Steely McBeam
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- Mar 20, 2019
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The downside of playing football in an empty Heinz Field, as Steelers linebacker T.J. Watt explained to PFT after Sunday’s win over the Colts, is that energy must be manufactured by the players. The upside comes from the ability to hear the opponent like never before.
Via Mark Kaboly of TheAthletic.com, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger explained to reporters on Wednesday that the ability to clearly notice and understand things the Indianapolis defense was saying before plays contributed directly to the 39-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to receiver Diontae Johnson that kick-started the come-from-behind win.
“[T]hey were yelling, ‘Slant, slant, slant!’” Roethlisberger said. “The coverage they gave us, actually, we should have run a slant. I almost changed the play, but I did’t because they were yelling it. I heard them. Diontae heard them. Their DB heard them. I was like, ‘Good. We want them to think we are running a slant because we’re running a fade. This could end up working really well.”
Indeed it did.
Roethlisberger explained that, on other occasions, the defense calls out exactly what the offense called.
“Some of that is dumb luck,” Roethlisberger said. “Some of that, maybe it’s tendencies. . . . It’s one of the most unique years when it comes to strategy, when it comes to trying to trick people. . . . [A]re we getting lucky, or do they know something. It’s hard to tell.”
But it’s easy to hear, and then it’s easy to adjust. Or, in the case of the Johnson touchdown, to not adjust.