How many times have we heard Mike Tomlin say, "when you have red paint, you paint the barn red?"
It's been at least a handful of times. What does that mean? Don't try to shoehorn players into positions where they can't succeed, put them in spots where you can utilize their skillsets.
With Big Ben and Antonio Brown, I didn't think Randy Fichtner did a great job of scheming guys open. He rolled the ball out and had faith that his players were better than the other team. Most of the time, he was right.
The Steelers without Roethlisberger and Brown needed to be more creative. Last night, they were.
Necessity is the mother of invention, after all.
We saw rollouts, jet sweep action, touch passes, and the Wild Cat formation. The Steelers caught the Bengals--and me--by surprise.
Jaylen Samuels racked up 10 carries for 26 yards, eight catches for 57 yards, and "threw" the ball three times for 31 yards. This after not having a single carry or target last week against San Francisco. It yielded them 27 points and the win.
Mike Tomlin and his coaching staff adjusted on the fly. They allowed players to play to their strengths. They weren't stubborn.
For once, they painted the barn red.