In Week 10 against the Washington Commanders last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers dialed up a fake punt deep in their own territory. Miles Killebrew took the snap as the up back and threw to a wide-open James Pierre, who came free as the gunner. Pierre dropped the pass, leading to a Commanders touchdown.
On Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast, Killebrew explained the lead-up to the play and said Pierre was making the catch all week in practice.
“When I threw that fake punt, first of all, bro, that was a dime. I was working with quarterbacks leading up to that. I was ready,” Killebrew said. “[James Pierre], I don’t know, man. He was catching them all week.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Killebrew joked.
Cam Heyward said that, at the moment, the Steelers supported Pierre after the play, but after pulling off a 28-27 win, the team “let him have it” in the locker room.
“I think when it happened, I will say we could’ve just given you a hard time, but we were like, we got you, bro. But after the game, we let him have it.”
Obviously, it was all good-natured, especially after a win. If the Steelers had lost that game, the team wouldn’t have been hard on Pierre, but since it ultimately didn’t matter given the win, they were able to rag on their teammate a little bit.
Heyward’s message to Pierre after the game was to “just let it go” and said that if they had lost, that wouldn’t have been the reason. But the Steelers rallied around Pierre in the moment and made the plays necessary to get the win.
It was a well-thrown ball by Killebrew, and he was clearly ready to go for the moment. But despite Pierre being reliable all week in practice, the bright lights of a game setting got to him, and he let the ball go through his hands. It could’ve been disastrous, as it allowed Washington to tie the game instead of the Steelers potentially extending their early 7-0 lead, but the Steelers had a solid team effort to get the win.
The Steelers were prepared to call the fake punt because, on tape, they saw the Commanders had pinched their jammers in the past. When the Steelers saw that look, they were able to check to the fake. It was a great play call, but the execution wasn’t there. But it didn’t matter in the end, and now it’s just a footnote and an interesting story from one of the team’s better all-around games of the season.
