The Pittsburgh Steelers trailed the Buffalo Bills 21-0 well into the second quarter, nearly until halftime. For the next 25 minutes or so, they outscored the Bills 17-3, ultimately making it a one-score game with plenty of time left to play before losing 31-17.
It was an excellent display of perseverance that came to a screeching halt not long after. That was only the second catastrophically deflating moment of the game, however. The first was the sequence that led from QB Mason Rudolph’s red-zone interception to a 52-yard touchdown scramble by Bills QB Josh Allen.
Facing a 3rd and 7 from the Buffalo 48, Allen saw an opening in the middle and took it. They likely got away with a hold on S Eric Rowe, but what more people are talking about is the stutter-step he took that some interpreted as a fake slide.
“You definitely see him slow down to alert the guy that he was gonna slide, but I don’t know what you’re supposed to do as a defender”, DL Cameron Heyward argued on his Not Just Football podcast. “That happens and then look at the ramifications of it. Because then Myles Jack takes it in his hands and he’s like, ‘I have to go for him because he’s not giving himself up all the time’”.
“I think it’s a load of crap”.
Allen started chopping his feet once he approached the Steelers’ 45, nearly coming to a halt at the 42 before breaking to his left. Picking up a block on Levi Wallace, he broke a tackle attempt by Damontae Kazee before splitting Minkah Fitzpatrick and Patrick Peterson, winning the footrace to the end zone.
One could argue that some defenders appear to be under the impression he is in the process of giving himself up. Fitzpatrick in particular looks as though he is monitoring the quarterback, anticipating a slide. To the best of my knowledge, he has not commented on the play.
After the game, Jack, as Heyward mentioned, attributed a late-game hit on Allen following a scramble to the earlier play. He said that he didn’t know if Allen was going to give himself up that time or not so he felt he had to make sure. It cost him a penalty and the team 15 yards.
“We look to protect quarterbacks and we look to do this, but, man, you’re taking away from the game when you do that”, Heyward said, who felt the officiating on the whole was “tragic”. “You get these quarterbacks that act like they’re going out of bounds but then they skirt up the sideline and they add more yards”.
The 6’5”, 237-pound Allen certainly takes advantage of his size and athleticism on the ground. And likely the protections that he receives as a quarterback. He rushed for an NFL quarterback-record 15 touchdowns this season and has an incredible 53 rushing touchdowns in his six years with 3,611 rushing yards.
“If a quarterback turns on the gears and is running full tilt, he shouldn’t be given the clearance to just make a decision right then and there to either trick the ref or trick the team”, Heyward said, clearly in favor of the rules being modified.
It is a delicate situation for defenders, to some degree. They already have enough split-second decisions to make. On top of that, they have to worry about quarterbacks exploiting their protections when they scramble. From one moment to the next they go from a runner to a defenseless player. And you have to figure that out perhaps before it’s clear he’s going to go into a defenseless posture. He may only look like he is and then continue running. That’s how at least some Steelers defenders feel of that 52-yard run.
