While the Pittsburgh Steelers picked up a key 16-10 win on the road Sunday over the Cincinnati Bengals to 7-4 on the season, wide receiver Diontae Johnson was not without his moments of frustration in the win.
There was the failed touchdown catch in the back of the end zone that should have been challenged. Then on the next play he had bad effort on Jaylen Warren’s fumble.
It’s been a string of frustrating moments for Johnson, who was reportedly in a heated argument after last week’s loss to Cleveland, and then was visibly frustrated with his body language on Monday during his session with the media.
Speaking to reporters Sunday after the win over the Bengals, Johnson addressed the “heated argument” report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter, stating that they squashed it and that players are passionate and things happen in a locker room.
“It really ain’t nothing because you know the media gonna make something it ain’t, you know what I’m saying? I said, y’all on the outside looking in…that’s my brother at the end day. So players, we gonna be players that we’re passionate about the game. Everybody wants to win,” Johnson said regarding the report from Schefter and his argument with Fitzpatrick, according to video via the Tribune-Review’s Chris Adamski on Twitter. “So y’all can’t look at it as, ‘Oh, we had an all-out brawl or whatever.’ It ain’t that. So don’t get it twisted, you know what I’m saying?
“Football players, everybody do it on each and every team, talk junk to each other like that. We squashed it, we won the game today. That’s all that matters.”
Johnson was rather fired up in the Week 11 loss to the Browns. At one point, according to a report from The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly, Johnson had to be physically removed from a discussion with coaches on the sidelines because he was so heated. That carried over into the locker room as, according to Schefter’s report, he was “chirping” at coaches into the locker room and wouldn’t stop, so Fitzpatrick stepped in.
Those two reportedly had to be separated by Cameron Heyward and T.J. Watt, who then preached staying together and focusing, rather than dividing each other.
That then led to the Steelers making a change offensively, firing offensive coordinator Matt Canada. Things turned around — and quickly — on Sunday against the Bengals. The Steelers cracked the 400-yard mark offensively, dominated time of possession, utilized the middle of the field and really looked like a completely different offense.
Moods should be better moving forward in the locker room as the offense looked like a modern attack and everyone was involved in a big way. The argument between Johnson and Fitzpatrick is done and over with, and it’s been squashed, handled behind closed doors. But good on Johnson for addressing it Sunday after the win.
