The Pittsburgh Steelers had more success in the deep and intermediate portions of the passing game over the final weeks of the season. That was largely because of the play of QB Mason Rudolph, who started the last three games and connected on a handful of passes of 10 or more air yards.
That isn’t what the Steelers aimed to do yesterday against the Buffalo Bills, however, and it got them into trouble when their hosts forced them into that position. Their intention was to run the ball, but with Buffalo crowding the line of scrimmage, it also cut out much of the short passing game.
“They did a really good job of packing the line of scrimmage and forcing us to throw the ball more vertically”, head coach Mike Tomlin said in his abbreviated post-game press conference. “Probably a little bit more vertically than we wanted to. We adjusted, we started doing that, and we started moving the football”.
They did move the ball better over time. The first half was basically a wash, an early first down on their opening drive and then a trio of three-and-out possessions. A 10-play, 79-yard drive in the waning minutes of the first quarter and four minutes into the second unfortunately ended in an end-zone interception.
On their final five possessions, the Steelers picked up at least three first downs on four of them, going three-and-out (actually four-and-out) once in between. They scored on three consecutive possessions, including touchdown passes from Rudolph to wide receivers Diontae Johnson and Calvin Austin III as well as a field goal.
The final touchdown did bring them to within striking distance at 24-17, but the Bills were able to respond with a touchdown drive of their own to pull away for good. That’s when the offense responded by being unable to move the ball. One final drive spanned 45 yards over nine plays, ending at the Bills’ 35-yard line as time expired.
In all, Rudolph attempted six “deep” passes in the official play-by-play, with means passes thrown 16 or more yards beyond the line of scrimmage in this case. It is officially five, as one incompletion was negated by a roughing-the-passer penalty late in the game.
Of the five official deep-pass attempts, Rudolph completed two, in the earlier portions of the game, including a 33-yard catch-and-run to TE Pat Freiermuth (which ended in a fumble mercifully deemed out of bounds) and one of 19 yards to WR George Pickens. His final attempt was a deep incompletion to WR Diontae Johnson, short of the receiver. He also did not connect with Pickens on two deep attempts, including one on third down, but later threw a touchdown pass to Austin on a drive on which he missed on second down.
Accordingly, he went 2-for-5 for 52 yards on deep pass attempts though other outlets classify deep-pass attempts as passes of 20 or more air yards and neither of these passes managed that. Both only traveled 19 yards.
