Some have questioned whether the Steelers lack leadership. Tackle Marcus Gilbert is trying to provide some of it.
“Whatever it takes to win,” Gilbert said Tuesday, via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I think we’re at this point now we have to set our egos aside. No matter whoever’s catching the ball, whoever’s running the ball, be selfless and just take one for the team. Most teams win because they have guys like that.”
This implies that Gilbert believes the Steelers currently don’t have guys like that. Or that they don’t have enough. Or that some of their highest-profile guys are too worried about their own stats.
“This week is going to be a turning point for a lot of the guys out here,” Gilbert said. “We have a demeanor about ourselves. The games we were supposed to win we didn’t do so, and I think a lot of guys are on edge.”
Guys also are on edge because outsiders have noticed that the team hasn’t played well, and outsiders have reacted. So the players are hoping to quiet the noise that failure to win games they were supposed to win has created.
As Bouchette observes, the Steelers should be 5-0. The loss in Chicago should not have happened, and the game against Jacksonville was close until the pick-sixes swung it the wrong way for good.