Defensive Coordinators Hate Him! Russell Wilson Discovers One Weird Trick to Unlock Steelers Offense
Turns out, you should throw deep to George Pickens. A lot
Oh man, did it ever look terrible for the Steelers’ offense through their first four possessions.
Sure, the game started promisingly enough. A modest seven-play, 42-yard drive that led to a field goal inspired some cautious optimism on the North Shore.
And then?
Three plays. Nine yards. Punt.
Three plays. Negative two yards. Punt. A smattering of boos.
Three plays. Two yards. Punt. A lot more boos.
Russell Wilson, the man at the center of the maelstrom? Two for his first eight, for a whopping 19 yards. There was a bad drop by Calvin Austin in there, but by and large, Wilson looked jittery and rusty, and Mike Tomlin looked like a dunce for starting him.
And then? A moonball saved the day.
Trailing 7-3 and facing 2nd-and-17 from his own 24-yard line, Wilson dropped back and heaved up a bomb down the left sideline for George Pickens.
The ball was underthrown, Pickens was tightly covered, but it didn’t matter. He came back to the ball and one-handed it, beating New York’s Brandin Echols for a 44-yard gain.
The drive eventually stalled out, in part because of an ill-advised run call inside the Jets’ 10-yard line, but it still yielded a field goal. And while Beanie Bishop’s interception with just over a minute to go in the first half was the play that changed the game, the bomb to Pickens was the first sign of actual life from the offense.
As it turns out, that the play was the start of a trickle that turned into a flood.