Following each game in the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers season, I will highlight the event, or string of events, in the game that was the turning point. Not all turning points will be earth-shattering but are meant to give a unique look at how we arrived at the outcome of the game, one that may be hard to see during the live watch.
Momentum may be impossible to measure, but anyone who’s watched a game-changing run amid a roaring crowd, or a team suddenly playing like the wind’s at its back knows it’s real. It’s the unspoken force that turns the tide—intangible yet undeniable.
For a brief moment on Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Steelers had captured the momentum. It felt like the pendulum had finally swung in their favor after holding the Eagles to a field goal to open the second half and following that with a big trick play to put the Steelers in scoring position.
You only run the flea flicker or other trick plays a few times per season so that the element of surprise is fully intact. It worked beautifully for the Steelers here.
Just like that, the Steelers had a chance to tie the game at 20-20. They even gained 13 yards in two runs immediately following Russell Wilson’s 31-yard pass to Calvin Austin III.
Then just like that, Najee Harris fumbled away the momentum. On the Steelers’ toss play, which they turn to frequently, the ball bounced right off Harris’ chest plate and onto the ground. He desperately tried to haul it in while he stumbled to the ground but only knocked it farther out of reach of any of his teammates and into the grasp of the Eagles.
Harris almost never fumbles, but this one is as just about as costly as it gets.
Officially, this fumble was given to Russell Wilson because Najee Harris never had possession, but it was solely his fault.
“I took my eyes off of it. I was looking at the hole rather than securing the football and I fumbled it,” Harris said via the Steelers’ YouTube channel.
The Eagles marched down the field and made it a two-possession game after the turnover. The Steelers would only run seven more plays the rest of the game compared to the Eagles’ 34. The pendulum of momentum hit a snag and rushed violently back in the Eagles’ favor.
