It’s hard to blame the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense for much Sunday. They took the ball away three times, two of which were deep in their own territory to keep points off the board. When they bent, they didn’t break, and held a potent Jacksonville Jaguars offense to only 20 points. But their big error of the day was allowing RB Travis Etienne to get behind the defense, not as a runner but a receiver, for a 56-yard touchdown that helped salt the game away.
Following the 20-10 outcome, both sides talked about that play. On the Steelers’ end, rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. took the blame. Per this tweet from 93.7 The Fan’s Josh Rowntree, Porter said he had “bad eyes” on the rep.
Let’s take a look at the play. Late in the third quarter with Jacksonville up 9-3 in a field-goal fest, the Jaguars’ offense came out in an empty set. Pittsburgh appears to be in Cover 2 defensively, meaning Porter would be responsible for the flat with S Damontae Kazee over the top. Kazee charges hard for the ball underneath while Trevor Lawrence throws over their heads for the score.
After the game, Mike Tomlin cited miscommunication issues that led to the bust, though he didn’t give specifics.
“We had a miscommunication,” he said via the team website.
That much is obvious. Watching it live, it looks like the issue is on Kazee. If it’s Cover 2, he should be responsible for the deep half and carry anything vertically. But if it’s a different coverage, say Cover 3, then Porter would be responsible for No. 1 vertical and would need to carry Etienne up the field.
On the other side, Jaguars’ head coach Doug Pederson credited QB Trevor Lawrence for knowing where to go with the football.
“Trevor did a great job,” he said via the Jaguars’ YouTube channel. “He saw the corner collapse on the little stick route and just found Travis behind the defense. It was just a great play by both guys.”
Lawrence went into more detail about the play in his meeting with the media.
“We were an empty,” he said also via the Jaguars’ team channel. “I don’t know if we’ve ever thrown that ball to the running back out there. So I honestly gotta give a lot of credit to Travis for staying ready for knowing what the look was. They played a Cover 2, and the corner jumped our out by, I think that was [WR Calvin Ridley] at number two, a receiver there. So the corner jumped that and then Travis was just rolling down the sideline and the safety really, instead of getting high over the top, he drove as well. I think he thought I was throwing it to Calvin there, too.”
Two defensive backs taking the same plot of land is a recipe for disaster. We may revisit this play for the morning and go into greater detail over the coverage and blame but all it takes is one miscue for NFL offenses, especially ones as talented as the Jaguars, to make you pay. And it was enough for the Jaguars take a victory back home to Jacksonville.
