Practicing in pads ‘overall beneficial’ for Steelers after loss and in advance of Ravens game

Perhaps it’s what you’d expect an offensive lineman to say. Or maybe Mason Cole was just being a good veteran leader by parroting the head coach’s wishes.

Cole, the starting center, expressed that he was pleased the Pittsburgh Steelers began their practice week Wednesday by donning full pads.

“Any time you put pads on, it’s just that you get better feel for double teams, better feel for single blocks, it’s just better all the way around,” Cole said Wednesday from the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “It’s overall beneficial for us.”

The Steelers practiced in pads for the first time since their regular season began Sept. 10. The collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union allows teams 11 padded practices over the first 11 weeks of the season.

Coach Mike Tomlin referenced that a short week after a Monday night game Sept. 18 and a long unscheduled airport layover on the way back from the west coast the following week helped conspire to prevent the Steelers from donning the pads for practices since the end of Week 1.

“It benefits us more than it doesn’t,” Cole said. “Just in terms of blocking inside the box. And it’s also Ravens week, and I think it just sets the temp for the week and how he sees this game playing out.”

Tomlin repeatedly lamented the Steelers’ lack of physicality during this past Sunday’s loss at the Houston Texans, referencing what he said was that deficiency in declaring the Steelers would have a padded practice Wednesday.

“I would just say mentally, it just helps us,” George Pickens said of the decision.

Truth be told, regardless of what happened during the game against the Texans, Tomlin could have elected to put on the pads Wednesday — because it had been a month since they’d done so, because it was a “normal” week between 1 p.m. Sunday kickoffs and because it is in advance of a game against the always-physical Ravens.

“I feel like each team probably puts the pads on a couple times, especially going into a week like this,” tight end Darnell Washington said. “Big game for us, (division) game, just to get our mindset wired to amp it up, just kick it up a notch. That’s how I feel about it.”

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