The Pittsburgh Steelers leave for France this week to play the first regular-season NFL game in Paris. Three of their defenders said Monday that they had seen pieces of the unrest there online but were not letting it take over their week. “I’m going to go play the game,” safety Jaquan Brisker said in the locker room. “But I’m just saying from online, I mean, it looks crazy out there, but I mean, I guess everybody has a plan.”
Brisker and linebackers Jack Sawyer and Payton Wilson spoke a day after Pittsburgh won 26-19 in overtime at Tampa Bay. It was the Steelers’ second straight win and moved them to 4-2. They play the New Orleans Saints at Stade de France in Saint-Denis on Sunday, Oct. 25, at 9:30 a.m. ET.
“I don’t like going on flights”
Brisker is in his first season with Pittsburgh after four years with the Chicago Bears, and he has never been to Europe. The last time his team went overseas, he said, he was hurt and did not travel. “I want to go, but sometimes I just, I don’t like going on flights, but it’s okay,” he said. Asked whether the league had told the players about any security plan, he said he did not know yet. “It’s a new week for us, so we’re going to see what everybody sees.”
Sawyer knew even less. “I really haven’t, no,” he said when asked about the protests. “I know that there are protests going on. I don’t even know what for or what’s going on. But I’m sure that they’ll catch us up to speed and all that stuff here soon.” The Saints landed in Paris on Monday morning after a weekend of violent protests across France over living costs and school conditions. Brett Gosper, the NFL’s head of Europe and Asia-Pacific, said the game was going ahead as planned: “It’s full speed ahead at this point.”
Both linebackers played in Dublin last September, when Pittsburgh beat Minnesota 24-21 at Croke Park, and both expect this trip to feel the same. “You know, I’ve never in a million years thought that I’d play a football game, you know, anywhere else,” said Sawyer, then a rookie. “Last year in Dublin, Ireland, it was awesome. So I’m expecting the same thing in Paris.” Wilson said the travel plan looks much like last year’s. “I think we’re leaving around the same time, getting there around the same time,” he said. “I don’t get to leave the country too often. … When I went to Ireland, it was my first time.” He said he wants French fans to “see the passion that we have for this game.”
“It’s about to be that time”
Much of the session was about Jalen Ramsey. In Tampa, the cornerback had 10 tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks. The second sack came on fourth-and-8 in overtime and ended the game. Brisker said he saw it coming before kickoff. “I knew he was because in the beginning he was talking in the locker room very loud and things like that,” Brisker said. “I’m like, oh yeah, it’s about to be that time.” He said he, Ramsey and cornerback Jamel Dean had talked in the corner of the locker room on Saturday before the team left. “I knew we were going to win before we left on the trip,” he said. Dean then intercepted a pass in his first game back in Tampa, where he played seven seasons, and returned it 40 yards.
Sawyer said Ramsey practices the way he plays. “He practices like it’s a game,” he said. “Being a rookie just even last year, you know, a player who’s been All-Pro, a bunch of big contracts, and he still goes out there and plays so hard every practice, every snap. It was motivating for us young guys.” Ramsey had missed practice time during the week with a wrist injury, and Wilson said he grew up watching him play this way. “It’s exceptional to see week in and week out,” Wilson said. “I’ve been seeing it for a long time, but it still wows you every time you see it.”
Holding on T.J. Watt, and Patrick Graham’s blitzes
Sawyer was asked about T.J. Watt, who seemed to be held again and again without a flag. “There’s really only a couple of ways you can block TJ,” he said. “So holding is always a good option for the offensive lineman. But it is what it is.” His advice was to keep rushing: “We keep applying the pressure … the sacks and the holdings and all that’s going to come. They come in bunches.”
Sawyer said defensive coordinator Patrick Graham told the players last week to rush without second-guessing. “PG said he wants to be aggressive, and, you know, we love that too, you know, here in Pittsburgh. We play aggressive defense,” Sawyer said. Graham’s message, he said, was “just letting it fly and going out there and playing full speed, not thinking.” Pittsburgh sacked rookie Jalon Daniels five times and gave up only two field goals after halftime. The 19 points they allowed were their fewest since the opener against Atlanta.
Wilson led the team with 11 tackles, and Bucky Irving ran 19 times for 46 yards. Wilson said the defense changed how it practiced after the early losses. “I think we just realized what we were doing the first few weeks wasn’t really working. You know, we had to take it up a notch,” he said. “The last few have kind of felt like almost like camp practices.” Now in his third season, he said winning ugly still counts. “It’s much better on a Monday to fix the mistakes when you win than it is to fix the mistakes when you lose.”
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