Following each game in the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers season, I will highlight the event or string of events in the game that was the turning point. Not all turning points will be earth-shattering but are meant to give a unique look at how we arrived at the outcome of the game, one that may be hard to see during the live watch.
The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 16-10 in Week Twelve to advance to 7-4 on the season. This game will be a memorable one for years to come. Not because the Steelers won, but because it was the first game following the firing of Matt Canada and the team instantly did something they couldn’t throughout his tenure, gain over 400 yards on offense.
It was about as balanced as it gets, with 33 passing plays and 33 rushing plays. Kenny Pickett had his best passing day of the season and was graded out as the second-best quarterback of Week Twelve by Pro Football Focus. It wasn’t all good from Pickett, however, as there was one play in particular that he was bailed out by WR Diontae Johnson. That is the play I have identified as the Week Twelve turning point.
On the Steelers’ second-to-last drive of the game, early in the fourth quarter, Johnson made an amazing grab scooping a low pass by Pickett. It was 3rd and 9 and the Steelers were on their own 23-yard line. Receivers normally anticipate the ball coming at or above their chest which means they catch with their hands forming a diamond facing upward. Since the pass was low, Johnson needed to flip his hands to get low. There was some pretty good velocity on the ball from Pickett, so it was a great adjustment by Johnson and a nice job tracking the ball with his eyes. You can see in the clip below how he barely keeps his right pinky finger on the ball trapping it against his other hand. Not to mention making the play while running full speed, for an added level of difficulty.
They went on to kick a field goal that drive to go up 13-7, but more importantly they consumed over four more minutes of the clock in the fourth quarter. Head coach Mike Tomlin spoke after the game about why the score was so tight despite the Steelers playing well on offense and defense. He spoke mostly about the field position battle and some of the special teams’ mistakes that kept the game competitive. If the Steelers were forced to punt that deep on their own end, it would have been another instance of losing the field position battle, and who knows what could happen from there. The Bengals would have only been trailing by three points in that scenario which can change some of the decision-making late in games.
The Steelers have struggled on third down throughout the season which has caused the time of possession battle to be lopsided in favor of their opponents. In this game, they came out with a 37:17 time of possession to the Bengals’ 22:43. Without the conversion, that number would have been much tighter. So while many will rightfully pile on Johnson for his zero-effort play on the Jaylen Warren fumble, it’s important to take the good with the bad, and this play was really good.
