The Pittsburgh Steelers were reeling in early November. Mired in a four-game slide filled with losses both heartbreaking and baffling. The talk of a seventh Super Bowl quickly took a backseat to far more pressing matters. Namely, would the Steelers get it right, and if they did, would they get it right in time to salvage a playoff berth?
Villanueva understood he was part of the problem. There were some blocking schemes the massive and massively thoughtful 6-foot-9 left tackle couldn’t seem to get right. So Tomlin and offensive line coach Mike Munchak got together and decided they’d seen enough, modifying some calls and ditching others altogether.
For Tomlin, it was just another adjustment in a series of them, the kind needed to deal with the ebb and flow of the four-month test of patience and resolve that is a typical NFL season. Not to Villanueva.
“You have to come up with a new offense,” Villanueva said. “We had to come up with different plays, see who we had on our roster, accommodate to different runners and different receives and that takes time. You can practice it all you want, but it’s on Sundays where you can really get better. For myself, some of the protections I struggled with, we stayed away from. We got better as an offense.”
One more predicated on hogging the ball and dictating the tempo with running back Le’Veon Bell than seeing if it could put the scoreboard on tilt. The result? Seven consecutive wins, an AFC North title and all the momentum it could possibly need going into a wild card game against Miami on Sunday.
. . .
Tomlin, as is his habit, downplayed the idea that any one move produced a turnaround. It’s a season. Things evolve based on health, experience (or lack thereof) and opportunity. Over the last two months Pittsburgh’s stars have remained out of the trainer’s room. Rookie defenders Sean Davis, Artie Burns and Javon Hargrave grew up. And an unheralded offensive supporting cast began to figure things out. Ageless James Harrison and protege Bud Dupree put an end to the rotation at outside linebacker. Villanueva and the rest of the line became the cohesive, pile-pushing force Tomlin and Munchak envisioned in August.
