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I have to admit, when I watched the play live, I thought for sure there would be a flag thrown on T.J. Watt. In fact, if you watch the replay of the hit Watt delivered to Packers quarterback Brett Hundley, even he thought there might be a flag thrown.
Watt, who usually dances and jumps after a sack, rather just looked at the official...almost as if he was waiting for the laundry to fly.
It didn’t, and the NFL has decided not to fine Watt for the hit, agreeing with the official’s ruling on the field.
This from the Tribune-Review’s Chris Adamski:
“The Packers complained this week that quarterback Brett Hundley took a helmet-to-helmet hit from Steelers rookie T.J. Watt on Green Bay's final drive. No flag was thrown, though, and Watt was not fined by the league.”
Good news for Watt, as he will get to keep all of his game check for Week 12.
Time to check in on other Black-and-gold news outside the walls of BTSC:
Bryant is expected to be back returning kickoffs for the second consecutive game.
Smith-Schuster, who handled those duties in the first 10 games, said he would not be reclaiming the role.
“No, Martavis will be doing that,” Smith-Schuster said.
On his first kickoff return as an NFL player on Sunday, Bryant ran it back 38 yards, the longest for a Steeler this season.
Was returning kicks Bryant's idea or the coaching staff's?
“It's something we both wanted to do,” Bryant said. “Wanted to try. We just got to build on it, and I'm going to keep working to just be great.”
Steelers’ defensive coordinator Keith Butler on Thursday wasn't talking like a man riding a six-game winning streak and guiding the No. 4 defense in the NFL.
“I wish I could plug up the leaks,” Butler said, referring to the six plays of at least 39 yards the Steelers have allowed over the past 2½ games.
“We can't afford to do that. We're not going to win a world championship doing that.”
Even Bengals’ coach Marvin Lewis said the Steelers' propensity for allowing so many splash plays was “out of their character.”
And while much of the focus has been on a secondary that has been without Joe Haden, Butler pointed to a simpler solution: tackling.
The lone big-play touchdown allowed by the Steelers over the past three weeks that did not involve a long pass was a 54-yard catch and run on a screen to the Packers' Jamaal Williams on Sunday. The culprit was missed tackles.
It's Bengals-Steelers week, which means another rehashing of some wars of words. This time, Le'Veon Bell is at the center of a lot of it.
“It's a rivalry,” Bell said Wednesday, five days before the Steelers play at Cincinnati. “That's just the way the game is. You have two teams that really don't like each other on the field, so there's going to be little things that happen off the field, too. It comes with it.”
After the teams met and the Steelers won Oct. 22, Bengals running back Joe Mixon insinuated he was better than Bell. The following week, Bell criticized Mixon on social media for imitating his game wardrobe choices, running style and first-down celebration. Two weeks after that, Bell and JuJu Smith-Schuster mimed the Bengals' A.J. Green's on-field fight with Jacksonville's Jalen Ramsey.
Bell addressed it all Wednesday.