The Steelers had just returned the point margin to one score when Jaxon Smith-Njigba called his shot and flipped the field. After a gaffe on a kick return gave the Seahawks a 10-point lead, Pittsburgh responded with a nine-play field goal drive. Hoping the defense could hold up, the Steelers blared Renegade, but it backfired.
After converting a 3rd and 9, Sam Darnold found Jaxon Smith-Njigba down the field for 43 yards, beating Jalen Ramsey. After the game, he told Mike Florio, he wanted that play based on what he saw from the Steelers earlier.
“It’s a play that I really wanted in the first half”, Smith-Njigba said. “I told Sam Darnold in the first half if we get that play, let’s do it”. He added of Ramsey, “I don’t think he was expecting me to run the bomb” on that play.
On the first two plays of the drive, the Seahawks ran the ball with Zach Charbonnet. He totaled a combined one yard on those two plays, however, before they put the ball in the air. After a 19-yard completion, Smith-Njigba’s big play put the Seahawks on the Steelers’ 10. Three plays later, on 3rd and 19, they allowed Kenneth Walker to race through the defense for a touchdown.
According to Florio, Smith-Njigba told him he saw the Steelers in a single-high safety look, believing they were expecting the Seahawks to run the ball instead, based on their play selection from similar formations throughout the game. This is why, he said, he believes Ramsey wasn’t expecting the deep pass.
Although he didn’t score, Smith-Njigba caught eight passes for 103 yards against the Steelers. Through two games this year, he has 17 catches for 227 yards. Coming off a Pro Bowl season in 2024, he could be in for a career year.
And plays like the “Blazer X”, as he told Florio was the name of the play on which he burned Ramsey, will certainly help his case. While Ramsey wasn’t in horrible position, the replay backs up Smith-Njigba’s belief that he wasn’t expecting the deep ball.
The Seahawks did align in a heavy formation, so throwing out of such a look is giving the Steelers a taste of their own medicine. Pittsburgh countered with four down linemen, going with just three defensive backs. Juan Thornhill, the lone safety, came down to cover the pulling tight end, who stayed in to block. That left Seattle with a one-on-one, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba won.
