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PHILADELPHIA \u2013 Nick Sirianni said he didn\u2019t think the never-ending drama around the outspoken and highly-critical A.J. Brown was a distraction. Yet, Thursday rolled around and, 72 hours before kicking off in what will be the latest in a season-long string of difficult challenges when they host the Detroit Lions, players were still taking questions about Brown.<\/p>\n
His teammates aren\u2019t publicly saying that Brown is wrong for going public with his complaints about an offense and a coordinator in Kevin Patullo that can\u2019t find a way to get him the ball on a consistent basis. In other words, they got his back.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs his teammate, I can understand his frustrations,\u201d said left tackle Jordan Mailata, \u201cbut for me, I\u2019m just gonna stay in my lane as an offensive lineman, like, OK, if we\u2019re not giving the ball to him, OK, how can I affect that? Am I going to just go to KP (offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo) and tell him to get the ball to AJ?<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t help anything. That doesn\u2019t come up with a solution. So, for me saying, I agree AJ, get him the ball. I\u2019d be the 15th person in the building doing the same thing. All I can do is make him feel supported.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mailata rightly pointed out that it\u2019s not an A.J. problem but it\u2019s an everybody on offense problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think AJ\u2019s wrong, you know?\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way he feels, that\u2019s the way he feels. I just think there is truth to it. I play on the offense as well, and we get in a rut so many times in games. …Sometimes, and I can speak on this now because I\u2019ve played in this league a long time now, but that\u2019s just how ball goes sometimes. That\u2019s just how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown is the only speaking out about it, whether that\u2019s right or wrong. Or whether it will be a distraction.<\/p>\n
This is what Saquon Barkley said: \u201cWe know we gotta improve, and that\u2019s the mindset. Whether we score 10 or we score 40, AJ is not saying anything wrong \u2013 we\u2019re always looking for room to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mailata again: \u201cWe talk about contribution over credit. That\u2019s one of the big sayings in the past couple months, so I think that\u2019s where AJ\u2019s coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immediately after losing in Week 7,\u00a0Pittsburgh Steelers\u00a0linebacker\u00a0Patrick Queen\u00a0lamented the defeat pretty strongly. But while speaking to reporters Monday, Queen took a softer approach with a first-place showdown up next.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the\u00a0NFL. Sometimes it happens even though you don\u2019t want it to,\u201d said Queen,\u00a0via TribLive.com\u2019s Chris Adamski. \u201cSometimes, it\u2019s ugly, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s the NFL.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey get paid to play. Their coaches get paid to coach. We just gotta make the plays, go out there and execute better.\u201d<\/p>\n
While fans could see Queen\u2019s comments as a more positive spin on what happened last week, a couple Steelers pundits referred to the Steelers defensive signal-caller as downplaying the team\u2019s defensive struggles against the\u00a0Cincinnati Bengals.<\/p>\n
Patrick Queen downplayed that the Steelers defense is feeling frustrated or down on themselves after Thursday\u2019s defeat<\/p>\n
The common phrase, \u201cIt is what it is,\u201d might best summarize the reaction Queen had Monday on the team\u2019s Week 7 defensive performance.<\/p>\n
That type of phrase is reserved for situations that are out of a person\u2019s control. For that reason, it\u2019s possible Queen will rub some fans the wrong way with his Monday reaction to Week 7.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also not like the Steelers have been elite defense this season and just had a bad night in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Thursday was the Steelers\u2019 first poor defensive performance of the year, it would be a lot easier to flush it and chalk it up to life in the NFL,\u201d\u00a0wrote Steelers Depot\u2019s Joe Clark. \u201cBut the reality is the defense has been bad more than it\u2019s been good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Steelers have allowed 30 points in three of their six games this season, they\u2019ve struggled against the run, and when they aren\u2019t getting pressure, teams have thrown all over them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen\u2019s reaction would probably also be more acceptable for some pundits if the Steelers had a young or inexperienced defense. But the team has decorated veterans all over the unit.<\/p>\n
Queen and his defensive teammates are paid as such too.\u00a0According to Spotrac, the Steelers are spending the most amount of salary cap space on their defense in the league this season.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a big reason why there was so much disappointment expressed in the media over the Steelers\u2019 Week 7 defense.<\/p>\n
In Queen\u2019s defense, how he and the team played Thursday is now out of his control. All he and his teammates can do now is be better going forward.<\/p>\n
The linebacker took more accountability in other answers to the media to begin this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we were physical enough,\u201d\u00a0Queen said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we was expecting them to run. Because the whole ranking and all this and that, like hey, they\u2019ll run the ball this amount of times, whatever.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I think we got pretty complacent with thinking they wasn\u2019t gonna run a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely can\u2019t have that, definitely gotta get better at that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Steelers will be aiming to bounce back against the first-placed\u00a0Green Bay Packers. The Packers will visit Acrisure Stadium on\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PHILADELPHIA \u2013 Nick Sirianni said he didn\u2019t think the never-ending drama around the outspoken and highly-critical A.J. Brown was a distraction. Yet, Thursday rolled around and, 72 hours before kicking off in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hot-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t