One day later and the Steelers are still talking about the hit inside linebacker Robert Spillane laid on Derrick Henry, stopping the 250-pound running back as though he were a crash-test dummy.
The collision occurred on third-and-goal at their own 1 in the fourth quarter of the 27-24 victory in Tennessee that kept the Steelers as the only unbeaten team in the NFL.
Spillane, starting his first game as a replacement for the injured Devin Bush, stopped Henry for no gain — one of seven plays in which the defense held the league's leading rusher to zero or negative yardage. He hit him head-on as T.J. Watt came inside from the left side.
"That's a grown-up play right there," said guard David DeCastro. "It was a pretty impressive hit to see him lay his body out there like that."
The hit would have been even more significant if the Titans didn't get a holding penalty against safety Minkah Fitzpatrick on fourth down, allowing them to score on Henry's 1-yard dive one play later.
Spillane's aggressiveness is something the Steelers have seen when he used to work on the scout team in practice.
"It's pretty impressive watching guy like that," DeCastro said. "I kind of get annoyed by the young guys who come on the scout team on Wednesday and make your day kind of miserable during the week when you're old and tired and don't want to be out there. Guys are running down and hitting you in the face.
"Spillane, we always kind of joked about him; he's always making our day miserable on Wednesday. It was cool to see him take that (to the game). It was a big play, man. I don't think anyone was surprised."
The Steelers used Spillane for 43 of 57 snaps against the Titans, replacing him on possession downs with Ulysees Gilbert III, who had not taken a defensive snap this season. Because it was the first time Spillane was playing a full NFL game, the Steelers wanted to make sure he didn't get tired.
The decision was a good one. Spillane was not too tired to deliver that thundering hit on Henry.
"We weren't concerned about the quality of his play... I was concerned about fatigue as snaps set in," coach Mike Tomlin said. "We didn't want him playing 65 or so snaps. We thought he would have a better chance to play a winning performance if we kept it around 45 or so, and that's why we supplemented him on possession downs."
There were a number of decisions — some good, some curious, some fortuitous — that allowed the Steelers to get within one-game of their best-ever start (7-0), set in 1978.
The Good
The Steelers have won the coin toss in five of their six games this season and elected to defer the previous four times. But against the Titans, they elected to receive and did exactly what they wanted to do — and not just score a touchdown on the opening possession for the first time in 24 games.
They went on a 16-play, 75-yard drive that lasted 9 minutes, 18 seconds — their longest of the season — cutting into the amount of possessions Henry and the Titans would have in this battle of unbeaten teams.
When asked about the decision, Tomlin said somewhat cryptically, "We wanted to answer all questions from you guys about how we start the game, and so we took the ball, we went down the field and scored a touchdown. So now you guys can stop asking me about it."
Ben Roethlisberger even seemed to agree with his coach, even though that wasn't the real reason.
"Everyone can stop talking about scoring on opening drives and things like that," Roethlisberger said. "But I came into this game and told Coach Tomlin, 'We're going to take the ball. We're not going to defer.' We knew that they would probably defer. So we knew we were going to have the ball first and I told the guys (Saturday) night, 'This is what we're going to do. We're going to have the ball. Let's go down the field.' "
The reality is, the decision to take the ball was rooted in the Steelers' plan to limit the Titans possessions — and Henry's carries — and not allow them to play from ahead. They made a similar decision the last time they scored a touchdown on their opening possession — a 17-10 victory against the New England Patriots on Dec. 16, 2018 at Heinz Field. The Steelers went 75 yards in 11 plays and scored on a 5-yard pass from Roethlisberger to tight end Vance McDonald.
Like then, when the Steelers did not want to spot Tom Brady an early possession, they wanted to keep the ball away from Henry and not let him get started.
