On Sunday, we saw what happens when the opposing team tries to take WR George Pickens out of the game amid Pittsburgh’s 20-10 loss at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Pickens was only able to bring in one of his five targets on Sunday, catching a slant that he ended up taking 22 yards to the house for Pittsburgh’s lone touchdown in the contest. The Jaguars did a good job of limiting Pickens’ impact throughout the game, using Cover 2 cloud coverage to roll an extra defender his direction every time he worked downfield on the outside, limiting his opportunities to test the defense vertically. Pickens was asked if he feels like he’s getting enough targets on Tuesday after a rather quiet performance, to which he responded that the offense does need to spread the wealth a little bit to be successful.
“I can’t do nothing but just to run my route, but that’s pretty much it, for real,” Pickens said to the media on video from Steelers Live’s Twitter page. “Yeah. I feel like we spreading the ball around a lot as an offense. You can’t really ask for the ball too much. Everybody gotta get they chances.”
As much as we want the Steelers to handle their offense like Madden and throw the ball to Pickens every play, the reality is that methodology just wouldn’t work for an entire game, as much as we want to believe it. Sure, Pickens was able to have big performances against the Browns, Ravens, and Rams where he saw plenty of opportunities, but those teams tended to play man coverage on Pickens, leaving defensive backs on an island rather than implementing zone coverage looks to get multiple defenders keying on the wideout on nearly every snap.
Both QB Kenny Pickett and OC Matt Canada mentioned that the offense must do a better job scheming Pickens the ball more when opposing defenses are trying to take him away, moving him around the formation to draw targets in the slot against nickel corners or safeties which would allow him to attack the middle of the field like he did against the Rams. Sure, Pittsburgh managed to feed WR Diontae Johnson plenty on Sunday with Pickens taking most of the attention, but the offense works best when Pickens is involved, meaning that the Steelers can struggle to produce chunk plays in the passing game if Pickens is neutralized entirely.
It’s good to see that Pickens isn’t being a primadonna regarding his targets after a fairly underwhelming performance, but he still should be incorporated more to keep Pittsburgh’s offense humming… or the closest thing to that. Everyone should get their chances in Pittsburgh’s passing game, but Pickens should be the team’s focal point.
