Sometimes, you gotta kick six field goals to victory. It’s not ideal, it’s not your game plan, but when it’s Week 1 and you’re on the road against an unfamiliar opponent with a quarterback you decided on starting two hours before kickoff, winning is all that matters. If that means six field goals, so be it. WR George Pickens’ 33-yard catch set up one of them, giving Pittsburgh a positive note to end the first half on.
After QB Kirk Cousins hit TE Kyle Pitts for a touchdown, Pittsburgh seemed destined to go into the half down 10-6. The passing game had done little over the first 30 minutes with little reason to believe the final 30 seconds would be different. After short completions to WR Calvin Austin III and TE Pat Freiermuth, Pittsburgh had nine seconds and essentially one last chance to get into field-goal range.
That’s when Justin Fields rolled left, threw right, and found Pickens down to the Falcons’ 25. Let’s break it down.
Boot left with a two-man route to that side. Atlanta is playing split-field coverage. Cover 2 to the bottom, Pickens’ side, and match principles up top. The corners carry No. 1 and No. 2 vertically. Nothing is available for Fields. He does a great job to square his shoulders and hips and fire cross-body to Pickens, showing the arm talent to make that kind of throw with velocity and placement.
Pickens sells the route well. Eyes and hips pointed to the middle of the field to threaten the crosser/post, influencing S Jessie Bates to turn his hips inside even though he’s supposed to be on the inside of the numbers and defending anything outside and vertical. Fields’ rollout to the left also has an obvious factor, Bates not thinking that ball is going from left hash to right sideline.
Here’s a look at Pickens’ route. Smooth and sells it well against Bates.
Pickens stems his route to the sideline and Fields puts it on him for an easy completion. Pickens gets a little too risky trying to break the tackle and score, nearly running out of time. But the officials ruled him out of bounds at the 25, making the post-catch activity moot.
One other small element on the play. Nice ID and help by RT Broderick Jones to pick up the rusher behind him, making sure Fields had time to get this ball off.
It’s a safe bet that throwing to Pickens wasn’t the intent of the play. But the Steelers made it work on the fly. Fields had the wherewithal to progress to him and showed good mechanics to make a strong and accurate throw. Pickens ran a good route and showed off how much he’s grown as a route runner and improved the nuances of his game. It resulted in a 33-yard pickup that led to Chris Boswell nailing a 44-yard field goal, making it a one-point game heading into half. Block by block, the Steelers re-took the lead. They’ll look to keep stacking next Sunday.
