Behind the Steel Curtain
Welcome back to the “One random Steelers play” series. For the full details, feel free to check out this article. But for the TL;DR: We’re using a random number generator to pick a Steelers play from the 2025 season to analyze.
For today’s edition, Google’s random number generator chose Week 7, the Steelers’ 33-31 Thursday Night Football loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, and play No. 144.
Let’s take a look:
The context: The Steelers have the ball. It’s third and four on the Pittsburgh 45-yard line. There’s 5:46 left in the fourth quarter. Pittsburgh is down 30-24.
Here’s the play:
A missed throw, but there’s actually quite a bit going on here.
As always, we’ll start before the snap, and this time, well before the snap. With a running clock, the Steelers are in no-huddle, but it’s the Bengals defense that looks the most rushed. I consulted The QB School’s video on this same game, and there J.T. O’Sullivan makes a great point: The Bengals are so late getting lined up here that Pittsburgh could’ve just quick-snapped the ball and gotten some ridiculous free yardage:
Of course, the Steelers don’t snap it here. They don’t have their play in yet, with Rodgers signaling it out in the next few seconds.
Rodgers waves both his index fingers. I interpreted that to mean “sticks,” and former NFL quarterback O’Sullivan agrees. A stick route is essentially a five-yard route where the receiver either plants and stops in a vacant zone after the break, or runs to open space if it’s man coverage.
Given that it’s third and four, calling for stick routes makes plenty of sense. Get to the first down and turn around. A quick game staple.
Pausing right before the snap, we can see that the Bengals are showing a two-high coverage. Cincinnati is in its dime package with six defensive backs and only one middle linebacker, and we can see that there’s some confusion. Look at the above picture, and you can see cornerback DJ Turner II (top of the screen, No. 20) gesturing towards his teammates.
Here’s the play the Steelers are running after the snap: At the bottom of the screen, Jonnu Smith has a stick route that he turns into an out to get open. Pat Freiermuth and DK Metcalf also run sticks. And Roman Wilson, at the top of the screen, has a go route. Running back Kenneth Gainwell stays in to chip and then leaks out of the pocket for a potential dump off.
I sketched out the routes below:
Then we have what the Bengals are doing. Or, well, attempting to do. There’s a coverage rotation here, which I interpret as an intended inverted cover 2: essentially, the safeties coming downhill, and two cornerbacks moving back to become the two-high defenders.
It’s a smart play call given the situation for the Bengals. Obviously, the Steelers are going to be targeting the sticks, and by moving the safeties forward and two cornerbacks back, there’s a...
