Back into the film room one more time to recap the Pittsburgh Steelers’ preseason. While offenses are generally vanilla during the summer in order to hide some of their plays and allow their guys to play fast, it actually helps open a window into the base concepts of a passing and running game.
Throughout the Steelers’ three games, one pass concept showed up on tape over and over. It’s rooted in the Air Raid offense, shotgun-based formations that combine horizontal and vertical concepts, often from 3×1 formations. Verbiage varies from team to team but more specifically, here’s what Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton calls it:
All-Go Special X Shallow Cross.
In 2020, Payton mapped out what it looks like.
Here’s how it looks in Pittsburgh. This summer, the Steelers didn’t run it out of empty like Payton drew it up but the core concepts are the same.
Here against the Buffalo Bills in Week Two, Mitch Trubisky threw incomplete for Austin, but it was the same look and same attempt at attacking Cover 1/single-high. It’s a good look that just didn’t connect and the corner, to his credit, had good coverage here.
If this formation looks familiar, it came off Calvin Austin III’s 67-yard touchdown in the preseason opener. It’s a 3×1 formation with pre-snap motion by the Y to try and give a man/zone indicator. On the snap, the backside X receiver runs the shallow/drag out. The receivers to the bottom, No. 1 and No. 2, run vertically while No. 3 (the tight end) bends his route on an over/crosser pattern.
The only difference here is that it’s true four verts. Austin, the backside X, doesn’t run the shallow/cross. He runs vertical and still gets past the cornerback despite him bailing on the snap (we broke down the technique here). Here’s the play.
Against the Falcons in the finale, they used it three times. I’ve shown all three in the same video below.
The first is a play you’ve seen many times over the past week, George Pickens’ 35-yard catch to the 1-yard line that set up Najee Harris’ touchdown. Here, Pickett decided against throwing to the backside player. The safety took the crosser, leaving Pickens 1v1 to the bottom. Allen Robinson II gets pushed a little too close to the numbers that bunches things up more than you’d like but Pickett shows the contested ability to go make the play.
Pittsburgh came back to the concept late in the game with two deep shots to WR Aron Cruickshank. Both incomplete due to Cruickshank not digging downfield on his go-route but they’re vertical shots away from the rotation of the single-high/post safety.
Here’s all three.
We’ll see how much the Steelers use this in the regular season. Obviously, their concepts will be a little more varied and this seems to be more situational. Besides Pickens’ catch, these took place between the Steelers’ own 20- and 35-yard line, though they happened on all three downs, first, second, and third.
It’s a good concept that works to Pickett’s preferences. He likes taking sideline shots 1v1 against single-high. He trusts Diontae Johnson and especially Pickens to make those plays against a corner. And this concept has the underneath drag and the bender as secondary options if they get two-high or if Pickett doesn’t like the wide receiver/defensive back relationship on the go ball. If this is run to success in the regular season, we’ll visit the play. And this post.
