Center-quarterback exchanges have been way more of a story than they should be during the Pittsburgh Steelers’ preseason. After two botched snaps in the preseason opener between Justin Fields and Nate Herbig, Fields and C Zach Frazier also had a botched snap in the preseason finale. Fields explained exactly what went wrong with the snap between him and Frazier.
Fields said he changed the protection in silent count but Frazier didn’t hear him. Spencer Anderson did, and the left guard taps the center in silent count when it’s time to snap. Since Frazier didn’t hear the protection change, he thought the tap from Anderson meant Fields was ready for the snap.
“We used silent cadence, the guard, to tap. When Spencer heard that, Zach didn’t hear me, he was telling him that I said that, so he tapped him, not knowing that Zach’s not thinking he’s telling him what the protection was, so Zach’s thinking it’s indicator for a snap and I was motioning Calvin [Austin III]. So I’m just glad it hit my hand, so it didn’t go farther back. Just something that would happen one percent of the time,” Fields said via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor on Twitter.
It’s the byproduct of what happens in a loud environment with Detroit playing in a dome at Ford Field and a crowd that sold out even the standing room seats for a preseason game. It’s not something that should happen, but Frazier didn’t hear Fields and Anderson wasn’t thinking about Frazier snapping it when he tried to alert him to the change in protection.
It was a mental mistake by Anderson and Frazier. Frazier needs to be able to hear the change in protection (which also could be on Fields for not making it as clear), and Anderson needs to realize that tapping Frazier would make him think to snap the ball. Obviously though, if the whole line changed protection except for Frazier, it would’ve been a botched play with Frazier likely not blocking the right guy.
As Fields said, it’s something that doesn’t happen often, but it was exacerbated by the fact it was Pittsburgh’s third botched snap of the preseason, although only the first by Frazier. It’s even rarer given the lead up of events with Pittsburgh being in silent count and Frazier not hearing the protection. Regardless, the snap issues need to be cleaned up.
It won’t be nearly as okay if a bad snap occurs during a regular-season game. For now, it sounds like it’s something that can be chalked up to a rookie mistake from Frazier and just general inexperience from Anderson, who only played 28 regular-season snaps and just two on offense for the Steelers last season as a rookie.
