While it was preceded just one play earlier by a significant injury suffered by their franchise quarterback, the true turning point in Sunday’s loss by the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Arizona Cardinals came on 4th and goal from the 1. QB Kenny Pickett’s scramble got them right on the precipice, but they could not punch it in with RB Najee Harris, stuffed at the goal line for no gain.
What followed was, of course, awful. The Cardinals proceeded to execute a 99-yard touchdown drive, on which they converted on third down five times, never picking up a first down on first or second down. Even their touchdown came on third down. But none of that happens, at least in the manner in which it happened, if the Steelers just finish that drive the way all 32 teams should be able to.
“I just remember Coach [Mike Tomlin] talking about, ‘Man, we can’t get one yard?’”, Steelers CB Patrick Peterson recalled on his All Things Covered podcast yesterday, co-hosted by Bryant McFadden. That echoes the comments that he made after the game as well, expressing frustration over the inability to do what was required under those circumstances.
Questioned about his decision to attempt the touchdown on fourth down from the 1-yard line, Tomlin was adamant in his conviction that he made the right call. “We’ve got to score points to win football games”, he said. “We’ve got to be able to get a yard”.
I’m sure he had a much more colorful and less child-friendly version of that response on the sideline talking to his players about what he’d just witnessed in those instances. He doesn’t tend to curse as much during press conferences, but you hear it in rare candid moments.
Still, the actual play call was also questioned, the Steelers having just lost not only Pickett but also LG Isaac Seumalo. The Steelers ran the ball out of the shotgun formation with three wide receivers on the field, but the Cardinals were under no illusion that they would put the ball in the air under those circumstances.
Instead of trying to make Arizona believe they might throw it from the 1-yard line with a backup quarterback who’d just come into the game on that very play, with an injured offensive lineman, many believe they should have just lined up in a heavy formation and run the ball.
Harris lined up at the 6-yard line. While he avoided contact until he approached the 1, the defense already had eight men at the line of scrimmage. And it didn’t help that the line generated virtually no push at all.
For a team that had just put up four consecutive games rushing the ball for 150-plus yards, it was a dismal result. The Cardinals have the 31st-ranked rushing defense, and the Steelers, who have been arguably the best rushing team since the start of the second half of the season, couldn’t get one yard. That was the difference in the game, just three feet.
