Midway through the second quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers Thursday night loss to the Baltimore Ravens, a 50-yard field goal attempt by kicker Shaun Suisham turned into a disaster as it appeared there was some confusion with the timing of the snap.
On the play, Suisham appeared to start his approach just prior to the ball being snapped by Greg Warren and as a result, the timing of the play was thrown off. Suisham was asked to comment about the play that resulted in a 12 yard loss after the game.
“That really wasn’t a planned play,” Suisham said. “Our timing was really off. We just tried to get something out of it.”
Head coach Mike Tomlin was also asked during his post game press conference about the play and he explained the problem being a result of the cadence by holder Mat McBriar.
“We were doing it on a cadence to slow down their rush and the crowd noise,” said Tomlin. “I don’t think Shaun Suisham heard the cadence. I think he started to the ball early and of course created the situation where we weren’t able to get the play off.”
As a result of the play, the Ravens were left with great field position as the ball turned over on downs and they turned the Steelers misfortune into three points of their own.
Many are wondering why Suisham wasn’t flagged for a false start on the play, but as you can clearly see, he really did start moving forward just a hair before the ball was snapped. That’s a tough call to make.
