With his critical late play on Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers S Minkah Fitzpatrick reminded us that football is a game of inches. Because that’s how close the Washington Commanders came to picking up a pivotal fourth-down conversion before suffering just their third loss of the season. And after the game, Fitzpatrick talked to Albert Breer about how so much of that play came before the snap.
He told Breer that the Steelers anticipated the Commanders looking for TE Zach Ertz given the down and distance. Commanders QB Jayden Daniels admitted he couldn’t see the sticks when he threw. The ball pulled Ertz behind the sticks, and Fitzpatrick and S Damontae Kazee made sure to keep him there.
They knew he would be there, but they didn’t get to the spot on time. So Fitzpatrick and Kazee did the next best thing, which was make sure that’s as far as he got. Just inches away from converting on fourth down, the 250-pound tight end could not make the Steelers budge.
“Usually, I lean away from it and then drive on it once he throws the ball,”, Fitzpatrick told Breer about how he typically plays a setup like the fourth-down pass to Ertz. “He sat kind of far. Usually, they sit it in between the hashes. He sat down on the far hash. I was reading the quarterback. Once he threw it, it was make the break and get there”.
The officials’ initial spot on the play was comically bad, but Ertz didn’t help himself by touching his knee down. Once he did so, all Fitzpatrick and Kazee needed to do was tag him down. Presumably, he expected to be able to get up and turn upfield. But the Steelers were prepared to meet him, even if they didn’t get there at the catch point.
“Ideally, we want to try to get our hands on the ball before he catches it”, Fitzpatrick admitted. But he and Kazee arrived too late to break up the Ertz catch. As Fitzpatrick explained, he expected Ertz to move more toward the middle of the field, between the hashes. Instead, he broke down and sat just before the far hash, so he had farther to run. But he and Kazee combined to make the stop, the latter nearer to the play.
The Commanders turned the ball over on downs on the Steelers’ 41-yard line, without the opportunity to attempt a potential go-ahead field goal. Minkah Fitzpatrick and the Steelers knew what they were playing for. Give them eight-and-a-half yards, but not nine, and that’s what they did.
The Steelers still had to close out the game, the offense struggling to do so. Once again, though, they used strategy to their advantage. Rather than send the punt team out, Tomlin had his offense go out on the field and simulate running a play to bait the Commanders, and they jumped. And Fitzpatrick knew his tackle had preserved the win.
