New Steelers starting quarterback Landry Jones took the bull by the horns on Wednesday and delivered a rousing speech to the new troops under his command.
The two-word opus? "Don't Panic."
"It eased the guys a little bit and put a laugh in a couple guys' faces," Maurkice Pouncey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "I think we needed that."
"Everybody understands. We can't panic," running back Le'Veon Bell said. "We understand when Ben goes down, he's the backup quarterback and you don't want to put too much on him. Obviously, we can't scale it back too much because we know he understands the whole offense. As a team, we have to help him. We gotta get him comfortable and confident, and he should be good."
If nothing else, the Steelers have a quarterback with a good sense of humor on their hands. Ben Roethlisberger could be gone anywhere from two weeks to a month and a half following a minor knee scope, which means that Jones will be saddled with keeping the 4-2 Steelers' playoff hopes alive through a meaty part of their schedule.
Beating the Patriots in New England this weekend would require a yeoman's effort from Jones, who, over two career starts is 1-1 with a 58 percent completion rate, three touchdowns and four interceptions.
Then again, he said not to panic.
The nice part about this situation is that Pittsburgh has a bye after the New England game before spilling into an intra-division matchup against the Ravens and a home date with the Dallas Cowboys -- a team that could end up being the best in football by the time they land in Pittsburgh on Nov. 12. Even if Jones and the Steelers panic this weekend, they have time to re-set their nerves.
