Pittsburgh Steelers QB Kenny Pickett had one of his worst afternoons as a professional yesterday against the San Francisco 49ers—but much of it had little or nothing to do with the defense. His string of poor decisions and poor throws were the primary cause of his woes—that, and the pressure applied by the 49ers’ own offense, continually putting up points he couldn’t match.
Pickett more or less acknowledged that he began pressing in the second half, already trailing by a few touchdowns. In describing his second interception of the game, on which he was looking for TE Connor Heyward on a vertical seam against good coverage, he had the following explanation:
“Fred [Warner] was running down the middle with Connor. Wanted to put it up and over and give Connor a chance”, he said, via the team’s website. “We were playing from behind. At some point, you’ve got to push the ball down the field, and that was it, just taking a chance down the field”.
“You get down behind like that, it puts you in situations where you’re forcing things that you shouldn’t be forcing or you’re trying to make a place down[field] to get us back”, he continued. “That’s why the key is to stay in the game and not get down like that. We were trying to run-and-gun and score”.
Are you going to do things you wouldn’t otherwise do and take more risks when you need three touchdowns to catch up in a game? Of course. But at least this particular risk doesn’t feel like one you might describe as calculated. It was a very poor decision, targeting an undersized tight end in coverage against an extremely good and able inside linebacker. Warner got in front of the pass and tipped it up to be intercepted by S Talanoa Hufanga.
The Steelers struggled to push the ball down the field throughout the day, and that was partly by design. The 49ers were keeping everything in front of them, daring Pittsburgh to try to beat them with their yards after the catch. That didn’t really work, either.
But while trying not to sound results based, I think we can confidently say this is a throw Pickett never should have attempted, nor should have anybody else. He had all the time in the world leading up to the throw to see that there was not going to be any separation and he would not be able to get it over the linebacker but under the safety.
Was it desperation? Overconfidence? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, as long as he learns from it. Frankly, I would have rather if he said something other than basically just, let’s score more points so we’re not in this situation again.
While you never want to be in that position, you may find that you are, and if you are, you need to make smarter decisions than this one. Any play in that circumstance is a desirable alternative to a turnover.
