Pittsburgh Steelers CB Patrick Peterson may have lost a step on the field, but his mental acumen for the game has only sharpened as he’s gotten longer in the tooth.
Peterson came through with a couple of big plays on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, blocking an extra point attempt as well as tipping a pass in the end zone that S Keanu Neal ran under to secure the interception. Peterson broke down both plays on the latest edition of the All Things Covered podcast with his cousin and former Steelers’ CB Bryant McFadden. McFadden asked Peterson on the interception if Pittsburgh was in man coverage on the play, to which Peterson responded that they were disguising man coverage, and that the disguise must have done well for McFadden not to realize it.
“Nah man, we were not in man,” Peterson responded to McFadden on All Things Covered, which aired on the show’s YouTube Channel. “We were in a little two-high safety… did a great job of disguising it. And like you thought we were in man.”
When you watch the play, you see Pittsburgh drop into a Cover 2 look with Peterson dropping to the flat along the sideline with Neal over top. Given the nature of WR Christian Watson’s route, Peterson was responsible for carrying Watson vertical should he run up the sideline, preventing a gap between him and Neal where Watson could get open. Peterson said just as much talking to McFadden, stating that Green Bay had been setting up the vertical component of the route all game by throwing short quick outs to eventually try and make Peterson bite.
“They’ve been setting that route up the whole game,” Peterson said. “They were throwing outs on me, like little speed outs. They threw like two, three speed outs on me. And I told Coach [Grady Brown], I was like ‘Man, this ain’t my first time seeing this movie. They gonna try an out-and-up sooner or later.'”
The hope for Green Bay was that Peterson would bite on the initial out route run by Watson. However, when watching the play below, you see Watson fail to truly sell the out as he works toward the sideline, looking to get an outside release to push vertically on the up-and-out. Peterson sees Watson eyeing the end zone and sticks with him up the sideline, knowing that allowing a short completion on an out route means very little compared to potentially getting beat for a touchdown.
“But little they know those little outs, I ain’t worrying about that,” Peterson said. “I know you want the big play. So for me, having my responsibility driving on the receiver’s up-field shoulder, he ended up turning it back up. Immediately I knew that the ball was gonna come to him because he’s their go-to receiver. Like, he’s their guy, Christian Watson. And once I got my eyes back around and understanding the field position that I was in, I knew it would be tough for me to get two feet in and I knew the defense we was in. I knew we had a safety over the top of me, so I didn’t wanna swipe the ball. I wanted to put it up at [with] least enough airtime to where someone can come get it. Because I knew what defense group was in.”
Peterson knew that he had help behind him with Neal in that general area, deciding to play the tip drill in the end zone. It ended up working perfectly for Pittsburgh as the safety ran underneath the ball and managed to secure the interception, ending a promising drive by Green Bay’s offense. It was a bit dangerous to tip that ball up in the air and risk another receiver getting there to catch it for a touchdown. Luckily, Peterson calculated right, having Neal right behind him to secure the turnover.
Peterson, 33, has had an up-and-down first season with the Steelers, making heady plays in coverage while showing some positional versatility, but also showing his age and lack of true speed that he once had, getting beat by the likes of Nico Collins and Brandon Aiyuk. Still, Peterson ended up making multiple big plays in this contest, including the turnover that managed to keep Green Bay out of the end zone and off the scoreboard completely. His age may have affected Peterson’s athleticism, but it also has improved his instincts to make plays like that thanks to his experience.
