Do you remember seeing Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison playing on offense Sunday in the loss to the New York Jets? No, that wasn’t a dream, it really happened.
On one of the two plays that Harrison was in for, it looked like quarterback Ben Roethlisberger targeted him with a pass in the end zone. However, according to Roethlisberger after the game, Harrison wasn’t even supposed to be in the game on that particular play.
“He’s not supposed to be in on that play. The players didn’t play well, but we also had a couple of issues there getting the right guys in,” Roethlisberger said, according to Scott Brown of ESPN.com.
Luckily for the Steelers the Jets were penalized on that particular play for roughing the passer in addition to defensive holding. On the very next play, Harrison was the lead blocker for running back LeGarrette Blount, but the run was stuffed for no gain.
After another failed run by Blount that went for a loss of eight yards and a third down pass to Antonio Brown that fell incomplete on third down, the Steelers had to settle for a field goal.
Little things like bad personnel changes just can’t happen. The likelihood of that happening probably increases when you are shuffling in players that normally play on the opposite side of the football.
After the game, head coach Mike Tomlin claimed that they have been working on giving Harrison some snaps on offense in practice for “several weeks.”
“It’s something that we work on. It’s an element of our football,” he said.
Just the same, I’m willing to bet that’s the last offensive snap Harrison gets all season.
