The Pittsburgh Steelers faced a big decision late in the fourth quarter, with the team facing a 4th-and-1 from the Washington 49 with 1:02 left in the game. Pittsburgh brought its offense out on the field, but DL Jer’Zhan Newton jumped offsides for the Commanders, giving the Steelers a first down and the win. Speaking to the media after the game, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin joked that we’ll “never know” if the Steelers would’ve gone for it had Washington not jumped.
“We’ll never know, will we? You know I’m a degenerate,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
It was a long one yard, and if the Steelers went for it and failed, they would’ve given the Commanders the ball right at midfield with enough time to get into field goal range and potentially take the lead and win the game. Of course, if the Steelers converted, the game was over and they would’ve won, but the ideal outcome played out with Washington jumping offsides to give the Steelers the win. It’s the one thing the defense can’t do in that spot, but Pittsburgh was able to draw the offsides and win the game.
In his postgame press conference, Russell Wilson said the Steelers had the mentality of making a play and said the team trusted Tomlin’s decision for what he wanted to do.
“It was just trust. It’s trust in Coach Tomlin, what decision he wants to make and how we want to go about it. We have the mentality of making a play, and depending on what we were gonna do, I’m not gonna tell you guys what we were gonna do, but obviously what we were able to accomplish was huge,” he said via Steelers.com.
It’s more likely than not that had the Steelers not gotten the Commanders to jump offsides, they would’ve called a timeout before the play clock ran out and punted, attempting to pin the Commanders deep and make them put a drive together without any timeouts. Giving them the ball around midfield if the Steelers did fail to convert would’ve been too risky, and it’s a decision that had the chance to cost the Steelers the game.
They likely would’ve felt more comfortable trusting their defense and pinning Washington deep, especially because the defense came through with a number of key stops late in the game. But in the end, no decision had to be made, because Wilson and Pittsburgh’s offense did their job and made the Commanders jump offsides to win and move to 7-2.
