On Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens, the defining moment of the game for the Pittsburgh Steelers offense was the beautiful 41-yard touchdown pass from Kenny Pickett to George Pickens late in the fourth quarter. The play brought a bit of controversy when the TV broadcast showed the reaction inside the coaches booth and offensive coordinator Matt Canda was stoic in his reaction to the huge play, which put the Steelers in front for good.
This led everyone to wonder if perhaps the play call wasn’t Canada’s but instead an audible by Pickett. If that’s what you thought, you would be right. Pickett talked about the call on Tuesday and broke it down.
“Yeah, it was protection and then route,” Pickett said. “They went zero; I wanted to make sure we were protected and gave George the route. He went and made a great play. It’s something that we’ve worked all week on, so it’s awesome when you put a lot of time into something and it comes up in a crucial moment like that to win a divisional game in the two-minute drill. It’s awesome.”
Now, before you hurt yourself patting yourself on the back, understand that the protection and the audible call had been implemented by Canada during the week. This wasn’t Pickett going Wild West like Ben Roethlisberger used to. Canada put the plan in place, and Pickett executed it perfectly. It was almost like a team effort.
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