Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2018 i Steelers Digest

It was the story of this game, and because this game came in the divisional round of the playoffs, it will be the one that defines their season. And so it will be that the 2017 Steelers will be remembered as a team that failed to deliver. They failed to deliver on both their promise and their promises, and because of that it all came to an end Jan. 14 at Heinz Field. The season of DMR and “Shalieve,” the season that was finally supposed to mark the occasion of the slaying of the New England dragon, all of it came to a crashing halt by virtue of a 45-42 defeat by the Jacksonville Jaguars the never really seemed as close as that final score might indicate. Right up until…

0 Steelers tight ends with 100-yard receiving games in the playoffs before Vance McDonald did it against Jacksonville. The previous high for a Steelers tight end was 85 yards by Heath Miller against the Jaguars in the 2007 season. 3 Antonio Brown (132) and Vance McDonald (112) became the third Steelers teammates to both reach 100 receiving yards in a playoff game. They joined Hines Ward and Plaxico Burress (2002 playoffs against Cleveland, and Lynn Swann and John Stallworth (Super Bowl XIII against Dallas). 10 Yards gained by the Steelers on seven offensive plays in Jacksonville territory after they had cut their 28-7 deficit to 28-21. 45 Jacksonville’s point total tied for highest against the Steelers in a playoff game. The Steelers also gave up 45 in a 45-28 loss…

Ryan Shazier was all smiles ahead of the Jacksonville game, as were his teammates, when he attended practice the entire week, the first time he had done so since suffering a spinal injury Dec. 4 against Cincinnati. “It means a lot. He’s so special to us,” Anthony Chickillo said. “He is our brother, he is our friend. We love that guy to death. It’s motivating to have him out there. He has been through a lot, going through a lot. He wants to be out there with us. That is all that is on his mind. When you see him, you know how much he loves football and wants to be out there for us. You just want to go hard for him. You just want to win for him.”…

There was a lot of offense produced by the Steelers during their divisional round game vs. the Jaguars at Heinz Field. A lot of yards. A lot of points. But ultimately, not enough of either, which meant there also was a lot of disappointment produced. Le’Veon Bell led the team in rushing with 67 yards on 16 carries (4.2 average) and he scored on an 8-yard run in the fourth quarter after taking a lateral from Ben Roethlisberger. Bell also caught nine passes for another 88 yards, and his receiving touchdown came on a 19-yard one-handed catch that converted a third-and-9…

Q. During the week leading up to this game, Ryan Shazier attended a couple of practices. How did that come about? A. It’s just part of where he is in terms of progressing. He’s been working extremely hard and experiencing some gains. He wants to get back to normalcy, if there’s such a thing, getting around his teammates. Just getting back to doing things outside of the rehabilitation and things that have dominated his focus over the last month or so. Q. What did that mean to the team to see him and be around him? A. I think it’s uplifting every time we have interactions with him, because everyone is rooting for him. And when you see him, you see progress. You see the strength in his spirit, and…

Vince Williams sat at his locker during the playoff bye week, unusually quiet. As you looked around, though, it made sense as there wasn’t anybody there for him to talk to. On one side was Antonio Brown’s locker, empty as he was rehabbing away from the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex in an effort to be ready for the team’s AFC divisional round game. On the other side, the locker that once belonged to James Harrison sat empty. And just around the corner, Ryan Shazier’s locker was unoccupied as he continued to recover from a spinal injury suffered Dec. 4 against the Cincinnati Bengals. “It was terrible,” said Williams. “I didn’t have Ryan. AB was out. Deebo left us. I was over here by myself. It was terrible. It was no…

WHAT WENT RIGHT • Three minutes and 11 seconds after the Jaguars took a 21-0 lead, the Steelers offense woke up. A six-play, 64-yard drive was capped by a 23- yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown, who made a one-handed catch in the back of the end zone even while being blanketed by A.J. Bouye. Eli Rogers caught two passes for 17 yards on the drive, and Le’Veon Bell had a 21-yard run. • To cap off an unbelievable first half — both unbelievable in a bad way for the Steelers and unbelievable in a good way for the Steelers — Ben Roethlisberger completed a 36-yard pass for a touchdown to Martavis Bryant on a fourth-and-11 with 32 seconds left in the first half. That capped a seven-play, 51-yard drive…

“I definitely have a desire to play football. I love this game. I love these guys.” Joe Haden was a bright light in a dim locker room. After the Steelers were abruptly eliminated by the Jacksonville Jaguars, the cornerback who had languished for seven years with the Cleveland Browns, was thankful, even after a loss, because of the Steelers’ quarterback. “It’s been amazing playing with a dude like that, with a leader, one of the best quarterbacks in the game,” Haden said of Ben Roethlisberger. “When you always know you have to try, no matter what, down 21-0, we never wavered. We never thought we weren’t going to win the game. You see how he did. He got us right back into it, but we weren’t able to pull it…

Following his 33rd season as an assistant coach in the National Football League, and his fifth as the Steelers’ wide receivers coach, Richard Mann announced his retirement. “I really appreciate the Steelers organization, the entire Rooney family, and Coach Tomlin for getting me out of retirement to finish up here,” Mann said. “I felt like maybe if I stuck it out one more year (2017) I would have an opportunity to get a Super Bowl ring here. That didn’t happen, we came up a little bit short, but what a great run for me. I was able to finish my career right where I started. I started in Aliquippa and I was able to finish here with the Pittsburgh Steelers. We have a good receivers room. We have a good…