The Pittsburgh Steelers were trailing by only two points with 1:25 to play in the fourth quarter when QB Kenny Pickett hit WR George Pickens for what proved to be the game-winning touchdown. The offense was facing a second and 9 from the Baltimore Ravens’ 41-yard line when the defense presented the look the Steelers had been licking their chops for all week: zero coverage.
It’s what head coach Mike Tomlin had prepared them for all week. Knowing the Ravens’ tendencies, the Steelers understood there would be a high probability the defense would throw that look in a critical moment, and the offense built the game plan during the week to be prepared to capitalize when it showed up.
“The crazy thing about that, too, I’ll never forget, on Wednesday meeting, Coach [Mike Tomin] said, ‘When it’s a dying moment, they will try to burn the house down’”, CB Patrick Peterson said yesterday on his All Things Covered podcast with Bryant McFadden. “You go back to that moment, I’ll be damned, they tried to burn the house down, and we caught ‘em”.
The Ravens threw eight defenders in the box against a 2×1 split with three defensive backs on three receivers in coverage and no safeties back. They were going to bring the house and trust that the rush would get there. It didn’t, and Peterson still doesn’t understand why they tried it.
“Next thing you know, you got the zero coverage, which, I don’t know why they was pressing in zero coverage anyway”, he said. “Both corners and the nickel back was pressing, they were in zero, meaning no safeties, they pretty much brought the kitchen sink, everybody’s on the island in press coverage, which is almost unheard of. But better for us than them, and we got ‘em”.
Now, it’s not quite accurate to say that an all-out blitz in such situations is almost unheard of. Especially not out of Baltimore. There’s a reason the Steelers were so well-prepared to set them up for this moment, because they understood the tendencies that has existed within the organization throughout a long string of defensive coordinators.
And it’s been Tomlin, at the top all that time, who understands that tendency better than anybody else. He’s been on the other side of this rivalry for encroaching on two decades now. He knows who the Ravens are. The Ravens know who the Steelers are.
And I doubt Baltimore was surprised by what Pittsburgh did at that moment. The team simply bet on its guys and lost. Pickett adjusted the protection and had the time to throw, airing the ball out against CB Marlon Humphrey.
Pickens got just enough late separation—with a generous little push off late in the route, for the home run ball, and that’s all she wrote. The Ravens burned their own house down while they were still inside, trying to make a stop with Pittsburgh on the cusp of field goal territory. What’s the saying, no risk it, no biscuit?
