close

Brown always working to improve

By Mike Ciarochi mciarochi@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
article image -

PITTSBURGH — It was a few weeks ago that Antonio Brown was pretty much shut down by Richard Sherman and the Seattle Seahawks.

He proved Sunday against the Denver Broncos and their No. 1 ranked defense that you can’t keep a good man, let alone a great one like him, down.

Brown caught seven passes for 79 yards in the first half, but was kept out of the end zone. But he busted loose in the second half for nine more catches, 110 more yards and two touchdowns, believed to be the first two scores given up by Denver defensive back Chris Harris in the last two seasons.

“You want to be the best, you have to beat the best,” said Brown, never a shrinking violet. “There’s no stopping me and our guys played some great defense.”

But he was reminder a few questions later about a couple of weeks ago, when Sherman had his way in Seattle’s 39-30 win over the Steelers.

“It was definitely motivation,” Brown said. “If you play this game long enough, you are going to get your butt kicked.”

But instead of sulking or wallowing in self-pity, Brown simply went back to work and made a conscious effort to get better.

“It always motivates me to get back out there and get opportunities to work on my game and grow. It’s good to take on challenging teams with great cornerbacks and great defenses.”

So, what was the difference to Brown between the first half, when the Broncos rolled to a lead that reached 27-10, and the second half, when the Steelers scored all 21 of the points put on the board to pull out a 34-27 win?

“It is a football game,” he said. “We played a good opponent and you know that you’re going to have adversity. We had adversity, but we persevered.”

The second half was as much about piling more snow on the snowball as it rolled downhill as it was about anything else.

“You can never feel unbeatable, but you get excited and feel unstoppable,” Brown said. “Every week presents a new challenge, each week you have to work to get better. Our team can always grow.”

So, the outcome didn’t really surprise Brown because he knows he worked at last as hard, probably harder, than Denver’s defense worked.

“It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish,” Brown said. “We knew that we had to stay together and rally together and fight until the finish.”

But when asked specifically about Harris and his two years of touchdown free play in the Denver secondary, Brown went back a few weeks to how he felt when Sherman turned him every which way but loose.

“I never thing about what the other guy’s statistics are,” Brown said. “If you play this game long enough, you’re going to get your tail kicked at least once. Obviously, it was a great match-up today. We got the better of the match-up and won the game. That’s all that’s important.”

Antonio Brown will be back at it Monday and the rest of the week leading up to next Sunday’s game at Baltimore. He’ll be working to prove himself all over again, even though his coach Mike Tomlin said he doesn’t have to prove anything to anybody.

Brown doesn’t necessarily buy Tomlin’s theory because he has to prove it every day to someone very special: himself.

Sports reporter Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $4.79/week.

Subscribe Today