Four of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first six games ended in victory. All of them ended in Victory Formation. Only one of them was truly earned, and that was yesterday’s. It was the first time this season that the offense was actually successful in closing out a game, and QB Kenny Pickett was acutely aware of it.
“Glad we got into the end zone there”, he said after the game, referring to the first touchdown following OLB T.J. Watt’s interception, via the team’s website, “and then finished it out in the fourth quarter, staying on the field, which I was proud of. That was something that we didn’t do earlier in the season, was being in a four-minute drill, finishing on the field and let our defense sit and relax on the sideline. That’s what we wanted, so that was good”.
The Steelers did have one hiccup of a drive right after that, but the offense looked unstoppable on their final three possessions—well, not quite, but the point is they weren’t stopped. The first two of the three found the end zone. The third ended the game with a five-plus-minute possession.
The defense forced a Los Angeles Rams punt with 5:39 to play, protecting a seven-point lead at the time. Pickett and his crew took the field again with 5:28 remaining on the clock, their opponent still with two timeouts in pocket.
They were used, but to no end, because the Steelers never gave the ball back. A pair of first downs is all it took, including a 31-yard grab by WR George Pickens on 3rd and 3. DL Aaron Donald applied the pressure on Pickett, but too little, too late.
After that, things get a little more controversial. First, there was the questionable defensive pass interference penalty called on CB Ahkello Witherspoon on a 3rd-and-8 play that should have been enough to seal the deal. I think most agree it was a bad call. But WR Diontae Johnson’s taunting penalty caused the infractions to offset, anyway, so they simply replayed the down.
The result was a seven-yard reception setting up the equally controversial 4th-and-1 quarterback sneak by Pickett, which he, to my mind, very clearly didn’t get. He slipped early on the play, and frankly, even granting him the extra yardage from when his lower body was already down, I still don’t think he got enough.
But the officials disagreed. And it came just before the two-minute warning, and the Rams had no timeouts left, so they couldn’t challenge the spot. Ironically, if there had been less time on the clock and it occurred on the other side of the two-minute warning, the game officials could have reviewed the spot in the booth and potentially overturned it, awarding the Rams a turnover on downs.
Even if that would have happened, however, they would have only been on their own 39-yard line trailing by seven, and they had not been moving the ball well. And even with a little bit of extra help, it was a marked improvement over their previous closeout efforts.
There was the 3rd-and-1 Pickett keeper against Cleveland on which he was stuffed for a loss of three yards, for example. The defense had to force a turnover on downs in that one. Against Las Vegas, after being forced to punt, it was a defensive interception that allowed Pickett to end the game with a knee. Even against the Ravens, following a defensive fumble recovery, they managed to botch the victory formation, stopping the clock and ending the game. So, progress.
