The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense sputtered throughout their Week Eleven game against the Cleveland Browns. Yes, the Browns have a great defense, but not all of the Steelers’ errors were forced. There were a number of curious passing plays where QB Kenny Pickett and his receivers seemed to be not on the same page, resulting in a pass being nowhere near an intended receiver.
This happened throughout the game, but also occurred in the Steelers’ final offensive drive where Pickett threw three straight incompletions to chew up just 14 seconds of clock, allowing the Browns plenty of time for their game-winning drive. On each of these miscommunications, Diontae Johnson appeared to be the target. It is unclear if the blame falls on Pickett or Johnson for some of these, but don’t tell Johnson that he ran the wrong route.
On Monday morning, Johnson quote tweeted a video breakdown from Mike Frazer of Fans First Sports Network where he was explaining some of the miscommunications and came to the conclusion that Johnson was in the wrong.
“Ran the route I was suppose to sir. Jus saying anything for likes smh,” Johnson tweeted.
Johnson didn’t outright blame Pickett, but he absolved himself which in turn points the finger at Pickett on that particular play. It’s hard to say for the other miscommunications between the two, but Pickett spoke about it a little in his postgame press conference, saying “Yeah, just a miscommunication on the route,” about a separate play late in the game.
Tensions are starting to build up on the offense with RB Najee Harris saying “I’m tired of this shit” during his around the locker room availability following the loss. Wins can only mask the offensive struggles for so long, and what we are seeing now is the level of frustration around the team following a loss.
Johnson has three receptions for 33 yards over the last two weeks after having three straight productive weeks coming off IR from his hamstring injury.
