The Steelers’ Week 4 win over the Vikings felt secure for most of its duration. A 24-21 final score made it closer than it should have been, though. With 2:08 left, one Vikings timeout, and the two-minute warning, Pittsburgh only needed a first down to finish in victory formation—until technical difficulties struck.
According to Connor Heyward, Aaron Rodgers was having trouble receiving calls in his helmet, forcing him to act as the de facto coordinator in a critical game moment.
“I think there was technical difficulties going on with the helmet,” Heyward said via the Steelers website. “But we just got up to the ball and we tried to get them to jump offsides and then we ended up having to call a timeout…His helmet went blank, so we just all lined up and tried to free snap them.”
Here is a clip of that sequence from the broadcast.
Kenneth Gainwell had just picked up five yards on second down, forcing the Vikings to use their final timeout. With extra time to figure out their plan, the Steelers called their own timeout as the play clock dwindled. They had 60 seconds of the Vikings’ timeout plus the entire play clock to get a play together. Still, they looked rushed at the line of scrimmage on third down with one yard to go.
After trying to force the Vikings offside with his cadence, Rodgers called a timeout. He looked puzzled as he walked off the field, gazing towards the sideline. Minnesota stuffed the Steelers short of the line to gain. Pittsburgh then made the controversial decision to punt rather than grind out the final yard to end the game.
Communication issues happen from time to time in the NFL, and it probably isn’t a big surprise that they happened overseas in Ireland. Over there, they aren’t used to hosting NFL games and setting up the full technology stack that the NFL requires to operate.
Thankfully, the Steelers’ defense held up on the final drive to win the game. Otherwise, this may have been a bigger talking point from a critical juncture of the game.
