Pittsburgh Steelers special teams ace Miles Killebrew had an opportunity to go one-for-one as an NFL passer against the Washington Commanders a couple of weeks ago during a fake punt. He did everything correctly, but James Pierre dropped the pass.
Killebrew hopes that isn’t his only pass attempt in his career.
“It hurt after the game. I look at the stat line, Miles Killebrew: zero-for-one,” Killebrew said via 93.7 The Fan’s PM Team on YouTube. “I hope it’s not my last. Hey, listen. For the rest of the team’s listening, if you got any scouts on the air, guess what? It’s not gonna be our last. Yeah, you guys better act accordingly.”
Killebrew is the personal protector and, therefore, gets the direct snaps for those types of plays, which makes him the quarterback for the fake punt passing play by default. Funny enough, he made that pass with a broken finger.
“It’s funny because I’m playing with a broken finger,” Killebrew said. “I broke my finger back in preseason, so I got a splint on it right now…I wouldn’t even categorize myself as the top 10 best passers on the team, but I’ll be damned if I’m not gonna get that ball out of there.”
Again, the throw wasn’t really the issue. Killebrew pretty much put it right on the money for Pierre. It’s even more impressive, given the fact that he is working with a broken finger.
There was a lot of chatter about that fake punt at the time because it drastically shifted the game’s momentum. The Steelers dominated the early portions of the game against the Commanders, but the fake punt set up an easy touchdown to tie the score.
Mike Tomlin told the media he would do it again and wouldn’t allow teams to stress his punt unit by leaving guys uncovered. That is exactly what happened: They had a jammer creeping in for a block attempt.
Killebrew revealed a little about their process of calling the fake plays. He was asked if he gets the green light in certain situations or if it changes from drive to drive.
“I’m getting the green light for that. I will say for that game, I had the green light,” Killebrew said. “I had the green light for that.”
He also said that they aren’t doing anything “last second” and improvising at the line of scrimmage. It is his call as the personal protector, and there are certain situations where he can make that call, though it doesn’t sound like he has a permanent green light to make that call.
“I can check us in, just like a quarterback would be able to audible at the line of scrimmage,” Killebrew said. “It is something that is… I have the go-ahead from the top, though.”
This adds to the lore of that play a little bit. The Steelers clearly wanted to be aggressive against the Commanders and thus gave Killebrew the green light for that whole game. They practice that play in practice, and Killebrew seems to have gotten pretty good at it despite the broken finger.
As he warned other teams, it probably won’t be the last time they try that play or something similar.
