Steelers notes: Chase Claypool ends regular season on high note
BALTIMORE – Since his best game of the season Oct. 10 against the Denver Broncos, Chase Claypool hadn’t scored for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Since his regrettable premature first-down celebration Dec. 9 in Minnesota, he barely made much of an impact.
In Sunday’s must-win regular-season finale, though, Claypool was an offensive star during a 16-13 overtime win against the Baltimore Ravens.
“It’s great to bounce back and shut out the noise and hush the criticism doing stuff like that,” Claypool said after having a team-high 70 yards from scrimmage and the Steelers’ lone touchdown Sunday. “It’s a good feeling.”
Claypool had five catches for 37 yards and three carries for a team-high 33 rushing yards.
“Coach Canada drew some stuff up for me,” Claypool said, “and it was awesome.”
Claypool’s 6-yard slant for a touchdown gave the Steelers a 13-10 lead with 2 minutes, 54 seconds left in regulation.
It was the biggest play of many for Claypool – and all of his touches came after halftime.
Opponents set
The end of the regular season set the Steelers’ 2022 schedule of opponents. The Steelers will face the Philadelphia Eagles and Indianapolis Colts on the road and will host the winner of Sunday night’s Los Angeles Chargers/Las Vegas Raiders game.
It was predetermined they will play at the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins in addition to their three annual home-and-homes with AFC North rivals.
Home games were already known to be against the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the yearly meetings with the Ravens, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals.
No injuries?
Although running back Najee Harris (elbow) and receiver Diontae Johnson (rib) each missed a stretch of Sunday’s game because of injury, each finished the game and neither was mentioned by coach Mike Tomlin as having an injury moving forward.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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