The play made by Pittsburgh Steelers kick returner Godwin Igwebuike with 2:19 left in the second quarter of the Week 18 finale against the Baltimore Ravens is drawing quite a bit of praise, due to the heads-up nature in which he went out of bounds and laid down before reaching back inbounds to gain possession of the ball, leading to a penalty on the Ravens.
While he is receiving a ton of praise from the local and national media, as well as the fan base for the high-IQ play, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin, during his weekly press conference ahead of Wild Card matchup against the Buffalo Bills, brushed off the play a bit. He said that Igwebuike was just being a professional and that the Steelers would have been “hacked off” if he didn’t make the right play in that instance.
“He did it and I’m thankful that he did it, but those are procedural things that we work all the time. We’d have probably been hacked off had he not done it, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said to reporters, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “Probably you get more attention when you don’t do it.”
The Steelers do work on the procedural stuff all the time, especially on special teams under coordinator Danny Smith. He’s always looking for some loopholes in the rules to take advantage in the Steelers’ favor, and the play by Igwebuike is an example of that.
Of course, the Steelers aren’t the first team to do that. The Green Bay Packers, as Steelers Depot’s Alex Kozora pointed out after the Igwebuike play, have done it often over the years.
But in a big spot in bad conditions, Igwebuike seized his upon his moment and made the smart play.Â
That hasn’t always been the case with the Steelers in those situations. In fact, Tomlin pointed out Gunner Olszewski’s mental error earlier in the season on a kickoff, the latter catching the kickoff and then stepping out of bounds, giving the Steelers awful field position.Â
“Gunner was in one of them circumstances earlier in the season, and we were probably hacked off that he didn’t,” Tomlin said regarding Olszewski making the wrong play earlier in the season. “It’s just procedural things that you go through in terms of preparedness that’s professional and I credit [Igwebuike] for being professional.
“But you guys act like he did a stupid-human trick. He was just a professional.”
Igwebuike made a smart, professional play. That’s why the Steelers went after him earlier in the season, signing him off the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad and inserting him into the starting lineup as the kick returner. He’s carved out a key role for the Steelers on special teams, and that experience and understanding of the rules paid off in a major way in Week 18.
Credit to Igwebuike, even if Tomlin brushed it off as being sort of routine.
