BALTIMORE — Pittsburgh Steelers All-Pro Minkah Fitzpatrick snapped his nearly two-year interception drought by picking off an ill-advised pass by Lamar Jackson in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens. It was Fitzpatrick first interception since Week 17 of 2022 at Baltimore.
It appeared that Jackson thought Rashod Bateman was going to continue his drag route instead of dropping the zone. Minkah Fitzpatrick was all over it and returned the interception 25 yards to the Steelers’ 33-yard line.
Fitzpatrick, who was the NFL’s co-leader in interceptions with six in 2022, had just one turnover (a forced fumble) over the last two seasons.
Unlike years in the past, the Steelers haven’t been moving Fitzpatrick around a lot this season. He’s mostly been in the deep center field at his natural free safety position.
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said in November that he wasn’t worried about the lack of splash plays, as Fitzpatrick’s presence in the deep middle of the field has a profound impact.
“He’s mostly been centered because that’s where we like him,” Austin said of Fitzpatrick. “I know right now people get caught up, he hasn’t had interception. I know this — he shores it up in the middle of the field for us 99% of the time, and he makes teams think twice about going down the middle of the field. We haven’t given up a lot of plays this year. The last couple of years when we’ve had to play him down and some different things with him, we’ve given up a lot of big plays. My goal was to make sure as this defense we do not to give up a lot of big plays, big scoring opportunities. To me, if he’s doing that, he’s doing a great job.”
Teryl said turnovers will eventually come for Fitzpatrick, and that finally came to fruition on Saturday.
“Sometimes it’s not happening right now, but I got full confidence because I know what kind of player Minkah is and the more opportunities that he has and the more time he’s back there that those splash plays will come,” Austin said. “I don’t worry about that. I know how he leads our group in terms of the communication and everything working from back there, and it’s a lot smoother. So I think as a unit, we’ve operated really well, really smooth overall, and so the splash will come. I’m not going to get bent out of shape about that at this particular time.”