Four days after having two crucial turnovers that hindered the Pittsburgh Steelers in a road loss to the Baltimore Ravens, veteran quarterback Russell Wilson made another crucial mistake early in the Christmas Day matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs at Acrisure Stadium Wednesday.
Trailing 13-0 and finally finding life offensively, the Steelers appeared to be into the end zone on an 8-yard touchdown from Jaylen Warren. However, a holding call on Darnell Washington wiped out the touchdown that would have cut it to a one score game. On the very next play, Wilson threw an ill-advised pass into the end zone intended for tight end Pat Freiermuth that was intercepted but Chiefs’ safety Justin Reid.
Last week, Wilson had a crucial fumble inside the 5-yard line that kept points off the board, and then threw a pick-6 in the fourth quarter, playing a factor in the 34-17 loss.
He knew he needed to bounce back and be better against the Chiefs, but the start on Wednesday was not promising, and the interception was critical, ending what appeared to be a very promising chance for points to get their feet back underneath them after a poor start.
Prior to the interception, Wilson threw a great ball to wide receiver George Pickens, firing a strike over Chiefs’ cornerback Trent McDuffie to Pickens streaking down the sideline, resulting in a 41-yard gain. On the next play, Warren ripped off a 22-yard run, and the old pickup truck that the Steelers’ offense seemingly is, according to coordinator Arthur Smith, was finally starting to get rolling.
The interception wiped that all away though.
On the Netflix broadcast, former NFL WR Nate Burleson believes that the INT might have been on Pickens, who didn’t run the go route that the play seemed to indicate, which didn’t hold Reid out of the middle of the field, leading to the interception.
