In Week 8, the Washington Commanders beat the Chicago Bears on a game-winning Hail Mary after CB Tyrique Stevenson was taunting fans before getting back into the play. He didn’t get on his assignment in WR Noah Brown, who caught the game winner.
Last night, Pittsburgh Steelers WR George Pickens got into some sort of altercation during the Hail Mary on the final play of the game with Cleveland Browns CB Greg Newsome II in Cleveland’s 24-19 win. And on Good Morning Football Friday, analyst Kyle Brandt argued that Pickens’ actions on the Hail Mary might’ve been more egregious than Stevenson’s.
“I thought I saw the strangest Hail Mary play of the year and maybe I did in Tyrique Stevenson, [but] if Pickens is fighting with a guy before the ball has even landed, it might be worse. ‘Cause say what you want about Tyrique getting distracted by Commanders’ fans that day, that was really crazy, at least he checked back in and got back in the play,” Brandt said. “The thing that kills me about this play is this is exactly what Pickens is out here for, to jump and make crazy acrobatic catches. This is where he eats. This is the kind of play he can make, and they could win a game. And he is so logged out psychologically that all he wants to do is fight.”
Reviewing the play, Newsome did his job and boxed out Pickens, essentially taking him out of the play. Pickens could’ve given more of an effort, but Newsome did what defensive backs are taught to do on a Hail Mary (and what Stevenson was supposed to do) and took away Pickens on the play. It’s not as if Pickens took himself out of the play by immediately going to fight Newsome or not making at least an initial effort to put himself in a position to make the catch.
That’s where I’d challenge Brandt on calling what Pickens did worse than Stevenson’s gaffe. It’s immature and another instance of Pickens letting his emotions get the better of him. And he did grab Newsome before the ball landed, but at that point Pickens was already out of bounds. Once he goes out of bounds, he can’t come back in and make the catch because it would be illegal touching, so it’s not as if he could’ve gotten back into the play at that point.
Pickens is tracking the ball the whole way until he goes out of the back of the end zone, and Newsome just does his job well. Pickens wasn’t going into the play solely looking for a fight, and while he can’t let his frustration bubble up that way, to insinuate that he had no intention of making a catch on that play is a little ridiculous.
