Sammie Coates experienced a really odd game on Sunday against the Jets.

On one side, Coates caught six passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns, the first two touchdowns of his NFL career. On the other side, he only caught six of his 11 targets, as he failed to pull down several passes after scoring on a 72-yard touchdown pass on Pittsburgh's third play from scrimmage.

But in the end, Coates came up big. He caught a key third down pass late in the game, along with catching a five-yard touchdown pass that put the game on ice, 31-13. After the game, Coates revealed that he received stitches after suffering a laceration inside the webbing of his left hand, according to Mark Kaboly of DKPittsburghSports. But despite suffering the injury, Coates wouldn't let that serve as an excuse.

“I am a pro, and that can’t never be an excuse," Coates told Kaboly. "I kind of got down on myself (after the drops) and found a way to battle back.”

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Coates certainly did, while his quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, continued to go to him despite some of his setbacks during Sunday's game.

“I’m going to come back to you, I believe in you,” Roethlisberger said. “He showed why I have faith in him.”

Darrius Heyward-Bey, a former first round pick of the Raiders, has been through moments like this before. He said that, while dropping passes is always a tough thing to deal with, it's much easier to bounce back from when you have a quarterback like Big Ben.

“That’s the great thing about Ben,” Heyward-Bey said. “Todd (Haley) can call all the plays he wants, but Ben has control of where the ball goes. He kept on feeding Sammie because he wanted Sammie to know I am going to need you.”

And while Coates did have his struggles, the bottom line is that he made way more positive plays than negative ones along with learning how to bounce back from adversity, lessons that should help him as he continues to blossom into a consistent playmaker for the black and gold.

"I'm still growing, I'm still learning," Coates told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. "Starting tomorrow, I'm working on the stuff I messed up on. Whatever it takes."