LATROBE, Pa. – It was 86-degrees with a feels-like temperature of 89. It was the eighth day of this training camp, of living in the dormitory, eating in the cafeteria, seeing the same faces, practicing against the same people. Lather, rinse, repeat. And sometimes that combination tends to get under a man's skin and becomes an annoyance, like a dripping faucet.
But this is professional football, and professional football players are expected to conduct themselves on the field in a professional manner. Having a bad day, or being in a bad mood is no excuse.
Coach Mike Tomlin has no patience for any of that if it spills over onto the field and turns into extracurricular pushing and shoving, and he's especially intolerant if it erupts into a skirmish, or worse, into a fight. Toward the end of Wednesday's practice at Saint Vincent College, the first skirmish of training camp broke out, and if some of the old-school observers choose to kiss off such occurrences as "boys will be boys," Tomlin definitely does not see it that way.
"We got a little bit less than professional and chippy today," said Tomlin. "It's an opportunity to teach and learn. As part of this process as much as we hate it, we'll learn and grow from that. We got some form of lessons to learn."
What set things off happened during a play where Justin Fields tucked the ball and started running downfield. Toward the end of the run he was bumped to the ground by inside linebacker Elandon Roberts, and center Nate Herbig took issue with that contact to the quarterback and locked up with Roberts. Others joined in, and the end result was that Tomlin didn't wait long into his post-practice remarks to address it.
7-SHOTS: It was a third straight win for the offense, and 3 of the offense's 4 touchdowns came on running plays. Jaylen Warren scored the first of those on a run up the middle; No. 2 QB Kyle Allen scored the second when a huge hole opened up in the middle of the defense on an attempted pass and he strolled into the end zone; and Najee Harris scored the clincher by vaulting into the end zone after taking a handoff from Fields. The other offensive score came on a one-handed catch by WR Van Jefferson over the middle on a ball thrown slightly behind him by Fields.
NOTES/OBSERVATIONS: During the first two days of practice in pads, the Steelers have been using a lot of fullback Jack Colletto as a lead blocker for Harris and Warren. Time will tell if that continues and is sufficiently successful to be incorporated into the offense once the preseason games begin … Rookie No. 1 pick Troy Fautanu had what could be viewed as a bounce-back practice on Wednesday. After getting schooled by a T.J. Watt pass rush move during drills on Tuesday, Fautanu had three consecutive quality reps vs. Nick Herbig … CB Grayland Arnold continues to make plays during his opportunities as a slot cornerback. He intercepted a John Rhys Plumlee pass on a play where he came off the man he initially was covering and slid into the throwing lane to make a diving catch.
TOMLIN'S INJURY UPDATE: "Had a few injuries to analyze today. OLB David Perales got a knee injury that's being evaluated. OLB Kyron Johnson had a hamstring get a little tight. We had to pull him out. Some other bumps and bruises associated with play. It's that time of year. Unfortunately, it's just a component of team development. We'll deal with it. We preserved a couple of veteran players today on both sides of the ball (Isaac Seumalo, Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt). Again, we're into providing them what it is they need to be ready to play football, but when we sit them down and provide them rest days it's an awesome opportunity in shorter lines for others to show what they're capable of. And so we get multiple things done when we take that approach. Roman Wilson's injury is an ankle sprain. I'm sure I'm gonna get more information on that after practice when I meet with the doctors."
