By Kevin Gorman
December 5, 2017
Vince Williams kneels as teammates watch Ryan Shazier receive medical attention during the first quarter of Monday night's game in Cincinnati. (Christopher Horner/Tribune-Review)
CINCINNATI — Ryan Shazier wasn't moving his lower extremities, the Steelers were in shock and there was a football game to finish.
The Steelers were stunned after seeing Shazier, the 25-year-old inside linebacker who was having the finest season of his four-year career, suffer a serious back injury while attempting a tackle on Cincinnati Bengals receiver Josh Malone on Monday Night Football.
Shazier reached for his lower back with his left hand, rolled over onto his back and signaled for help. His feet twitched for a moment, then went motionless. He covered his eyes with his hands, just like those who couldn't stomach the sight.
What do you say, what do you do when you watch a teammate become a victim to a violent game?
“It's just a shocking play, to lose a guy like that,” said Steelers defensive end Cameron Heyward, a fellow Ohio State product. “Then you start thinking about his family and wishing them the best. I said prayers as soon as it happened.”
So did everyone else scarred by the scary scene at Paul Brown Stadium. Social media was flooded with tweets sending well wishes, including Ray Lewis and the arch-rival Baltimore Ravens.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged that “it's probably difficult for a lot of men to stay focused and play with their brother laid flat.” Tomlin refused to talk about the emotional aspect of Shazier's injury, minding his mantra of the Steelers not living in their fears.
No wonder Heyward called Tomlin, who did his job by keeping the focus on football, “our fearless leader.”
“He sets the tone and challenges us and tries to keep us focused,” Heyward said. “By him doing that, we were able to ride his way. He said, ‘Fifty's down. We know he's down, but we've got to keep playing.'”
It was early in the first quarter when Shazier went down. Almost 56 minutes remained in a game that suddenly felt meaningless.
Heyward attempted to console Vince Williams, Shazier's partner at inside linebacker — they call themselves “Shake and Bake” — as he fought back tears.
“It's terrible. You never want to see a guy go down like that, especially one of your close friends,” Williams said. “We just know the type of person Ryan is. He wouldn't want us to dwell on it. He would want us to go out there and play as hard as we could, and that's what we did.”
But not until after the Bengals took a 17-0 lead, as the Steelers failed four times to convert on third down, with an interception, two incompletions and a sack.
To the Steelers, Shazier isn't simply a teammate. He's their brother, a son, a husband and a father. How could they play football when one of their brothers was down?
“Because he would want us to,” Heyward said. “Injuries come with the territory, but you never expect it. At the end of the day, we want everyone to be healthy, even if it's an opponent or not.
“It's just tough. We wanted to make sure we played for him. He knew there was a lot of football left, so he wanted us to go out there and ball out. We knew it wasn't perfect, but we rally around him. That becomes our battle cry.”
Games against the Bengals are brutal, this one was especially so. Shazier's backup, Tyler Matakevich, left with a shoulder injury. The Bengals lost defensive backs Adam Jones and Darqueze Dennard, running back Joe Mixon and linebacker Vontaze Burfict to injuries.
It was almost enough to make you lose your appetite for football, something the Steelers couldn't afford to do.
“Whenever you sign up for football, you know you're going to get hurt,” said Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey, whose fractured fibula two years ago required eight surgeries. “Injuries happen. Do we want them to happen? Hell, naw. But once they happen, we see what the doctors can do about it, assess the injury and move on.
“It just shows how strong mentally this team is and how mature this team is.”
Rallying around Shazier became their battle cry and, somehow, the Steelers staged a late comeback to set up Chris Boswell's last-second, 38-yard field goal for a 23-20 victory to improve to 10-2.
They didn't have to say it was dedicated to No. 50, who was taken to a hospital and had a CT scan and MRI.
That much was obvious.
“It's super special,” defensive end Stephon Tuitt said. “This win is a little bit more special to us than a lot of the wins because we did it with so much adversity.
“... In the second half, a lot of people stepped up and came together as a team. To do that, it was the most impressive win since I've been here.”
Impressive not so much for how the Steelers won after who they lost but rather that they finished the football game at all on a night when a player was in our prayers.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.
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