Interception in the Super Bowl. There’s no bigger play a defensive back could make. Just ask Cooper DeJean, who will go down in history for his now-iconic pick-six of Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LIX, propelling the Philadelphia Eagles to a world championship. Ryan Clark shared the same vision. Instead, he ended up on the wrong side of the Super Bowl highlights. Sitting down with DeJean in the latest episode of Clark’s The Pivot podcast, Clark shared how Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers dashed his dream.
“Every time Greg Jennings is at three, he runs the seam, right?” Clark told DeJean and co-hosts Fred Taylor and Channing Crowder. “Because they expect it to be on the ‘backer, especially if we two-high. So I said, ‘Man, if we go two-high and they 3×1 with Greg Jennings there, I’m gonna lock the corner. I’m going still hang in the half and I’m gonna go pick off this seam.’
“So here it is dog, 25 yard-line. I said, ‘Oh it’s it.’ So I lock Ike Taylor, I hang bro. I even open up [the opposite] way first. So Aaron eyes me and then he gets right to Greg Jennings. This is it. I already planned it. I’m finna go 90 yards in the Super Bowl after a pick. We win. It’s me, I’m at Disney World. Take the kids everything. It’s fire, right? So man, I get over there. [Rodgers] throws it right over my hands. Touchdown. Catch it in front of Troy. So now I’m sick ’cause now I know forever they gonna show that play.”
Here’s a look at the play. As Clark outlines, the Packers are 3×1 with Jennings the ‘No. 3,’ the third-most inner receiver to the left, running down the seam. That’s the route to beat split coverage, the two-high shell Troy Polamalu and Clark were in, but Clark knew the route was coming. His goal was to “lock” the backside corner Ike Taylor, putting him in straight man to allow Clark to bait Rodgers into making the seam throw and stepping in front for the pick and house call.
It didn’t turn out that way. Clark did everything right, but Rodgers still fit the ball in for a 21-yard touchdown to Jennings.
A lesser quarterback wouldn’t have placed the ball so perfectly that it zipped inches over Clark’s outstretched hand. Rodgers’ throw was perfect getting past LB James Farrior, away from Polamalu, and past Clark. The score gave Green Bay a commanding 21-3 lead and though Pittsburgh would battle back, a Rashard Mendenhall fumble to open up the fourth quarter ended hopes of the Steelers bringing it all the way back. In the end, Pittsburgh fell, 31-25.
The next drive, Rodgers let Clark know he knew what he was doing.
“Next drive they get a timeout, man, Aaron Rodgers walking off the field and goes, ’25.’ So I turned around. He goes [pinches his fingers],” Clark gesturing to show how close he was from making the play.
Rodgers was the right counter to carve up a talented Steelers defense, No. 1 in scoring during the regular season. Rodgers came out firing and finished the game with over 300 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, much to Clark’s chagrin. It remains the last Super Bowl Pittsburgh’s appeared in and perhaps the last it will play for quite some time, the current Steelers looking nowhere close to making another run. It’s one of just two Super Bowls the franchise has lost.
Ryan Clark can at least take comfort in having one Super Bowl ring, part of the historically good ’08 outfit that may have allowed a late touchdown to Arizona Cardinals WR Larry Fitzgerald but did enough to win thanks to an equally razor-thin throw by Ben Roethlisberger to WR Santonio Holmes.
At the NFL level, inches are often the difference between being remembered for glory or for failure. Ryan Clark could’ve been sitting with James Harrison in Super Bowl lore for the longest interception returns in Super Bowl history. Or alongside DeJean and his history-making moment. Instead, it was the Packers’ pick-six early in the game off Roethlisberger that proved to be a difference-maker. And Rodgers’ elite accuracy foiled Clark’s great plan.
Check out the entire conversation between DeJean, Crowder, Taylor, and Clark below.
