Steelers rookies Ola Adeniyi, Marcus Allen make NFL debuts

They were years in the making. So what’s another three months to achieve a life goal?

Rookies Marcus Allen and Ola Adeniyi made their NFL debuts Sunday night for the Pittsburgh Steelers, with Allen playing special teams and each playinga supplementary role on defense during the 33-30 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

“I appreciate (the organization) for giving me this opportunity,” Allen said. “They made my dream come true. It would have been better, though, if we would have got that W.”

Allen played 17 snaps on defense, Adeniyi 10. Allen was a fifth-round pick who although he’d been on the 53-man roster all season hadn’t yet been activated for a game. Adeniyi was on injured reserve after suffering a mild hamstring injury in the preseason finale; he was added to the active roster Saturday and dressed for the game the following day.

“I think I did pretty good,” said Adeniyi, who was credited with one assisted tackle. “I did my job, didn’t have any MA’s (missed assignments). Obviously, I would love to make (big) plays, but at the end of the day you just got to do your job because everybody is depending on you to do your job.”

Less than 8 minutes into his NFL regular-season career, Allen almost made a big play that potentially could have altered the game’s trajectory when he beat his blockers on a Donnie Jones punt attempt and nearly got to the ball for a block at the Los Angeles goal line.

“That’s the thing, it’s a game of inches – Coach T (Mike Tomlin) always harps on that,” Allen said. “I’ve got to have more attention to detail, squeeze it tighter – he was a left-footed kicker, so I should have took my angle a little tighter so I would get over to his other leg.

“Coach T and (special teams coach) Danny Smith, they harp on (the details like that) a lot.”

That was the first snap that Allen played on special teams. The opportunity he got to contribute on defense was, in part, attributable to a back injury suffered by veteran safety Morgan Burnett. As such, Allen served as the third safety the Steelers use in certain packages.

But the reason behind Allen’s promotion to the 46-man gameday roster was more than just that; after all, Burnett had missed five other games this season and the Steelers had turned other directions to fill his spot.

Allen, a Penn State alum, played in the defensive backfield ahead of the likes of former starting cornerback Artie Burns and second-year cornerbacks Cameron Sutton (who was scratched two days after missing practice for personal reasons) and Brian Allen.

“I have been praying for this moment for 13 weeks,” Marcus Allen said. “And going against (Steelers offensive standouts) Vance McDonald, Big Ben (Roethlisberger), AB (Antonio Brown) every day of practice, full speed, I came in confident. I knew my responsibilities, I knew the plays, I practice it every day, so I was confident out there.”

Adeniyi’s opportunity came, in part, because starting right outside linebacker Bud Dupree suffered a painful pectoral injury last week and was considered questionable to play. Dupree said the injury did not affect him during the game.

Most of Adeniyi’s snaps came in passrushing situations from Dupree’s spot.

“It was just kind of whenever the guys needed a break, they put me out there,” said Adeniyi, who had three sacks in four preseason games. “I just have to play my role right now and keep doing what I’m doing.

“It felt good, nice to be back out there with the guys. Unfortunately, we were on the losing end of it.”

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Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.