PITTSBURGH — Before heading down the steps behind the bench and into the locker room, Mike Tomlin stopped in front of a boisterous throng of fans celebrating the Steelers’ win over the Bengals Sunday. Tomlin smiled, clapped his hands and shouted, “Yeaaaaaaaaa! Yeaaaaaaaa!” It was the way you might picture Denzel Washington celebrating a victory if he played Tomlin in a movie.
In more formal settings, Pittsburgh sounded all the usual, clichéd notes after wrapping up a 24–16 victory—“It’s just one game. It’s early. We have to keep working”—but there is no denying this was an important one.