The Steelers seemed dead, both on this particular December Sunday and in the AFC playoff chase. They trailed the Browns 10-0 midway through the second quarter at Heinz Field in front of an uneasy crowd that already was fretting about its favorite team being beaten by the Browns at home for the first time since 2003 and swept by them in a season for the first time since 1988, when Mike Tomlin was 16. The Steelers hadn’t scored more than one offensive touchdown in any of their previous four games. The Browns had a big edge in plays (28-8), first downs (10-1), passing yards (92-minus-6) and total yards (147-9). If you were looking to see if Mason Rudolph was warming up on the sideline to replace Duck Hodges, you weren’t alone.
That’s when James Washington made a play.
That’s when the game turned the Steelers’ way.
That’s when the afternoon and perhaps the season appeared to be saved.
The Steelers went on to win, 20-13. They are 7-5 without Antonio Brown all season, without Ben Roethlisberger since the second game and without Stephon Tuitt, James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster for multiple games.
Do you believe in miracles?
“Just hang in there. Don’t blink. Just keep going,” Bud Dupree said. “Coach Tomlin always tells us not to blink.”
The game-changer was a free play, a third-and-9 from the Steelers 18. Browns defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson, who talked a bigger game last week than he played Sunday by saying, “It’s time for a new captain” in the Steelers-Browns series, jumped offsides. Hodges saw it. So did Washington.
“I just took off,” Washington said. “You just go deep and hope he throws it your way. Sure enough, Duck throws it to me.”
Washington pulled the ball down from cornerback Greedy Williams, his 31-yard catch breathing life into the corpse that had been the Steelers’ offense. “I thought it uplifted all of us,” Tomlin said. The next thing you knew, Chris Boswell was kicking a 38-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 10-3. It was the first of four consecutive scoring drives for the Steelers.
“It sparked the offense,” Washington said. “It got us all going. It gave Duck confidence.”
Washington made another play on the Steelers’ next possession, a spectacular catch for a 30-yard touchdown that tied the game, 10-10, late in the first half despite being interfered with by cornerback T.J. Carrie. Washington then delivered a third time in a big way on the Steelers’ first possession of the second half, beating cornerback Denzel Ward down the right sideline for a 44-yard gain to set up Benny Snell’s touchdown for a 17-10 lead.
Antonio who?
“I just go out and try to do what I can do. It’s all about making plays when the ball comes your way,” Washington said. “I never really think of myself as the ‘1’ guy. We’ve got guys on this team, everyone can make a play.”
Nice, right?
A wide receiver with humility.
Whether Washington says it or not, he has become the Steelers’ No. 1 receiver with Smith-Schuster out the past two games because of a knee injury. His 111-yard receiving game Sunday was the first 100-yard game of his two-year NFL career. A week earlier in Cincinnati, he made the 79-yard catch-and-run with a Hodges pass for the touchdown that lifted the Steelers to a 16-10 win. In the past four games, he has 16 catches for 306 yards.
Washington and Hodges have found a chemistry that never really developed on the Steelers between Washington and Rudolph, even though Washington and Rudolph made beautiful music together during their college days at Oklahoma State. Washington is careful to praise Rudolph, who was benched for Hodges in Cincinnati.
“For sure, it’s a tough deal, everything that’s happened to him,” he said. “But he’s a tough guy. He’s kept his head up. He’s been confident. He’s right there with Duck. He’s helping him out. He’s still helping all of us out. He’s a great team player as well as a great guy.”
But Washington also made it clear Hodges has won his trust and said their off-field relationship has contributed to their on-field success. Hodges is a duck hunter of some renown. Washington started hunting as a sixth-grader in west-central Texas, “deer, hogs, pretty much everything that’s in Texas, varmint hunting, all of it.” The two have gone duck hunting every week for the past month.
“I told him I’m a better shooter than he is,” Washington said. “ ‘You call ’em in and I’ll shoot ’em’ ”
Hodges said he and Washington have another duck hunt planned for Tuesday.
Of course they do.
Whatever works, right?
First Published: December 2, 2019, 12:20 a.m.
