The Pittsburgh Steelers had everything rolling offensively for most of their loss last Thursday night. It was working well enough for them to eventually try a flea flicker. The play didn’t work, and based on Rodgers’ words to Warren on the field afterwards, there seemed to be some miscommunication. Arthur Smith spoke about the attempt on Thursday during his weekly press conference.
“It was a package play, and we package a lot of things,” Smith said via a team-provided transcript. “Ultimately, when the other nine are doing one thing, and two guys don’t, you got a miscommunication. So, it was packaged and alert to go to the flea flicker. Ultimately, that’s on me. I don’t blame the guy that didn’t get it. You look back and say, why did it happen? We practice it. We’ve had it up for a couple weeks. So, I go back and look at the small things, how we packaged it and communication at the line, and so that’s what happens. It was a run package with the flea flicker.”
Smith explains that the play was part of a package, and that it was alerted to go to the flea flicker. Warren clearly thought it was, but once he tossed it back, everything seemed jumbled, and Rodgers simply threw the ball into the turf. Afterwards, television cameras caught Rodgers expressing confusion, to say the least.
Speaking to the media after the game, Rodgers mentioned that in his view, it shouldn’t have been a flea flicker and that Arthur Smith’s unit wasn’t on the same page.
Fortunately, that was one of the only real mishaps from the Steelers’ offense. Rodgers was terrific, throwing four touchdowns for the second time this year, and he led the league in touchdown passes for a short time after Thursday’s game with 14 on the season. He was scrambling to create plays, looking much more comfortable in the backfield, and aside from two wonky interceptions, he had a terrific game.
However, the Steelers only thought about a flea flicker because they were running the ball so well. Warren had arguably his best game of the year. Running 16 times, he picked up 127 yards, an average of 7.9 yards per carry.
Next week, the Steelers have a tougher matchup against a talented Green Bay defense. Rodgers and Warren are both coming into this game off some great performances. But Arthur Smith’s offense will need to be on the same page this time around.
