Before the Pittsburgh Steelers offense got going Sunday afternoon, they spent much of the first 25 minutes going backward. With penalties and sacks, the offense struggled to find traction despite the Las Vegas Raiders’ middling defense that was hampered by injuries. The biggest eyesore of them all was the Steelers’ failed trick play midway through the second quarter. In theory, RB Aaron Shampklin was supposed to take the toss, pitch it to TE Pat Freiermuth, pivoting towards him, and Freiermuth pitch it back to QB Justin Fields, who would take a shot to a wide-open receiver downfield.
Instead, Fields received the pitch and was promptly crushed by Raiders LB Divine Deablo for a 13-yard loss. Instead of a big play, the Steelers stalled their own drive, ending with a punt.
Weighing in on the play, QB Ben Roethlisberger says it was the wrong time for the Steelers to make that call. And someone should’ve stopped it.
“It’s a play that you probably need a little more time on,” Roethlisberger said on the latest edition of his Footbahlin podcast. “You don’t necessarily want a team blitzing on. That’s a situation where I would think that, that you want to either have a couple things happen. You want to have a quarterback or the ability to say to kill it. ‘Kill, kill, kill, kill.’ Which means that craziness is off. We’re gonna now just hand it off and run it. That’s what we would do on flea flicker or a play.”
Here’s a look at the play. While some Raiders’ players stepped up, the corner covering WR Scotty Miller wasn’t fooled and stayed step-for-step with him, creating, at best, a jump-ball opportunity with a small receiver. But none of that mattered. Deablo made a bee-line for Fields, nailing him right after he received the ball.
As our pre-game scouting report noted, the Raiders are a heavy blitz team, especially on second down. They showed an aggressive look here that might have been more of a run blitz, but it was still not a favorable look to give Pittsburgh time to make the play work.
Roethlisberger says if not a check at the line of scrimmage, Mike Tomlin should’ve called timeout and prevented the disaster.
“You’d like your coordinator to be yelling at Coach Tomlin, ‘Call timeout. This does not look good.'”
The sack was compounded by a delay of game the following play, turning 2nd and 10 on the Raiders’ 46 into 3rd and 28 on the Steelers’ 36. Even that play, a short-designed screen/drag to WR Calvin Austin III, fell incomplete, forcing a punt.
These calls are always results-based. If they work, as it did for the Detroit Lions at nearly the exact same moment, they’re celebrated for a gutsy and genius decision. If not, you’re wearing the dunce cap in the corner. But Roethlisberger’s point is well-taken: if the play out of the huddle looks like it’ll end in failure, bailing on the call is better than snapping and hoping for the best.
