The NFL is a game of inches. Miss by a little bit and you throw an incomplete pass to wrap up a loss that, in the moment, felt like it ended your season. Make it and you throw the longest first quarter offensive touchdown in Pittsburgh Steelers. Football, man.
That’s how you can view WR George Pickens’ 86-yard touchdown Saturday evening against the Cincinnati Bengals. That playcall was the same as Pittsburgh ran on 3rd and 2 in the final minutes of their Week 14 loss to the New England Patriots, QB Mitch Trubisky missing Pickens on the slant. It set up a 4th and 2 incompletion down the left sideline that essentially sealed the Patriots’ win.
A reminder of that play. Pittsburgh comes out in 12 personnel and an empty set. To the two-receiver side to the stop, a “dragon” concept, a slant/flat combo. Slot receiver (Diontae Johnson) running to the flat, the outside receiver (Pickens) running the slant.
To the bottom, the trips side, a pair or curl routes by the interior receivers with the RB in the flat. A spacing concept to beat zone or man. The slant/flat to beat man, the curls to beat zone.
Against the Patriots, Trubisky wanted Pickens on the slant. Not the ideal decision, Johnson is open on the flat with the Pats in man and trying to work over the rub the concept created. But the throw still was there. Pickens, as Trubisky would say after the game, took an angle he didn’t expect, and the pass missed wide.
Take it to Saturday. Slightly different look but the same concept. 2×2 formation out of 13 personnel with the back side car instead of split out. To the top, the same slant/flat concept with TE Connor Heyward to the flat and Pickens on the slant. To the bottom, curls by TE Darnell Washington and TE Pat Freiermuth while Najee Harris cheats his motion pre-snap and runs to the flat.
The Bengals are running a combination coverage. Man coverage to the top, zone to the bottom. There isn’t the rub/pick like the Patriots game but Pickens runs a solid route, selling vertically and bursting inside to gain leverage on the corner. Mason Rudolph puts the ball on the money, a good YAC ball that keeps Pickens’ momentum upfield. And he does the rest.
The deep safety misses on his angle, the corner gets taken out by friendly fire, and Pickens turns on the jets to outrun a couple of linebackers and one more defensive back on his way to the end zone. Per NextGen stats, Pickens reached a top speed of 21.54 mph, tied 11th-fastest of any player on any play this season.
It’s probably fair to say Pickens ran a better route here than in the Patriots’ game. His route running has been inconsistent all year, not always running as hard as he could or should with a tendency to round things off.
The point to make here is the difference in outcomes just weeks apart. From a back-breaking miss thwarting a chance to tie the game to a monster touchdown that set the tone for Pittsburgh’s most complete game in years. And I like this team being able to run the same concepts out of different personnel groupings and formations, the mark of a good scheme. Everything just clicked on Saturday. Starting with the very first pass.
