Although not everything has been great for the Steelers with QB Kenny Pickett under center, there is one area where he is borderline elite: when he is trailing at the end of games. It is no secret that Pickett has struggled early on in his career, but when the game is on the line and the Steelers need good quarterback play, he consistently delivers. In fact, his numbers at the end of games are significantly better than it is during the rest of games.
When looking at some key stats from Pickett throughout games over his year and a half playing, Pickett has a completion percentage of 62 percent, averages 6.3 yards per attempt, and has a quarterback rating of 77.3. Now, when isolating his numbers to when he is trailing in the fourth quarter, Pickett’s completion percentage jumps to 70.6 percent, he averages nine yards per attempt, and he has a quarterback rating of 93.7.
Pickett has thrown three touchdowns and three interceptions in the final four minutes of games, however, those three turnovers came against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, games one and four of his NFL career. Since then he has been incredible with the ball in his hand with the game is on the line.
While some of these eight games when trailing with under four minutes to go have been blowouts such as against the Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, and San Francisco 49ers, there have also been games where the team needed a score or they would lose, and Pickett delivered. Pickett’s three touchdowns in these situations came against the Las Vegas Raiders with the team’s playoff hopes on the line, the Baltimore Ravens with their playoff hopes on the line, and again against the Ravens last weekend.
In the games against the Raiders and Ravens, Pickett is 16/21 for 217 yards and three touchdowns, with the average length of touchdown of 21.6 yards. In the Raiders game, he completed 7/9 passes for 75 yards including the game-winner to WR George Pickens. In the Ravens game last season Pickett went 5/6 for 64 yards with numerous big time throws including the game winner to RB Najee Harris, and this past weekend he went 4/6 for 78 yards.
Those are incredible numbers and they only amount to three of his five game winning drives Pickett already has in his short career. Even though those game winning drives did nit come in the final four minutes they are still feather’s in Pickett’s cap.
The next step for Pickett will be playing better throughout games so he does not need to play out of his mind at the end. A lot of these situations could be avoided if he and the offense scored earlier and progressed the ball down the field, something the Steelers and Pickett have struggled with.
The offense’s struggles do not all fall on Pickett, but he does play a part in it, he is the quarterback after all. But, with how he plays at the end of games when trailing in a not-so-small sample size of eight games it is clear Pickett is capable of being a good NFL quarterback. Obviously, there are some factors such as prevent defenses which help his numbers, but when you look at his stats when the games are close, such as in the Raiders and Ravens games, he still plays well.
At this point, we can safely say Pickett has the clutch gene, but it is time for him to play like the game is on the line for the entire 60 minutes.
