PITTSBURGH -- Trailing 21-7 at halftime Sunday, the Pittsburgh Steelers weren't having fun.
And how could they?
In the midst of a three-game skid, the Steelers looked bound for a fourth after the opening half against the Indianapolis Colts. The offense wasn't working. Ben Roethlisberger wasn't in sync with his receivers, and one of the league's top defenses looked porous as 39-year-old quarterback Philip Rivers and rookie running back Jonathan Taylor carved them up.
Nothing about the situation was fun.
That's when Roethlisberger gathered the offense inside their locker room at Heinz Field and issued a mandate: They needed to have more fun. And they did in the second half, mounting a 17-point comeback to capture the AFC North title with a 28-24 victory.
"I think we always need to have fun playing this game," Roethlisberger said of his halftime speech. "We need to understand that we have God-given abilities. We're so thankful that he's blessed us with the ability to do those things and play football. Just felt like we weren't having fun.
"I think that was super important, that we were able to come out in the second half [and have fun]. It's not easy to do when you're losing."
Having fun -- as trivial as it sounds -- has been a theme for Roethlisberger and the Steelers (12-3) this season. Coming off season-ending elbow surgery, Roethlisberger frequently talked about relishing his return and having fun with his teammates during training camp. And, in turn, his teammates saw a giddiness and a fire in the quarterback they hadn't seen in a while -- if ever.
"Dude, this is so fun to see Ben like this," tight end Vance McDonald told teammate Eric Ebron during a throwing session with Roethlisberger over the summer.
Somewhere in the last month, though, the fun evaporated. The Steelers, weary from the constant changing schedules and short weeks, found themselves in a three-game losing streak where nothing went right. Roethlisberger admitted he was playing like "poo." Things that were fun and quirky earlier in the season lost their luster. JuJu Smith-Schuster’s logo dancing, something he did all season, became a distraction and a point of contention outside the locker room -- so much so that the receiver announced he would stop dancing.
Nothing in the last month was fun, and at halftime Sunday, Roethlisberger was tired of it.
Center Maurkice Pouncey echoed Roethlisberger's halftime message, but added his own flair to it to really grab the locker room’s attention.
"Pouncey made it more, like, announced that having fun is what it's all about and that we're not having fun out there," Smith-Schuster said. "He kept repeating it. He yelled it multiple times to put it in our heads."
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Mike Tomlin knew the Steelers missed some opportunities in the first half and knew if they cleaned it up the second half would be much different.
Whether it was Roethlisberger's measured speech or Pouncey's shouted mantras, that's just what the Steelers did. It wasn't through touchdown dances and sideline antics, but by playing an uptempo, no-huddle offense largely dictated by Roethlisberger's vision and by getting stops on defense. In getting back to having fun, the Steelers rediscovered their winning ways and got back on track just before the playoffs.
"We were just in this funk, and we’ve been in this funk," said Ebron, who added he was angry at halftime because he was losing to his former team. "When you lose your swag, it’s hard to get it back. I think we did that. We lost who we were, we lost our identity, and somehow, some way we found it in that football game to win."
Rookie receiver Chase Claypool, who didn't have a target in the first half, caught three passes on the Steelers' first drive of the third quarter, including two for first downs. One went for 34 yards -- the longest pass play of the game to that point.
The Steelers' drive got all the way down to the 2-yard-line before the offense stalled out and turned it over on downs.
Coming up empty after a promising drive was hardly what the Steelers needed as they stared down a 17-point deficit, but signs of a turnaround were starting to show.
At 4 minutes and 22 seconds, the drive was the Steelers' longest of the afternoon -- the kind of sustained offensive momentum they hadn't had most of the game. And Roethlisberger had five completions on the drive. He had just 11 in the entire first half.
The ending of that drive certainly wasn't fun, but it set the stage for the next three. Roethlisberger threw touchdown passes on three consecutive drives, connecting with Diontae Johnson, Ebron and Smith-Schuster to dig out of the hole and complete the comeback.
Meanwhile, the defense forced three three-and-outs -- including one interception -- and flipped the script on the Colts.
"When you're having fun playing the game, things can happen differently," Roethlisberger said. "So you're right, it didn't look good at the end of the half. That's why you get a halftime to make adjustments, to gather yourself. I just can't say enough about our defense in the second half, kind of shutting them down, getting us the ball, guys making plays on offense. It was a lot of fun."
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