Nov 3, 2014 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – Think NFL players are overpaid and don’t care about what they’re doing?

Steelers linebacker James Harrison and Troy Polamalu would disagree with you. So would rookie Ryan Shazier.

Harrison and Polamalu, a pair of aging veterans who have made more money playing football than most people will see in a lifetime, each took shots in Sunday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens that should have left them walking with limps for the remainder of their lives.

Harrison missed just a couple of plays. Polamalu was saved by the two-minute warning from missing his first play in two seasons.

But after the Steelers got a defensive stop and forced a field goal, Polamalu went to the locker room and did not return to the game, exiting with a left knee injury.

Shazier, the Steelers’ No. 1 draft pick this season, has his ankle rolled onto by 330-pound Baltimore guard Kelechi Osemele. Shazier had his ankle retaped and returned for several plays before finally leaving the field for good.

It was that kind of game with that kind of importance.

The Steelers retired Joe Greene’s No. 75 Sunday night, and it was fitting that the team’s defensive players, both young and old, attempted to gut it out through injuries with Greene in the stadium.

Greene spoke to the Steelers in the locker room before the game. His message was simple.

“Go out there and play Steelers ball,” said Harrison. “That was his message.”

Anyone who has seen the Steelers’ defense this season would hardly describe it as gutty or gritty. Porous would be a better description. Former head coach Bill Cowher even went as far as to call it soft a few weeks ago.

But on this night, it put together a gutty and gritty effort, led by Harrison.

And nobody has ever accused Harrison of being soft.

Talked out of retirement after an injury to Jarvis Jones in late September, the 36-year-old Harrison looked as if he had taken a nice long drink from the fountain of youth. Harrison was rolled over by a pile of players on a fourth-and-short play in the first half, spending a long time on the field, likely contemplating why he hadn’t stayed in retirement.

But that’s not in his DNA.

Not only did the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year return to the game, he sacked and hurried Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco on multiple occasions and must have had the quarterback wondering if Harrison had somehow been cloned. At times, it seemed as if there were two of him on the field.

Harrison finished with seven tackles, two sacks and four quarterback hits.

“That guy, I’m so glad he came back,” said defensive end Brett Keisel, one of several veterans who called Harrison to talk him out of retirement.

“The biggest thing with James is his work ethic. These young guys, they get to see it on a daily basis. They get to see what makes James great.”

The certainly did on this night.

It was the kind of effort needed from Pittsburgh’s defense in an important game for not only the AFC North standings, but also the AFC playoff picture.

As we’ve already seen, things can change quickly in the NFL.

The Cincinnati Bengals opened the season at 3-0, then went nearly a month without winning a game.

They have since recovered to win their past two games to improve to 5-2-1.

The San Diego Chargers were the toast of the town after opening 5-1. They have since lost three in a row, including an embarrassing 37-0 defeat Sunday at Miami.

Denver, the defending AFC champion and prohibitive favorite to win the conference championship again this year, was a three-point favorite at New England and was trounced, 43-21.

The point is, a team need only stick around in the pack and not fall too far behind as the Steelers did last season with their 2-6 start, and get hot at the right time to make the postseason.

With the winner of Sunday night’s game moving to 6-3 and the loser dropping to 5-4, it wasn’t a must-win.

But for a team hoping to stay in contention to win the AFC North, it was a must.

And the Steelers, led by Harrison, treated it as such.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.