Admin October 7, 2024
NFL Week 5 Overreactions: Ravens are back, Bills playoff hopes are dwindling
Sports Seriously’s Mackenzie Salmon ‘overreacts’ to the biggest storylines from Week 5— including the Vikings’ 5-0 start and the Cowboys’ thriller victory on SNF.
Sports Seriously
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens endured a frustrating night in his team’s 20-17 Week 5 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on “Sunday Night Football.”
The third-year wide-out let that frustration boil over at the end of the game. He grabbed Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis by the facemask and slung him to the ground after the eighth-year cornerback celebrated Dallas recovering a Steelers lateral on the final play of regulation.
Pickens’ actions irked Lewis enough that the long-time Cowboy took a verbal jab at him while walking back to the locker room.
“Pittsburgh need a receiver,” Lewis said in a video captured by 105.3 The Fan’s Bobby Belt. “George Pickens weak,” Lewis proclaimed.
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Pickens had a rough performance even before his tussle with Lewis. He caught just 3-of-7 targets for 26 yards during the contest and was largely unimpactful save for his 21-yard catch-and-run that set up Pittsburgh’s final touchdown.
More discouraging was the role Pickens played in Pittsburgh’s offense. He played a career-low 34 offensive snaps, which was just 59 percent of the team’s total offensive plays. Van Jefferson (47 snaps) and Calvin Austin (44 snaps) outworked him.
During his postgame news conference, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin explained that Pickens’ decreased usage was by design.
“We just wanted to minimize his reps in an effort to get more productivity,” Tomlin detailed. “We’re just trying to rep manage in terms of the totality of the big picture. He wasn’t less of a focal point in terms of our intentions of what we wanted to do offensively, but we did want to cut his reps a little bit in an effort to get higher quality play, just in general.”
The plan didn’t work. Pickens posted a season-low in receiving yards, while neither Jefferson (three catches, 26 yards) nor Austin (one catch, six yards) could replicate the 2022 second-round pick’s contested-catch abilities.
What’s next for the Steelers at receiver? The front office must decide whether they agree with Lewis’ assessment that they need a receiver.
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