PHOTO BY JARED WICKERHAM/PITTSBURGH STEELERS

On a night that was overflowing with emotion for the Steelers, one stood out above all others.

Joy.

That was beyond the switch from Justin Fields to Russell Wilson as quarterback and the perceived trepidation attached to enacting such a seismic shift with a winning record.

Beyond the urgency to maintain momentum that had been regained in Las Vegas and stack a win that had the potential to become essential come tie-breaker time.

Beyond the determination of the defense to rise up against Aaron Rodgers and his Holy Trinity of wide receivers, beyond the apprehension of starting a relatively unknown, untested center, beyond the anticipation of what it might look like with Wilson under center even if Fields had admirably achieved that aforementioned winning record — joy won the night.

Running back Najee Harris was literally jumping for joy after having bounced through the end zone and jumped over the small retaining wall that separates the fans in the south end zone from the action. Offensive linemen Mason McCormick, Dan Moore Jr. and Ryan McCollum (the star for a night at center), and tight end Darnell Washington quickly joined their running back in celebrating with Steeler Nation following the Harris’ TD that had provided an emphatic exclamation point.

“Has that ever happened before?” Moore wondered. “Hey, that was fun.

“We should do that more often.”

If they keep playing the way they did in beating the Jets, 37-15 last Sunday night, they just might.

A similar spontaneous scene had occurred in the third quarter following a blocked field goal by defensive tackle Dean Lowry. Linebacker Mark Robinson, tight ends Connor Heyward and Rodney Williams, running back Jonathan Ward, defensive tackle Keeanu Benton and even linebacker Alex Highsmith, who rarely plays special teams, all surrounded special teams coordinator Danny Smith on the sideline.

More jumping.

More joy.

Don’t look now, but Steelers football is fun again.

For one night, at least, they didn’t have to slug it out, grind it out and win ugly, with special teams and defense and an offense that protects the ball above all else while doing just enough.

For one night, the game we’d been watching and the one they’d been playing ever since Mitch Trubisky got first crack at replacing Ben Roethlisberger on Sept. 11, 2022 in Cincinnati changed.

The Steelers were playing that game more out of necessity than by design, and they weren’t bad at it.

But it didn’t ultimately get them anywhere.

Now, suddenly, they can play a different game on the way to an eventual destination that need not be as seemingly predetermined as it has been for three seasons and counting.

One in which the quarterback is trusted because such trust is warranted.

One in which chances can be taken, not recklessly but aggressively.

One that doesn’t necessarily have to end in a 13-9 rock fight.

One that, potentially, can end in the spontaneous and genuine outpourings of joy we saw Sunday night.

“It’s a lot of fun when we’re winning and putting up points,” tight end Pat Freiermuth confirmed.

Those days and those games have been few and far between.

Freiermuth knows as well as anyone.

He arrived in 2021, the same year as Harris and Moore, the last year of the Roethlisberger Era (Big Ben was playing “chuck-and-duck” by then more than when he was in the role of franchise quarterback).

So the elation of all that was revealed, potentially, against the Jets is as understandable as it was apparent.

“The guys like me, Dan, ‘Naj,’ we’re the older guys on offense,” Freiermuth continued. “We’ve been through a lot here. We’re just finding our groove, finding our rhythm.

“We see it finally starting to come into our own.”

Mike Prisuta is the sports anchor/reporter for Randy Baumann and the DVE Morning Show. He’s also the host of the Steelers Radio Network Pregame Show and the color analyst for Robert Morris University men’s hockey broadcasts.