The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week Four loss against the Houston Texans can be summed up in one terrible, no-good call on fourth and one in the third quarter, which led to QB Kenny Pickett getting hurt and the team not converting the fourth down in plus territory. It was a shotgun play without any sort of play-action despite the run game finally getting going, and it ended up being the nail in the coffin for the Steelers. Before the play, the Steelers burned a timeout, and Mike Tomlin said it was because of a discrepancy on where the spot of the ball was.
“The spot wasn’t where we thought it was. I think they used the replay to establish or correct the spot. So where the ball ended up and where we thought the ball ended up based on the official was on our sideline was two different things. That’s why we called timeout,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
The timeout gave them more time to talk things over and figure out what play to run, and yet offensive coordinator Matt Canada still called the shotgun pass. Pickett was quickly under pressure and wrapped up, and his knee got rolled on, which caused him to leave the game and quickly get ruled out for the rest of it. The loss of Pickett was much worse than the inability to pick up the first, but the play was doomed from the start.
The offense had actually had success on the ground, and instead of continuing to turn to Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren, the Steelers went shotgun when they needed one yard to pick up the first down. How during that timeout and extended stoppage did no one propose just running a quarterback sneak or just handing it off to Harris up the gut?
It’s also not a great look on the coaching staff that the Steelers needed to burn a timeout because they were confused about the spot. If the Steelers had actually picked the first down up, they could’ve been in a position to make it a one-score game, and having their full complement of timeouts would’ve been helpful. Instead, they had to burn a timeout.
It was a terrible day for the entire coaching staff and the players on the field. The Steelers were outworked and out-prepared by the Texans and their coaching staff. It’s inexcusable, and something needs to change going forward.
