Veteran Move: Russell Wilson Had Hidden Winning Edge for Steelers
LANDOVER, Md. — The Pittsburgh Steelers were facing a crucial fourth-and-1 late in the fourth quarter from the 49-yard line, but the Steelers never had to snap the ball, thanks to rookie Washington Commanders defensive lineman Johnny Newton jumping offside. The snafu by Newton ended the game right there, handing a 28-27 victory to the Steelers.
“The biggest thing was trying to get another first down,” Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson said of drawing Newton offside. “We almost got one. [Cordarrelle Patterson] almost got it. That was close. It’s just trust, it’s trust in Coach Tomlin. What decision he wants to make and how he we want to go about it. We had the mentality of making a play and depending on what we were going to do. I’m not going to tell you what we were going to do. But we were able to accomplish was huge, obviously that first down. Just to celebrate together. We won the game right there. That was huge.
“Definitely hard-counted it and tried to get them to go,” Wilson added.
As expected, Mike Tomlin was also coy about the Steelers plans on the fourth-and-1.
“We’ll never know will we? You know I’m a degenerate,” Tomlin said with a laugh when asked if the Steelers were going to go for it on the fourth-and-1.
Steelers rookie center Zach Frazier revealed that the Steelers had no call on the play, however.
“We didn’t have a play called. It’s just no play,” Frazier said. “When (Wilson) told us that in the huddle. Everyone sprinted up to the ball, we got down acted like we were going to sneak it and Russ did the hard count and got them to jump off. So pretty cool. You just hope they jump off.”
“I wanted to break the huddle and sell the sneak as far as I’m attacking the ball. There’s no play call, so I’m not moving.”
Newton was devastated about the mishap, but he said his teammates had his back.
“My teammates have been great, just a big brotherhood in here,” Newton said.
Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels also said the loss wasn’t all on Newton.
Head coach Dan Quinn said, “it was a hard mistake, it was one to learn from.”
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