The Pittsburgh Steelers have no love lost among some former members of the organization. After leaving the team, many players circle the Steelers game on their schedule as a “revenge” game. The Steelers have already fallen victim to multiple players that gave everything they had just to try and embarrass their former team. Entering Week 17, they had another one of those matchups. A former player who had been disgruntled at the team and desired to prove that letting him go was a big mistake.
Not only was Devin Bush ready to punch his former team in the mouth, he came into Week 17 believing that he cracked the code of the Steelers’ offense. Other former players have figured out the Steelers, so surely, his confident statement could hold some water.
“That’s just the type of style they bring anywhere they go. They got those two backs [Najee Harris & Jaylen Warren] for a reason, and obviously they don’t have [Kenny] Pickett back there, so what else would you do? …So, I mean, yeah, they’re gonna bring it. They’re gonna run the ball. This helps me out, because I used to be in 9-on-7 with those guys for four years, so I got a feel for and an eye for what to look for, what to see, how they move, who they want to run with, run behind, situations, stuff like that,” described Bush.
Bush thought that he could help lead the Seattle Seahawks’ defense into an easy victory; it would just be a ton of running plays he suggested. The Seahawks can just shut down the run game and go one-on-one on every receiver. Stack the box, make the Steelers beat them with the passing game, and an easy win is assured. Bush was right about one of those things: the Steelers ran the ball a lot.
Steelers Make Bush Eat His Words
The Steelers’ running backs ran the ball 40 times. It was not because of the quarterback carousel, however. Bush’s theory fell flat on his face as Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren combined for 197 yards and three touchdowns. It could have easily been 200+ yards and four touchdowns, but Harris made a smart football play and slid before reaching the end zone to run the clock out towards the end of the game.
#Seahawks reporter on Steelers WR George Pickens:
“He was like a shark hunting for blood. One play in particular, he caught a 37-yard pass, pointed to former Steeler Devin Bush and said
“Stay your punk a** in Seattle.”
Sheesh. 😯 pic.twitter.com/dATXs0Y7dU
— BL 🏅 (@BarbosaLand) January 1, 2024
That passing attack that Bush insulted did their job too. Bush might have forgotten that Mason Rudolph torched the Cincinnati Bengals through the air in the prior week. The Seahawks dared Rudolph to beat them with his arm, and he did. He threw for 274 yards on just 18 completions. George Pickens had another monster game, putting up 131 yards on seven catches.
Bush hasn’t appeared as effective as a player ever since he came back from his torn ACL. His own inefficient play led to him being benched for a seventh-round rookie in the first place back when he was in Pittsburgh, and his mouth just got him in a lot more trouble. It is worth nothing however, that he did have 17 tackles in his “revenge” game, even though only 5 of them were solo tackles.
Bush walked into Lumen Field cocky and confident, but left the stadium with his foot in his mouth. The Seahawks went all-out to stop the run, and they failed miserably. In the process, Rudolph had one-on-one matchups all over the field. He did not have any problem getting the ball to his receivers, as they had separation everywhere they went. The Steelers constantly marched down the field on chunk play after chunk play, and Bush could only look on in shame while getting Bobby Wagner’s help in tackling running backs five yards past the line of scrimmage.
