In the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, one big turning point in the game was the sequence leading up to halftime that saw the Steelers surrender their lead that they were never able to regain. The Steelers were up 13-7 and got the ball back following a 4th and 1 stop on the one-yard line. There was 3:23 remaining in the half, and things were still looking up for the Steelers at the time. The Colts would receive the ball after halftime, so the Steelers had a chance to drive the field and possibly add to their lead with plenty of time left and three timeouts in their back pocket.
The Steelers were backed up on their own one-yard line, but a defensive pass interference call on third down gave them some breathing room and advanced the team to the 26-yard line. The next third down, it was 3rd and 3, and QB Mitch Trubisky attempted to get the ball to Pat Freiermuth, but a miscommunication between the two saw the pass go well behind Freiermuth and fall incomplete.
Freiermuth was asked about that play during Tuesday’s post-practice media availability posted on the team’s website.
“Yep,” Freiermuth said when asked if the play was a miscommunication. “I’ll take credit for that. It was bad on my end. Should’ve chased the Mike [linebacker] they were in Tampa 2. Should’ve chased the Mike and sat it down. Tried to do too much, so that’s on me.”
Here is the play Freiermuth is referring to from the end of the first half.
The Colts were playing Tampa 2 defense, which means the inside linebacker is dropping to cover the intermediate-to-deep middle of the field. Freiermuth did a nice job running right at him to force the linebacker to open up his hips, but he broke inside instead of sitting at the sticks for an easy first down. The easy takeaway at first glance is to say Trubisky missed him, but Freiermuth is taking responsibility. Trubisky’s read is that linebacker dropping, and he read it correctly here.
The mishap resulted in a punt for the Steelers. The Colts would get the ball back with 44 seconds remaining in the half, and four plays later, they were in the end zone. They took the lead 14-13 going into halftime, and the Steelers never recovered.
Mike Tomlin talked about this play as a big turning point in the game during his Monday press conference posted on the team’s YouTube page.
“I thought we had a chance to avoid that,” said Tomlin. “If we converted a very makeable third down on the front side of that two minute when we still had the ball. I think we had Freiermuth over the ball in the middle of the field versus zone defense, and we weren’t able to connect there…We missed a significant possession down there and wasn’t able to maintain possession of the ball and maybe put some points on the board ourselves prior to the half.”
