The headline may seem overblown. Congratulations to the guys for overcoming a 17-point deficit to win the game on a Chris Boswell field goal in the final seconds an ‘at. This may seem strangely familiar, as the Steelers are making a habit of this. But what isn’t familiar is one of the players being taken out on a board after an injury that looked really serious. Like possibly life-altering serious. Quite honestly, I barely had the stomach to watch the game afterwards. I probably wouldn’t have, but I have a job to do.
Which is, I’m guessing, pretty much how it went down for the Steelers. They had to have been in shock, especially the defense. Injuries happen in football, but there’s a difference between the usual sort of one-to-two weeks sorts of things and something this terrifying. As sad as it would be if Ryan Shazier never plays another down for the Steelers, I’ll take it if he escapes permanent harm.
As far as the game goes, I hardly need to write it up, other than to commend AB for his toughness in playing with a toe which was clearly hampering him, and to remind JuJu that he may be all funny and cute but the officials aren’t impressed, apparently. I really don’t know what to think, speaking of that block, about the whole Vontaze Burfict having himself taken off on a stretcher thing, given that he apparently jumped right off the board as soon as they would undo the straps when they got down the tunnel. This is the same guy who still believes AB faked the concussion, all the way through the Denver playoff game. So I suppose he figures everyone fakes it, why shouldn’t he?
I also didn’t appreciate the officials calling a bunch of ticky tacky penalties, (on both teams—I think the JJ Wilcox holding call on Martavis Bryant’s kickoff return for a touchdown was a make-up call for a rather phantom holding call on Cinci on the previous series.) And then they inexplicably didn’t call a PI on Cinci when JuJu was mugged in the end zone.
But in the end, I just feel sick. I’m going to stop now, because none of this will matter if Ryan Shazier isn’t okay. The body count tonight (on mostly legal hits) is sticking in my craw. Hopefully tomorrow (well, actually, later today) will bring good news about Ryan, and we can all go back to complaining that the Steelers didn’t win the way we wanted them to. Please God, let it be so…