The Pittsburgh Steelers hit a crossroads for the 2023 season after suffering an embarrassing 13-10 loss on the road to the Cleveland Browns just a couple weeks ago. Pittsburgh’s offense hit an all-time low with QB Kenny Pickett barely surpassing 100 passing yards with no real spark coming outside of RB Jaylen Warren ripping off a couple of impressive runs, including a 74-yarder to keep the Steelers in the game. The results of that performance coupled with the offense’s struggles during the entire season led to Pittsburgh firing OC Matt Canada two days later, putting the team in a state of flux heading into a pivotal game against the division-rival Cincinnati Bengals.
The Steelers also had a heated argument break out in the locker room following the Browns game with WR Diontae Johnson and S Minkah Fitzpatrick reportedly going at it, requiring DL Cameron Heyward and OLB T.J. Watt to break it up. The leaders of the team stated that they needed to stick together in the midst of the adverse circumstances as the players were growing frustrated with their on-the-field performance.
Former Steelers CB Bryant McFadden asked CB Patrick Peterson about the locker room argument on the latest edition of the All Things Covered podcast, wanting his take on what went down. Peterson said that Johnson and Fitzpatrick worked through it in a healthy way and sees Pittsburgh becoming a better for having gone through it.
“Both guys said what they needed to say,” Peterson said on All Things Covered, which aired on the show’s YouTube channel. “I won’t say it was a Kumbaya-type moment, but it just shows that guys care, man. Guys care about winning. Guys care about their effort and what they put out there on the field on Sundays and in that moment it showed. It showed and that was good frustration. That was excellent frustration in my opinion. Because I believe Najee [Harris] said it’s either gonna make us or break us. We’re gonna find out which direction we’re gonna go from this incident, you know, moving forward and look at us now. I believe it definitely is gonna propel us in the right direction, man, because we got guys on this team that care and love one another and that’s willing to go to battle for one another each and every Sunday.”
As they say with romantic relationships, sometimes conflict isn’t always bad. It’s normal for two parties to have inner frustrations that flare up that need to be resolved in a healthy manner, allowing both sides to grow and move forward stronger than before.
Obviously we don’t want to see a couple needing to be restrained by Watt and Heyward, like Johnson and Fitzpatrick reportedly needed to be, but it sounds like the two have worked through their differences like Peterson said and that the locker room has a whole has grown closer from this experience. Johnson has said that arguments like that happen all the time with other teams too and that it wasn’t as big of a deal as what the media has made it out to be.
Regardless of what actually went down, that locker room scuffle was a pivotal point for the Steelers. They were able to come together in the midst of that adversity and put together a strong product on the field the following week, getting a much-needed win against the Bengals to go to 7-4 on the season. The offense looked much better as it moved the ball effectively on the ground as well as through the air. Meanwhie, the defense dominated Cincinnati’s offense throughout the contest, holding the Bengals to just 222 total yards on the day.
Peterson called Pittsburgh’s locker room debacle “excellent frustration”, stating that it showed how much each of the guys care for each other and their desire to play better than they had been and to start stacking wins. As of now, it does look like this situation that broke out is propelling the Steelers in the right direction as they look to lock up a playoff berth down the stretch, having come through the other side as a more unified team. Personal agendas and egos need to be checked from time to time, as it appears that was the case with Johnson specifically the last couple of weeks. But the Steelers appear to have come out of another storm with the outlook looking promising for the rest of the regular season.
