Only three Tampa Bay Buccaneers players were responsible for more yards from scrimmage than what Pittsburgh Steelers guard Kevin Dotson provided the Bucs during Sunday’s game.
Dotson’s three penalties — two for holding and one on a false start — gave Tampa Bay 25 yards of field position during a 20-18 Steelers victory. While the end result of the infractions perhaps cost the Steelers a maximum of four points (they ended up with a field goal four plays after Dotson’s second-quarter holding flag) — and more importantly, the Steelers won the game — Dotson told reporters fans sent him death threats on social media in regards to his penalties.
“I don’t think that people understand, or maybe they do … I didn’t do it on purpose,” Dotson said Monday from UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “I didn’t try to do it. I messed up, I had a bad day with penalties. Overall I had a good game, though. So I am like, if you can only see the negative, what’s the point of me caring what you think? You never say anything positive. They usually only say bad stuff about the O-line, only talk about the O-line when it’s bad. So why would I listen to you now?”
According to Pro Football Focus data, Dotson was not responsible for a sack and was to blame for just one pressure of a Steelers quarterback Sunday.
Dotson said he wasn’t planning any major adjustments going forward.
“I mean, I am not gonna change nothing up,” he said. “It’s just being attentive to things that I messed up on. Easy fixes. That’s it.”
Robinson debut
It was five plays, none on defense. All of Mark Robinson’s action came on kickoff returns — and three of those five were mere sprints down the field for no reason, as they went for touchbacks.
But the lack of significant activity was of no matter to Robinson on Sunday. That’s because it represented his NFL debut. No matter what happens from this point on in his football career, for the rest of Robinson’s life, he can say he was an NFL regular-season player.
“Definitely, the opportunity that God gives us to go out there on that field, it was a golden day for me,” Robinson said. “A golden opportunity.”
An inside linebacker taken in the seventh round, Robinson is viewed as having potential to develop into a contributor on defense. As such, he did want to bask too much in the glow of merely being in an NFL uniform for a meaningful game.
“It’s just, now that we’re here, now we’ve got to work,” Robinson said. “It’s never where we’re at; it’s where we’re trying to go.
“(Sunday was) just another step in the process.”
Kazee back in building
For the first time in weeks during a period in which media was permitted in the Steelers’ locker room, Damontae Kazee was spotted at his locker.
A veteran safety, Kazee was having a strong training camp until suffering a wrist injury during the preseason finale. He opened the regular season on the injured reserve list — meaning he had to sit out a minimum of four games — and then, two games into the season, was suspended for three games by the NFL for violating the league’s policy on substances of abuse.
That meant Kazee was eligible to return to the Steelers’ last week, after their fifth game. There is no indication whether Kazee’s wrist is completely healed, but the Steelers are decimated in their secondary with four starters sitting out Sunday’s game.
If Kazee is cleared to practice, that would open a 21-day window during which he must be activated to the active roster or he is done for the season.
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