The turning of the tide in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Arizona Cardinals came with about five minutes to play in the second quarter. That was when RB Najee Harris was stuffed on fourth down at the goal line, which led to a 99-yard touchdown drive going the other way for the visiting team.
The Steelers never recovered from that shift in momentum. While there had been some debate over whether head coach Mike Tomlin should have settled for a field goal in that situation, even more criticism had been levied on the play they ended up running.
QB Kenny Pickett had just been injured the play before while getting down to the 1-yard line, so this was Mitch Trubisky’s first snap. LG Isaac Seumalo had also just exited with a shoulder injury. The Steelers ran out of the shotgun in 11 personnel with Harris set five yards back behind the line of scrimmage.
And reporters attempted to get his thoughts on that decision when he spoke to the media yesterday. Asked by Mike Prisuta if he has any preference—shotgun or under center—for short-yardage runs, Harris declined to take the bait.
“I’m not saying nothing”, he said, via the team’s website. “Because it seems like y’all take my stuff and just run off with it, so, I don’t. I don’t”.
While he did ultimately respond to the question that he doesn’t have a preference—whether that’s true or not—the point is well taken all the same. There is nothing to be gained by indulging in those questions. Who benefits if Harris says that he would rather have run a different play under those circumstances? Nobody in the locker room or on the coaching staff.
Of course, part of the job of a reporter is to try to get people on record about significant subjects, and it’s been determined that the Steelers’ decision to run out of the shotgun from the 1-yard line was a significant moment in their loss to the Cardinals. E for effort on that one.
But it’s easy to understand why players grow frustrated when being posed questions such as these that they can only lose by answering. Even if he were to go on a rant about how it doesn’t matter what play was called and that it’s still on the players to execute it, that wouldn’t help anything.
One thing I will say is that it would have been reasonable under those circumstances to dispense with any efforts to mask the fact that it was going to be a run play. Everyone in the stadium knew, not matter how many wide receivers were on the field or how far back the running back was set, that the ball was not going to be put in the air on the backup quarterback’s first snap of the game on fourth down from the goal line.
