Steelers DT Cam Heyward on Silencing Browns’ Jared Verse & Facing Bengals in WK10

Rich had a confession to make to Cam Heyward. Was the Steelers defensive tackle upset that Rich stirred it up last week, leaving Heyward holding the bag as if he were the one calling out Jared Verse?

"Look at you, Rich, just stirring the pot, you know, right in the kitchen of the AFC North," Heyward said.

Rich admitted he kind of felt bad that Heyward and his teammates ended up answering questions about it, though he noted they were at least spelling the name of the show right. Heyward felt no guilt at all. He was glad Rich jogged his memory, because "that was clearly on our mind," and he credited Rich with setting it up. "I didn't have to say anything," Heyward said, "but I did."

Rich pointed out that the play did some talking too. "The play's always got to do the talking," Heyward said. "You can talk as much as you want, but the way you win this game is on the field."

Rich recapped the journey: a road game in Tampa, a trip all the way to Paris, and then back home, where the Steelers held serve against the Browns with Renegade blasting. Except it didn't. "Funny thing enough, we didn't even get a chance to play Renegade," Heyward said. Why not? "Game was out of control by then." The Steelers were waiting for it, he said, "but we never got it in."

Then Rich turned to the play everyone was talking about: left guard Mason McCormick flipping Verse and claiming he didn't know who it was. Rich wasn't buying it. "Really? Really?"

Heyward offered a cautious defense. He has been in field goal scrums, he said, and "if a guy jumps, you have full ability to take advantage of that." Rich pressed him on whether he believed McCormick didn't know whom he was flipping. Heyward pivoted to a scouting report: McCormick has a wrestling background, and Heyward compared him to a character from "Billy Madison."

From there, the conversation turned to the state of the Steelers, 6-2 and in first place heading into their bye. Heyward explained what a bye week is for: get away from the game, let the wounds and injuries take care of themselves, and spend time with a family that is "well overdue" for it. And, he added, "get an interview with Mike T. That really cements a really good bye week."

Coming out of the bye, Pittsburgh faces Cincinnati. Rich laid out the stakes. The Steelers split with Cleveland, a win would sweep the Bengals and give them a leg up on the division, and Rich mentioned the state of affairs in Baltimore's quarterback room. Could they come out of the bye thinking this is the moment to cement it?

Heyward stuck to the script. "I think we're just worried about winning one game at a time," he said. The focus is beating the Bengals, who Heyward said "got a really good squad over there," with Burrow, Higgins and Chase on offense and, on defense, "look no further than Dexter Lawrence." "We're going to have our hands full," he said, "but looking forward to that matchup."

Rich let him slide with the one-game-at-a-time answer, even though that one game would be pretty darn big. It was the bye week, after all, and as Rich put it, he doesn't have to stir it up every time. "Not every time," Heyward agreed.