For the last several weeks, Ben Roethlisberger has been recording episodes of his Footbahlin podcast live during Pittsburgh Steelers’ games. They’ve become a fun change-of-pace to his regular pre-recorded episodes. But the Steelers’ offense was anything but fun as Roethlisberger and co-host Spence endured more than three hours of ugly offensive football.
Nowhere was it more apparent than on the Steelers’ final offensive drive. A three-and-out that chewed up all of 14 seconds, three straight Kenny Pickett incompletions. The first off WR Diontae Johnson’s hands in the right flat, the second a deep ball miscommunication, and the third, a throw a little high that clanked off Johnson’s hand to the left side.
Watching it, Roethlisberger wasn’t sure what the Steelers were actually trying to accomplish. On Pickett’s second down deep shot to someone, a ball that landed hopelessly incomplete, Roethlisberger’s initial hope of Pickett finally going for the home run turned to confusion.
“There’s literally nobody there,” Roethlisberger said aloud, wondering who Pickett was targeting. “I don’t know. I am so confused.”
Dave Bryan’s tweet below matches the play to Roethlisberger’s reaction well.
Here’s a fuller look at the play. The theme of the Steelers’ offensive performance was miscommunication with quarterback and receiver rarely on the same page.
Pickett was looking for WR Diontae Johnson to the bottom of the screen. Pickett expected him to run vertically, appearing to be even with the corner, while Johnson broke his route off along the sideline. It’s a sight adjustment where the receiver can change his route based on leverage and coverage. Last week, Pickett missed Johnson when he ran vertically for a would-be touchdown against the Green Bay Packers. Here, the miscue was reverse, Pickett going deep while Johnson ran a shorter route.
On third down, Pickett looked again for Johnson (in fact, he targeted Johnson on all three incompletions) along the left sideline. The throw was off the mark, a little high, though Johnson only put up a hand that gave him little chance of coming down with the ball.
Roethlisberger’s critique of the play was the concept OC Matt Canada role.
“Well, that was quick…it’s 22 Man. You’ve got to create picks, natural picks, crossings,” he said. “You’ve got to do something besides [no conflict]. You’ve got to do something to create confusion in the middle with the man part of the routes.”
“Twenty-two Man” is 2-Man, a two-deep zone with man underneath. We’ll need to look at the All-22 to better confirm the coverage, the outside corners were playing off instead of rolling up and to the inside hip like you typically see in 22 Man/2-Man. But Roethlisberger is absolutely correct that the three routes were all independent of each other, a common complaint of the Matt Canada offense. They created no conflict for the defense, the Browns dropping seven into coverage against three eligibles. Still, the throw was there for Pickett if he fired a more accurate ball.
Pittsburgh punted for a ninth time and gave the Browns the ball at their own 35. Rookie QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson took Cleveland downfield and into field goal range where K Dustin Hopkins put the Browns ahead with two seconds left. One final Pickett completion to Johnson did little, just one lateral that was quickly ended, and the Steelers ended with a 13-10 loss and one of their worst passing performances of the last 20 years. It’s leaving the team, like Roethlisberger, confused about how to go forward.
Catch the full re-watch of Roethlisberger’s stream below.
