Rare as it is, no one wants to be unprepared for a Hail Mary. If 2024 has shown anything, those plays can end in game winners. Just ask the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Sunday opponent. Two weeks ago, QB Jayden Daniels found some magic on a walk-off throw to stun the Chicago Bears.
DC Teryl Austin is making sure that doesn’t happen to Pittsburgh. Speaking to reporters Thursday, he said defending the Hail Mary is part of the team’s practice routine.
“It’s a situational football thing,” Austin said via a team-issued transcript. “It’s one thing you never do full speed. We always pay tribute to it. We always make sure we’ve done it ever since I’ve been here in terms of that on our Saturday practice. We’ll continue to do so. Hope when this situation, or if that situation arises, that we handle it the correct way.”
The Saturday practice Austin refers to is the team’s walkthrough. Held behind closed doors, they can put the finishing touches on the week’s game plan. It often emphasis situational football. Low red zone, fourth down, and things like combating Hail Marys.
As Austin says, it’s not done at pace. Walkthroughs are, as the name implies, slowed down. Often, they don’t even occur on a field. For road games when the Steelers must leave early, they can take place in the ballroom of the hotel where the team is staying. The point isn’t to simulate the play at full speed but to make sure everyone knows how to handle whichever way the Hail Mary unfolds.
That starts with realizing the play is going on. A lesson Bears CB Tyrique Stevenson learned the hard way on the final play against the Commanders. Infamously, he was distracted by jawing with fans as QB Jayden Daniels snapped the ball, not realizing the play was happening for several seconds. As fate would have it, it was Stevenson who tipped the ball up into the air – a Hail Mary no-no – into the waiting arms of WR Noah Brown.
Daniels isn’t the only one to strike gold this season. New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers found WR Allen Lazard at the end of the first half against the Buffalo Bills.
The keys to stopping the Hail Mary? Make sure to knock the ball down, not bat it into the air. Box out the receiver so he can’t leap in front of you. Have a player behind the scrum to take care of any tipped pass, another thing the Bears failed to do. Some teams even get creative with their rushes. Blitzing off the edge on a Hail Mary is one strategy to force the ball out quicker. There’s no Hail Mary if the quarterback doesn’t have time to wind up and receivers don’t have time to run to the end zone.
Fortunately, the Steelers haven’t been on the wrong side of those plays. They had a close call in the 1995 AFC Championship Game when Colts QB Jim Harbaugh nearly completed one against them. On the other side, the Steelers nearly hit one against the Atlanta Falcons in 2002, WR Plaxico Burress falling one yard shy in what became a tie.
If Washington comes down to needing a Hail Mary to win, Pittsburgh’s odds of victory are high. But the game isn’t over until the clock reaches triple zeroes. Every scenario until then must be planned for. And the Steelers take it seriously.
