When you’re built like 6-7, 260-pound TE Darnell Washington, you’re a hard man to stop in the red zone. Though it took 19 regular season games, Washington found the end zone for the first time of his NFL career. With Washington being responsible for the first and still the only end zone trip Pittsburgh has had over its first two weeks, QB Justin Fields thinks OC Arthur Smith will go back to that well going forward.
“That’s the only one he’s lined up wide since now,” Fields told reporters via the team’s YouTube channel. “But since that play happened, I’m guessing Arthur’s gonna go back and have him align wide and cook something up. But we’ve been practicing those since OTAs. Glad it came to fruition and we were able to execute.”
Washington split out of an empty set late in the first quarter. Towering over S P.J. Locke, QB Justin Fields hit him with a perfectly placed back shoulder throw. Washington turned back, made a strong hands catch, boxed out Locke, and scored.
It put Pittsburgh up 10-0, enough of a lead to ride the rest of the way to a 13-6 victory.
While it’s not a formation the team has used much early in the regular season, it’s an alignment the team has frequently used in his first two training camps. Washington saw a couple jump balls this summer, though he struggled to finish, once losing out to the far smaller S Damontae Kazee. As a rookie under former OC Matt Canada, he was peppered with plenty more targets.
Smith doesn’t prefer throwing fades on the goal line for its 50/50 nature, a percentage most coaches don’t want to test. But this was a back shoulder play that’s supposed to have a higher chance to hit. With a good throw and catch, it produced points.
Despite Washington playing in every regular season game last season, this was only Washington’s ninth career catch. But it was obviously his biggest as he literally and physically came up large to beat the Broncos and effort the Steelers to their first 2-0 start since 2010.
