Say what you want about the way the scuffle was officiated between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers, but they would have never been in that situation had Darnell Washington played it a little safer. His block drove Darius Slay all the way to the back wall behind the end zone after the whistle was blown. The physicality was great, but at what cost?
In this case, it likely cost the Steelers four points and the chance at a brief lead because of the ensuing unnecessary roughness penalties.
“The biggest thing that bothers me in that play is, regardless of what happened after that, we gotta be smarter,” OC Arthur Smith said Wednesday during his weekly coordinator media availability via TribLive’s Chris Adamski on X. “Know when the journey’s over. Like we want to be physical and stuff, but we don’t want to be a band of pirates and do things that hurt the team.”
The Steelers would have had the ball on the Eagles’ 4-yard line with a first-down marker just a couple yards away. Instead they ended up with a 2nd and 18 from the 19-yard line. They had to settle for a field goal. The Steelers have had had enough struggles in the red zone this season as it is, so they need to be extra disciplined to make sure that pre- and post-snap penalties aren’t the reason they are limited to field goals.
“We did it to ourselves,” Smith said. “To be in that situation, and that’s the thing, Darnell — all these guys play really hard. There’s a fine line. You don’t want to get caught in that BS that led to that. The journey was over, so taking him to the wall? You could have just dumped him in the end zone and line up and play from the four.”
If Washington had not continued driving Slay out of bounds and after the whistle to end the play, it would have been looked at as an amazing block. Now that play will be remembered for the wrong reasons. It limited the Steelers to a field goal and provided an “extra boost” to the Eagles’ defense. That’s a boost they probably didn’t need given how well they were doing against the Steelers up to that point.
The offense isn’t built to overcome when it gets behind the chains. That’s especially the case when George Pickens is unavailable with an injury. A touchdown on that drive could have changed the dynamic of the game with Pittsburgh protecting a lead.
The Steelers are at their best when they play sound football and avoid shooting themselves in the foot. They are normally the ones who capitalize on others’ mistakes. As we saw on Sunday, things don’t go so well when they are the ones making the silly mistakes.
