for several years now. But I've got an excuse: He leaves me speechless. And that's a hell of a state in which to sit down and type.

So instead, I defer to the visuals:

I mean, come on ... who else does the strip-sack as a matter of course? Where else can it be seen so often that it's casually cited in his postgame statistical line? Where it's never enough to track his 103 career sacks since 22 of those are strip-sacks among his 31 forced fumbles?

I can't with this guy. And amusingly enough, neither can they most of the time.

"I'm not surprised by it, but it doesn't mean it's not appreciated," Tomlin would attempt. "I think the new Steelers are shaking their heads. I think the guys who've been here kind of expect it."

Exactly. None of them using words.

My own -- and lone -- attempt: Enough of this Defensive Player of the Year debate. If this keeps up, it's 'M-V-P!' as a bunch of the 66,637 on hand saw fit to chant after that scene above.

"We have a lot of confidence in that," Watt would say of this strip-sack, speaking of his own achievements in the plural, as he invariably does. "We do a lot in practice. We watch film league-wide of how others are doing it. We see opportunities we've missed. ... There are so many ways in which we can be better as a defense. We're not satisfied."

Even him.

_________________________

It's not just 6-2, first place and all that. It's the offense being dramatically improved despite everyone but Moore having been hurt to date except Broderick Jones and ... yeah, he's another column for another day. It's the defense ranking second in the NFL in points allowed at 14.9, ninth in yards allowed at 310.3. It's the plus-10 turnover differential, tied for second-best in the NFL. It's the SPECIAL TEAMS, which probably ought to be published in all-caps until at least a sliver of all this excellence subsides.

This one's my favorite: The Steelers have a plus-68 points differential, fourth-best in the league. And the reason I value it -- across all sports, actually -- is that it's seen as the closest anyone comes to a statistical harbinger of the future. A team can hide behind wins and losses, especially in small sample sizes, but how much they score and how much they concede ... that can be hidden, too, but not for long.

It's a good team. It might be a very good team. That's as far as I'll go.

And they won't even go there.

Russ: “We haven’t done anything yet. We’re obviously sitting here at 6-2, which is a great thing, but it doesn’t mean anything. … There’s a lot of great games ahead of us. We’re not going to shy away from ‘em.”

Moore: "I remember when we were 2-6 in my first year, instead of 6-2. This is different. And if we keep getting better, we might find ourselves in a really good position at the end of the season. But we've got to keep getting better."

Highsmith: “It's good to have a fast start. We know the schedule we’ve got in the back half, so we've just got to continue to get better every single day, not get content, not get complacent. The AFC North is waiting on us, some other tough games, as well. Just continue to get better and fine-tune details every day.”

Get the picture?

If not, here's how Donte Jackson handled a question I tossed his way on this:


"We're feeling good," he'd reply. "We understand this is a hard league to win in. We understand it's hard to be successful when you're talking in terms of game play. You take your hats off to the opponent. They were really well prepared. They really played hard. Obviously, there are things we've gotta fix. But going into the bye with a win at 6-2? You can't complain about that."

And he's believing?

"Of course. One hundred percent."

Everyone else feeling that same energy and love?

• Chris Halicke's game-night Chalk Talk breaks down the backbreaking touchdown.

• Greg Macafee's Spotlight shines on Austin's punt return.

• Much more from all three of us in our Steelers Feed.

• Thanks for reading our football coverage.

• And for listening:

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