The Pittsburgh Steelers are starting to get TE Pat Freiermuth more involved, capped by another touchdown against the Cleveland Browns. In fact, he has two touchdowns in as many weeks—and they are the first explosive-play touchdowns of his career.
On Sunday, Russell Wilson found him from 20 yards out on a seam route. That might not sound so surprising, but Freiermuth revealed they never got to run that play as executed in-game. Wilson said after the game that they tweaked it late in the week, but Freiermuth elaborated.
“The funny part is all week we repped it as me running a little stick route. So, obviously not up the seam, just a little stick”, Freiermuth said of his touchdown from Wilson on 102.5 WDVE with Gerry Dulac. “On film, our scout team, they played it a little different, a little weird”.
“We went back, and we looked at it, and the seam was gonna be wide open”, Freiermuth said, confirming what Wilson had already said. “They played man coverage against us, so I just had to win, but the seam was open. We put that in, I think, Friday after practice. So we didn’t even rep—I don’t even think we repped it once. It was just us being on the same page”.
A stick route is a staple of a tight end’s route tree, a short route designed to find the soft spot in a zone. If in man coverage, Freiermuth would have to vacate and run to open space. But the way the Steelers saw this play design being covered, they knew they could adjust. They found the seam, and they found the end zone 20 yards later.
The Steelers used late motion to execute a three-route concept with Calvin Austin III and Ben Skowronek designed to draw coverage outside the numbers. That provided Pat Freiermuth a one-on-one opportunity against Grant Delpit, which he won. Russell Wilson also did a great job of looking off the other safety before fitting the ball where it needed to go.
In all, it was a well-designed play, and one that went through the workshop. The fact that the Steelers never even got to run this play in practice after modifying it with the seam route just adds another layer to it. But it is a play they should certainly keep in the playbook as long as it keeps working.
The result was the fifth touchdown of the season for Freiermuth, just the second time he has had more than two. After catching seven from Ben Roethlisberger as a rookie, he now has three from Russell Wilson and two from Justin Fields. And with four games to go, he has a chance of matching or surpassing his career high. With 13 catches for 175 yards and two scores over the past three weeks, I like his chances.
