Days after getting beaten at home by their archrival and facing the prospect of mathematical playoff elimination as early as Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers by all accounts had a spirited practice Friday.
“Guys were bouncing around. We were competing,” quarterback Mitch Trubisky said. “I thought we had some juice to us.”
The go-to colloquial adjective traditionally most associated with such practices probably would be “chippy” — so perhaps it’s just the generational divide that compelled 24-year-old running back Najee Harris to deploy a different descriptor.
“It was really crunky today,” Harris said from the locker room after practice at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
Harris did not go into specifics, nor would any player who was asked to name any names. But it was clear that there were some intra-squad skirmishes of some sort during the indoor practice.
“They all only happened in our competitive (one-on-one) periods; it was never scout team, it was always varsity/varsity when it happened,” guard James Daniels said. “So it’s good. I wouldn’t say it was anything over the top, it was just a little something — and we continued on with practice.”
Harris agreed that the chippiness/“crunkiness” can be good for a team that’s in the home stretch of its season. So did rookie linebacker Mark Robinson.
“We needed it,” Robinson said. “We needed it, yeah.”
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