BTSC’s “One random Steelers play” series is back. (Here’s the first edition if you’d like a reminder of how this works).

The TL:DR? We’re using a random number generator to find a singular play from the Steelers’ 2024, then using it as an excuse to talk about last season and some general football insights in this dead part of the summer.

I’ll be sharing my takeaways in the article, and I hope to see yours in the comments below!

For this article, the random number generator picked Week 17, the Steelers’ Christmas Day loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. Then, it picked No. 13 of the game’s 166 plays, which unsurprisingly was an unlucky turn of events for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The good news? This random play provides plenty to talk about.

The context: Chiefs ball on the Steelers seven-yard line. The game is tied 0-0 with 9:23 left in the first quarter. It’s second and four.

Here’s the play.

As always, we’ll start by pausing pre-snap:

As opposed to last week’s over front, the Steelers are in an under front here, which means the defensive line is shifted towards the “weak” (no tight end) side of the field.

But, because the Chiefs have two tight ends on the strong side, the Steelers have eight defenders in the box (matching up well with the Chiefs’ seven blockers), and the off-ball players are shifted towards Kansas City’s run strength. Every gap has a hat.

The Steelers are also in their big nickel package, meaning the slot corner has been replaced with a third safety. Here, we have Minkah Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliott in the box with Damontae Kazee playing single-high safety.

Another thing you’ll notice? There’s a lot of hand-waving going on in this screenshot. And it’s for good reason.

My first takeaway: This is a wicked good play call from the Chiefs. And the Steelers just don’t match Andy Reid’s creativity.

Kansas City takes advantage of Pittsburgh’s late-season miscommunication issues by getting to the line of scrimmage quickly in an interesting formation: two tight ends in a condensed formation on the left, and two wide receivers on the right.

The catch? One of those “wide receivers” is actually running back Isiah Pacheco. And the “running back” is now speedy receiver Xavier Worthy, hidden in the backfield next to Patrick Mahomes.

By putting their tight ends on one side of the field and their wide receivers on the other, the Chiefs get two things to break their way here: First, James Pierre running across the field to match pre-snap, giving away a likely indication that it’s man coverage.

And by nature of moving the team’s two cornerbacks to one side of the field, the Steelers are left with just linebackers and safeties on the other — not a huge deal against tight ends, but don’t forget that Worthy is lurking there too.

The Chiefs love to do this, and depending on your definition, some analysts would call this a “dirty bunch” — i.e. getting some of the benefits of a trips formation thanks to using the running back in the route concept. You can even see the single-high safety shaded to the other side of the field.

Still, the Steelers have the personnel to at least challenge this — Minkah Fitzpatrick is a coverage-capable defender — but that’s when the miscommunication comes into play.

I can’t confidently point to who messes up here as I’m not in the Steelers’ meetings, and for all we know, they had a check for when Worthy was in the backfield and just didn’t get to it in time. But I have an idea.

As mentioned earlier, it looks like the Steelers are in man coverage here — the easiest tell is Pierre following his wide receiver’s crosser during the play. This looks like cover-1, with Kazee taking single-high duties and Fitzpatrick and Elliott playing in the box and manning up on the tight ends.

I don’t think Worthy was Fitzpatrick’s assignment on this play. He’s essentially playing outside corner here and wouldn’t be concerned with the “running back.” Instead, he’s covering the outside receiver — in this case, the Chiefs’ Noah Gray — which he does initially to start the rep.

You can see that moment of indecisiveness at the top of Gray’s route where Fitzpatrick has to decide whether to cover his man or go after the wide open Worthy.

But Worthy ran a 4.21 at the NFL Combine. By then it’s too late.

Fitzpatrick looks bad as he’s in pursuit when the touchdown is scored, but I don’t think this one is on him. Maybe the Steelers are in some sort of match coverage scheme and he should’ve had the flat (the Eagles did this with success against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl), but his initial depth says otherwise. He’s locked in on Gray.

I don’t think it’s on DeShon Elliott either. In fact, he’s one of the Steelers defenders who seems the most aware of what’s going on, pointing first to Pacheco and then to Worthy right before the play.

And like Fitzpatrick, he’s guarding the guy who makes the most sense: In this case, Travis Kelce on the crosser (that’s also serving as a rub route to successfully open up the play for Worthy).

Given how the Steelers (and every other team) normally function in man coverage, my guess is that Patrick Queen should’ve had Worthy here. Granted, that probably wouldn’t have done much. Look at the play pre-snap again: Worthy is already lined up a good ways to the left. And Queen would have had a lot of in-breaking routes to navigate to get there in time.

Again, it’s a really smart play-call by Reid. The irony is that even if the Steelers had shut down the wheel route to Worthy, the Chiefs are running a mesh concept — a classic man coverage beater — with their other pass-catchers. There aren’t many instances where this play ends well for Pittsburgh.

A guess of mine is that the Steelers were fooled by the Chiefs’ quick formation change and Pierre followed Pacheco out wide when it should’ve been Queen. That would’ve put linebacker covering running back and cornerback covering wide receiver.

Instead, we get Queen and Elandon Roberts essentially covering the same area in a painfully crowded middle of the field while Worthy scoots in for six.

The desperate hand-waving to start the play tells me the linebackers knew something was off, but couldn't fix it in time. And the body language after the play isn’t great, either.

On another note, this also shows how teams were able to shut down the Steelers’ vaunted pass rush with the quick game late last season. Did T.J. Watt sort of disappear down the stretch? Yeah. But the ball is out in 1.5 seconds or so here. Good luck sacking that.

And to be fair, this was already a weird game for the Steelers secondary: DeShon Elliott and Donte Jackson were both returning from injury, and James Pierre was playing in replacement of an injured Joey Porter Jr. That doesn’t forgive brutal coverage busts at the professional level, but it does help explain them to a certain extent.

A final point is that this is over 1,000 words pontificating about a play that defenders had to process in seconds. Today’s random Steelers play is a brutal look for the team, no doubt, but it turns out playing in the NFL is pretty hard.

What are your thoughts on this random Steelers play? Any suggestions for the series? Join the BTSC community and let us know in the comments!