Early in the first quarter of Saturday’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers’ offense got wide receiver George Pickens going in the passing game.
Pickens had two catches for 30 yards on the second drive of the game, hooking up with quarterback Mitch Trubisky twice to move the chains. He had more yards on the second drive of the game than he had in the entire Thursday Night Football matchup against the New England Patriots.
The early work had to reinvigorate Pickens, right?
Wrong.
The second-year receiver, after his second catch of the drive for 15 yards, moving the chains and putting the Steelers into the red zone, went through the motions on a 1st-and-goal run from the 7-yard line to Jaylen Warren, not blocking his man at all, causing Warren to get tackled short of the goal line.
It took another three plays for the Steelers to score a 1-yard touchdown on a Trubisky quarterback sneak, but not before some initial controversy that caused the officials to change the call on the field of being short after a fumble to a touchdown.
It could have all potentially been avoided if Pickens would have just made his block on cornerback Jaylon Jones.
He didn’t, and the cameras caught the poor effort.
That has some former Steelers rather frustrated, including Chad Brown. On Twitter Saturday, Brown quote-tweeted a video of Pickens’ effort and said that it hurts his Steelers heart to see a wide receiver flat-out not blocking and giving poor effort.
“Damn…this hurts my Steelers heart. The home of the best blocking WR of all time, Hines Ward, now has multiple WRs giving this level of effort,” Brown wrote on Twitter. “That ain’t Steeler football. Not at all. #StraightUpSad”
Brown, a former Steelers linebacker, nails it. Historically, the Steelers have been known for their rough-and tumble wide receivers, ones who will mix it up as blockers and will do whatever it takes to help their team win.
Ward was a master at it. He legitimately changed the game as a blocking wide receiver during his time in the NFL. JuJu Smith-Schuster was a very good blocking wide receiver, too, while even Antonio Brown would put in the work and effort to be a blocker for the Steelers.
Pickens though, is just another example of the poor effort and attitude from that position this season. Three weeks after Diontae Johnson had poor effort against the Cincinnati Bengals on a Warren fumble one play after failing to secure a touchdown and found himself under fire from the fan base and the media, you would think that a teammate in the same position group would learn from Johnson’s mistake and not let it happen.
You’d think wrong.
As Brown said, that isn’t Steeler football. Nothing about the Steelers offense in recent years is Steeler football. From the execution to the work ethic and attitudes. It’s getting out of control.
