The Pittsburgh Steelers offense looked the best it has all season in Week Twelve against the Cincinnati Bengals. The tone was set for the offense on the first play of the game where QB Kenny Pickett connected with TE Pat Freiermuth up the seam for 24 yards. Pickett and the Steelers’ offense have mostly avoided utilizing the middle of the field all season long, but that changed in Week Twelve starting with the first play from scrimmage. Pickett later went back to Freiermuth on a similar play on third down for a 29-yard gain.
Ben Roethlisberger released his weekly podcast Footbahlin’ on YouTube Wednesday afternoon and discussed some of the reasons why that play worked so well.
“There was a big play down the middle to Pat on third and long. The reason that worked, I went back and watched that…the linebacker was sitting at the sticks expecting because that’s all we’ve done. We sit at the sticks. Kenny throws at the sticks. We run all our routes at the sticks. Well, what did Pat do? He ran beyond the sticks. And the linebacker, who was a good cover guy, is kind of sitting and waiting, and sure enough, Pat takes it beyond ’em, Kenny throws a great ball, and we pick up 20, 30 yards.”
Pickett used the middle of the field and wasn’t afraid to take those shots. Between switching up the offensive coordinator and Pat Freiermuth getting healthy, it’s hard to tell why this was missing all season, but it worked and helped Pickett to one of the best passing days of his career. Here is a chart from Next Gen Stats that shows the locations of each passing attempt.
“My next note, too, kind of goes with the one on Pat,” Roethlisberger continued. “Kenny hits Diontae on third down, down the sideline, and it was beyond the sticks again. Watching that play, he had George running a shallow route, and he’s open for the first down. Like, he’s open, but he didn’t throw to the sticks again. He threw beyond the sticks, and that’s what you want. That’s what I liked seeing. I liked seeing taking a shot down the field.”
The play Roethlisberger is talking about was at the beginning of the second quarter. It was 3rd and 3, and Pickett found Johnson up the right sideline for a big gain. Pickett saw the one-on-one matchup with a single high safety and took the shot. You can see Pickens running a drag route underneath at the sticks which was open, but to Roethlisberger’s point, Pickett took the deep shot.
“Well, now teams [are] like, okay, they’re not always gonna just go to the sticks, which is smart because most NFL players don’t just go to the sticks. So, I thought that was really, I thought, good, and why I think that play really worked well.”
Defenses are already being kept on their toes due to the change at offensive coordinator, and now they have to respect the deep ball. With the running offense working so well over the last month, that puts defenders in a bind and makes the Steelers’ offense that much more potent.
