Steelers “Grown A** Man” award winners for Week 15 against the Patriots
What is a Grown Ass Man (GAM)? A GAM is someone who dominates. A GAM is someone who, when you watch them play appears to be a man among boys. They can’t be stopped, denied or contained. That is a Grown Ass Man.
What a difference a week makes!
Unlike the past few weeks where I’ve struggled with giving out GAM awards because of the overall result, this week is different. The odoriferous stink of defeat no longer hangs in the air having been replaced by the sweet smell of redemption. The Steelers defeated the Patriots this past Sunday 17-10 and there we much rejoicing.
It won’t be who do I choose to select for a GAM award, it will be who gets excluded!
So, with that in mind, let’s hand out some GAM awards!
James Washington
3 catches for 65 yards may not seem like a stat line that earns you a GAM, but for James Washington those catches were impactful and overdue. The Steelers have been waiting for Washington to make his presence known, and he did with an impressive combat catch and a solid outing for the rookie. Let’s hope it’s just the start of things to come, because if it is, this won’t be the last time we say…
James Washington is a Grown Ass Man!
Jaylen Samuels
WOAH! Where in the heck did this performance come from? 19 carries for 142 yards (a massive 7.5 per carry average) and add in 2 receptions for another 30 yards from scrimmage. That’s 172 total scrimmage yards for the rookie. After last week’s performance against the Raiders, nobody could have been expecting this type of break out performance from Samuels, but the rookie delivered big time.
Jaylen Samuels is a Grown Ass Man!
Joe Haden and the Whole Damn Defense
I said it on the post-game podcast and I’ll say it again here – that was probably the most effective defensive performance the Steelers have put up in several seasons. Yes, there was that blown coverage at the beginning of the game, but outside of that, what do you have to complain about? Beyond that one play, this defense gave up 3 points – to the Patriots! In the first half the Steelers defense allowed drives of 3, 5, 5, 3 and 6 plays. Take away that one play and the Patriots did not have 100 yards of offense in the first half!
That was simply a huge performance.
And then to top it off, when it was really needed, Joe Haden skies above Gronk to snag a terrific pick, and pulls some Antonio Brown like craziness to get both feet down with two Patriots trying to force him out of bounds. All I can say is…
Joe Haden and the rest of the defense are Grown Ass Men!
Honorable Mentions
Juju Smith-Schuster just missed getting one for that amazing sideline catch, but disappearing in the second kept him from getting his third straight GAM. Ben Roethlisberger threw 2 picks which marred an otherwise solid game and kept him from a second straight GAM. I almost gave the Offensive line one for the way they came back this week and out muscled the Patriots, but Ben was sacked twice, and if he hadn’t thrown the ball away a couple of times, it might have been 4 times. And how about Eli Rogers contributing after coming off the IR? Worth a mention, but not quite up to GAM standards.
It was a good week for this team, but they are going to need to really find their inner GAM’s next weekend when they travel to New Orleans.
Tell us what you think? Who do you believe should have been given a “Grown-Ass-Man” award?
