On Monday, the Pittsburgh Steelers were guilty of many inexplicable plays against the Washington Football Team. This gives you just part of the picture as to why the Steelers lost 23-17 to Washington and are no longer undefeated.
But perhaps no play was more puzzling, while at the same time illuminating as a fourth-down play late in the game. Pittsburgh came out to go for it on fourth-and-one with the game on the line, 12 personnel, went empty set and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger tried some sort of lob to rookie running back Anthony McFarland Jr. that went incomplete.
The play call made not sense, the throw wasn’t great and McFarland’s read on the pass was even worse. Nevertheless, when head coach Mike Tomlin spoke to the media after the game he defended the play and said McFarland was absolutely the No. 1 option.
So just so we all understand. On a team with wide receivers Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool, JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Washington along with tight end Eric Ebron, the call on the biggest play of the game was to the rookie running back with five career receptions coming into the game? There’s a lot to unpack with that decision but it really encapsulates what all went wrong on Monday.
