When Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jonathan Dwyer fumbled in the game against the Oakland Raiders I posted that he could be in the dog house for a little while as a result, and sure enough he was.
Not only did Dwyer not see another snap for the remainder of that game, he didn\’t even dress for the games against the Philadelphia Eagles or the Tennessee Titans either.
Normally Dwyer wouldn\’t know officially whether or not he would be playing in a game until later in a practice week, but head coach Mike Tomlin apparently made it point to let everyone on the team know that Dwyer was sitting out the Eagles game.
Alan Robinson of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that right guard Ramon Foster told him that Tomlin posted on the team meeting room message board that Dwyer wouldn’t play the next week against Philadelphia.
“Coach put it on the board for everyone to know that he wasn’t playing that weekend,” Foster said via the story.
Dwyer said recently that he was down for those two games because it was a matter of numbers as starter Rashard Mendenhall made his season debut against the Eagles.
“The way it all happened, it made it look like I wasn\’t playing because I fumbled and things like that,” Dwyer said. “It was all a numbers game.”
It was a numbers game, alright. One ball on the ground equals two games off.
In fairness to Dwyer, it really was a numbers game as Baron Batch is the better special teams player and the Steelers are not going to dress five running backs. Had Dwyer not fumbled against the Raiders there was a good chance that he would have been down for the games against the Eagles and Titans anyway. Baring injuries of course.
Tomlin took the opportunity to send a message to Dwyer and the young running back received it. Whether or not he plays this week against the Washington Redskins is yet to be seen, but based on the fact that both Mendenhall and Isaac Redman are coming off of injuries that forced them to miss the game Sunday night, there is a good chance that he at least dresses.
Oh, and Dwyer looked damn good on Sunday night as well. That dog house can work wonders sometimes.
