One of the most important runs that the Pittsburgh Steelers had Sunday in their win over the New York Giants came on their final scoring drive when they were faced with a third down and 2 situation from the Giants 9 yard-line with 5:03 left in the game. The Steelers were down 3 points at the time and a failure to convert would have likely resulted in a Shaun Suisham chip shot to tie the game. We talked about this play on the podcast on Monday.
The animated gif below shows the Steelers in 11 personnel with 2 wide receivers right and tight end Heath Miller on the left covering right tackle Max Starks. Jerricho Cotchery has already motioned from the right to the left and now flanks Miller. His job on the play is to take cornerback Prince Amukamara away from the line of scrimmage.
The Giants are in a cover-1 with safety Antrel Rolle serving as outside run contain.
This is a back-side run all the way as Starks and Willie Colon double team down inside on Mathias Kiwanuka while Maurkice Pouncey and Ramon Foster double team Justin Tuck. The wipe out to the right is amazing and even linebacker Michael Boley gets caught up in the wash after trying to fill the inside gap.
All that is left on this play is for Miller to cut off Osi Umenyiora on the backside. That would leave Redman only having a safety with a poor angle to beat. The only problem is that Umenyiora easily discards Miller to his inside off of the snap and he now has an excellent backside shot at Redman.
Miller recovers quickly enough to beat Umenyiora on the angle and in doing so he gets just enough of him to not only break Redman free of Umenyiora, but Rolle is taken out of the play as well.
Give Redman credit as well for hugging the outside hip of Starks on the play. If he doesn\’t, then he is surely tackled for no gain or a loss. Instead, the Steelers have the ball first down and goal to go at the Giants one yard-line and Redman scores two plays later.
