Steelers Up Camp-what the Monday Night Football theme means

LATROBE (93.7 The Fan) – It was the closest thing we’ve seen to a fight to this point as it got a little more chippy during day two of pads on during Steelers training camp. A look at some highlight from Up Camp.

Near fight

It was during offensive line vs. defensive line individual drills on Chuck Noll Field as first-year Steelers defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day was working against Mason McCormick. In the drill, the tackle is there, but isn’t supposed to engage and stay to the outside.

That didn’t happen.

“I was about to win the rush and (tackle) Troy (Fautanu) didn’t get out of the way,” Joseph-Day said, then laughing. “Troy (Fautanu) helped his buddy as O-linemen do. They stay in the way. It’s one-on-one pass rush so after the ball is snapped, just get out of the way and Troy just happened to stay in a second late once I went outside and I bumped into him on the pass rush. I got a little annoyed, he didn’t that yesterday too.”

“I was pretty annoyed, but you know, I’m a little bit older, a little bit wiser. I’ve been around the block and I know I got to conserve my energy for something greater.”

Sebastian-Day said it’s ok to be annoyed because he said ultimately, they will make each other better.

Monday Night Football theme means mojo time

During practices music usually plays as background noise. On Tuesday about halfway through the workout the music stopped and then the Monday Night Football theme started to play over the speakers.

“I was so locked in on indy (individual drills) and then you hear the music ‘dun-dun-dun-dun’ and it’s ‘yeah, let’s go’,” said defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day.

The term being floated around for that is a ‘mojo moment’. It can come at any point of the practice, where whatever drill you are in or routine you may have settled into, changes. Immediately.

“Once you hear that song come on, you know it’s go time,” said Steelers running back Rico Dowdle, who was aware of this being coached by McCarthy previously.

Players then have to drop anything they are doing, head to the red zone, in Tuesday’s case inside the 10-yard line for five reps, full 11-on-11 offense versus defense.

“It is like a pop quiz, but it’s fun,” Joseph-Day said. “It brings the juices. A sudden change and now you are on their five-yard line and you have to stop them. That is really going to help us prepare for those moments.”

Safety DeShon Elliott said the coaches are just trying to figure out which players are ready to step up when they need to.

“If you are prepared it’s an easy test.”

Notes

• Rookie tackle Max Iheanachor again handled business well against the Steelers top pass rushers during one-on-one drills
• Cam Heyward had a moment where he got under Brock Hoffman and knocked the offensive lineman down
• Zach Frazier battled with all even taking on a bulrush from Yahya Black
• Chris Boswell made all of his field goals again, drilling a 57-yarder with 10 yards to spare
• There were a couple of nice blocks picking up blitzing defenders—Jaylen Warren against Jaquan Brisker and fullback Riley Nowakowski got Alex Highsmith freeing Dowdle for a run
• Aaron Rodgers threw a couple of bullets with great quickness hitting Roman Wilson for a touchdown and ended practice with a back-shoulder TD also to Wilson

CLOSED WEDNESDAY

Steelers will practice on Wednesday but it is closed to the public and the media. They will be practice at St. Vincent College Thursday and Friday at 11a and then Saturday at Latrobe Memorial Stadium for Saturday Night Lights at 6p.