Pittsburgh Steelers QB Russell Wilson may be looking forward to Christmas as much as anybody in the world. After his critical two turnovers on Saturday, he surely wants to try to redeem himself. His pick-six interception in the fourth quarter was backbreaking. While more excusable, his fumble in the red zone was just as pivotal in their loss to the Ravens.
Yet he seems to be curiously free from criticism there, including from former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger. On a 20-plus-yard scramble, Wilson saw a clear path to the end zone before Ar’Darius Washington flashed into view. He did what he thought was best, hoping to pick up a blocker by cutting left. Instead, he invited contact, and the defensive back knocked the ball loose.
“I don’t think he should have slid”, Roethlisberger said of Wilson fumbling while trying to score. “I think I would’ve been mad if I would’ve watched him slide and then saw the sky view and him sliding. No, go get in the end zone”. Mark Kaboly agrees with Roethlisberger.
“The interception is one thing. It’s a terrible throw; sometimes that happens. Okay, terrible situation, terrible time in the game, terrible throw, leads to a touchdown the other way and the end of the game”, he said on 93.7 The Fan. “But if you’re gonna sit there and criticize this guy for trying to score a touchdown on a run play where he’s just looking for an angle to give into the end zone, man, what are we doing here”?
Wilson, of course, could have slid. He is 36 years old, and it was a 7-7 game at the time. There was no need for a John Elway Super Bowl moment there. But he insists that he thought he was going to score, so let’s take a look at what he saw.
With the wider angle, it’s clear that Russell Wilson couldn’t have simply stayed right. Once Washington escaped MyCole Pruitt, whom Wilson anticipated blocking, it was a one-on-one open-field situation. And Kyle Hamilton would have squeezed him had he stayed right.
But sometimes the hole closes and you have to take what you can get. Wilson thought he could get past Washington. He was wrong, and if he does this 100 times, he probably only fumbles once or twice. Washington just happened to hit him at the right place at the right time, but major consequences.
The Ravens took over at their own 4-yard line, keeping a potential Steelers touchdown off the board. And they turned that Russell Wilson fumble into a 96-yard touchdown drive. But we can’t exclusively take a results-based approach to evaluating his decision here. The Steelers don’t. But he doesn’t need to be coddled, either.
