Yips: a state of nervous tension affecting an athlete in the performance of a crucial action.
Pittsburgh Steelers second-year quarterback seemingly had the yip on Sunday in the season opener against the San Francisco 49ers. Pickett was largely a mess throughout the brutal 30-7 loss, misfiring on far too many throws that were routine for him throughout the preseason and as a rookie.
His misses on Sunday were costly and had many players — including himself — talking about overall execution on both sides of the football after the deflating loss. While there were some explanations for a lack of execution on some big plays by the 49ers in the 23-point beatdown, there is no explanation for Pickett losing his key trait, which is his high-level accuracy.
The ball simply didn’t go where he wanted it on Sunday. That seemingly led to some doubt from the second-year quarterback and resulted in the worst game of his young career: 31-of-46, 232 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, five sacks taken.
While it might not have mattered in the grand scheme of things, the accuracy issues were on full display from start to finish.
Let’s head to the film room and take a look.
Fourth throw of the game from Pickett, one he should have been able to drive down the field.
Instead, he underthrows the football, which leads to Diontae Johnson slipping while coming back to the football, leading to the easy interception for San Francisco cornerback Charvarius Ward.
That underthrow and costly turnover seemed to really rattle Pickett, who didn’t face much adversity in the preseason with everything looking rather easy.
Against a top-flight defense though, he got off to a poor start and things snowballed on him.
Three plays after the interception with the Steelers trailing 10-0, Pickett had a chance to right the ship.
Facing a third and 6, Pickett had a clean pocket and Johnson breaking wide open across the middle on the over route. It should have been an easy layup throw. Instead the ball was way too far out in front of Johnson as Pickett never gave his standout receiver a chance to run to the football.
A case could be made that San Francisco star defensive end Nick Bosa affected the throw some with his hand in the passing lane, but that’s a throw Pickett has to make in the NFL.
That throw had the chance to be an explosive one for the Steelers. If Pickett hits Johnson in stride, Johnson has the chance to rip off a long gainer. Instead, it forced another quick three-and-out for Pittsburgh, putting the defense back on the field.
It quickly became 17-0.
Things continued to go the wrong way for Pickett two drives later. On a third and 6 from the Pittsburgh 40-yard line, tight end Pat Freiermuth was wide open at the sticks for what should have been an easy throw and catch between the pair. Freiermuth did a good job of sitting in the middle of the zone at the sticks, showing Pickett his numbers.
Instead of putting the ball directly on Freiermuth at the sticks, Pickett misfired wildly inside, causing Freiermuth to fall down awkwardly with his leg bent underneath him, resulting in an incompletion that forced another punt.
That exact throw is one that Pickett made time and time again last season to Freiermuth, moving the chains and getting into rhythm. The fact that he missed so badly on a layup-like throw was concerning overall and foretold just how bad the rest of the first half was going to be for Pickett.
Late in the first half on an eventual touchdown drive for the Steelers, Pickett continued to struggle with accuracy issues. He missed with ball placement on back-to-back throws late in the drive that nearly ended any hope for Pittsburgh.
On a second and 3 from the San Francisco 16, Pickett threw a pass up the seam towards Freiermuth, who had inside leverage on San Francisco’s Ambry Thomas for what should have been a touchdown. Instead, Pickett was a bit behind on the throw, hitting Freiermuth on his back shoulder rather than the upfield shoulder, causing the tight end to have to twist back and open up.
That set Freiermuth up to take a big blow from San Francisco safety Talanoa Hufanga, knocking the ball free.
Pickett typically puts that throw on the money, protecting his pass catcher while getting a touchdown out of it. But he was just off the mark on the throw again, and it got Freiermuth crushed.
Right after Freiermuth left the game with a chest injury from the hit, Pickett missed badly to Johnson on a slant route on third and 6 that likely would have been a walk-in touchdown.
Johnson did a great job at his stem to burst inside the defender and create a ton of separation. It should have been an easy pitch and catch for a much-needed touchdown, but Pickett threw it just behind Johnson, allowing San Francisco linebacker Dre Greenlaw to recover after losing, getting a hand on the pass. The accuracy that has been a strong suit for Pickett dating back to his days at Pitt was simply gone in this one.
With the accuracy gone, so too went the ability to be on the same page with his weapons.
In the second half, Pickett fired behind Allen Robinson II on a crossing route on third down. Based on how Pickett threw the pass, he was expecting Robinson to sit down on the route over the middle at the sticks. Instead, Robinson continued his route to try and create space and work across the face of the closing defender.
Though Robinson is a new player in Pittsburgh, he and Pickett have had plenty of time together and put in a ton of work in the offseason to get on the same page. The miscommunication between the two on the incompletion was ugly.
Late in the third quarter Pickett’s struggles led to maybe the most frustrating situation of the day.
Fourth and four from the San Francisco 8-yard line. Again, Pickett misfired due to not being on the same page, this time with Freiermuth, putting the game away for good.
The play call and design were a disaster from Matt Canada within the Steelers’ scheme. There was no defender to the sticks, every route was to the back of the end zone, and not a single defender was put into conflict with the concepts. It didn’t help that Pickett and Freiermuth weren’t on the same page, either, resulting in the ugly turnover on downs.
Though things were downright disastrous for Pickett in the season opener with his accuracy betraying him in a big spot, the good news is it’s just one game. Pickett is going to put in the time to figure out why things happened the way that they did. This loss is going to stew a bit with the group, which was feeling good coming out of the preseason.
Falling flat on their faces the way that they did Sunday has left a bad taste. Hopefully they — especially Pickett — are able to turn things around quickly, and fast.
