In one moment, Pittsburgh Steelers CB Patrick Peterson thought he was going to have a key breakup to prevent a touchdown. In the next, he was watching the Los Angeles Rams celebrate a score. WR Tutu Atwell caught a 31-yard touchdown just before the end of the first half in Sunday’s game against the Steelers, a key moment that gave Los Angeles the lead heading into intermission.
On the latest episode of his All Things Covered podcast with co-host Bryant McFadden, Peterson walked through what happened on the play. And how he was caught off-guard by the outcome.
“I thought the ball was coming to me,” Peterson said. “I ain’t even know Tutu and Levi [Wallace] was even over there.”
Aligned in the slot, Peterson was covering Rams’ top receiver Cooper Kupp on a seam/corner route. QB Matthew Stafford broke contain, moved to his left, and fired downfield. It appeared the pass was intended for Kupp but Atwell leapt and made the grab, all alone at the 1-yard line, and turned into the end zone for the score. Take a look at the play from the All-22 aerial angle.
Wallace has good initial coverage but looks back at the quarterback after the ball’s been thrown. He’s late reacting to where it’s going and Atwell does a better job of tracking it, creating space at the catch point. Wallace drifts upfield and has no chance to close on the ball, running into Peterson and Kupp, and Atwell – the smallest man on the field – is able to make an easy grab for the score. As you can see by his expression at the top of the screen, it took a second for Peterson to process things.
“I was just gonna go for the easy bat down,” he said. “As I’m doing this, I heard ‘Boop,’ I’m like, ‘What the heck? I know [Kupp] just didn’t catch this.’ And next thing I know, I see Tutu celebrating in the end zone. So I was just all, ‘Where the heck did he come from?’ Because I know [Kupp] was the inside guy. Tutu was the outside guy. I don’t wanna say what coverage we was in, but we was in the man-to-man coverage.”
For what it’s worth, it looks like the Steelers are in a “Robber” coverage with FS Minkah Fitzpatrick taking away any crossing routes. Everyone else is man-to-man.
As Peterson went on to say, the Rams’ route combination looked a little strange and typically, two receivers like that won’t occupy the same space. It seems that Atwell broke his route off once Stafford left the pocket in the beginnings of a scramble drill. But Kupp was still running his initial route down the field. That led the two to bunch up, but it ultimately worked, Atwell breaking free from Wallace for the score.
A bit of a weird play but an uncontested touchdown to a 5-9, 160-pound receiver at the end of a half is a heartbreaker. It was another tough game for Wallace, who was already losing playing time and may have been benched for CB James Pierre by game’s end.
Luckily, the Steelers responded on their next defensive snap. T.J. Watt picked off Stafford on the first play of the second half, setting Pittsburgh up for its first touchdown of the game.
Catch the whole episode of the show below.
