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The Pittsburgh Steelers almost pulled off the biggest regular season comeback in NFL history Thursday night. They trailed 29-0 late in the 3rd quarter when the Steelers scored went on a crazy run. With under a minute remaining and Pittsburgh trailing 36-28, wide receiver Chase Claypool caught a pass for a first down. He stood up and made a gesture that it was a first down.
Chase Claypool made some big grabs tonight, but the situational awareness here is so bad. Pittsburgh had no timeouts left. Claypool makes the catch, decides to celebrate, an offensive lineman tries to get the ball but it rolls away. Clock ticks, ticks…pic.twitter.com/w3IBaQacjV
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) December 10, 2021
The Steelers did not have any timeouts and there was 36 seconds on the clock, and ticking. Teammate Trai Turner had to come over and rip the ball from his hands and give it to the referee so the Steelers can spike the ball.
Claypool has since become a source of ridicule online. He addressed the media on the topic afterwards.
I just asked Chase Claypool about that ill-advised first-down pose on the final drive: pic.twitter.com/eRnoVKaP9O
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) December 10, 2021
‘I definitely got to be better… I got tackled on the hash and did my little first down point… went to hand the ball to the ref… he ran down the field to come get the ball and the ball got knocked out of my hands, that’s what cost us time. But I got to be better. I knew the situation but the ball should not get knocked out of my hands”
The ball being knocked out of his hands that he is referencing is when Turner took it from him to give to the referee.
Pittsburgh ultimately had one play from inside the 5-yard-line with seconds remaining but Roethlisberger’s pass fell incomplete. The loss dropped the Steelers to 6-6-1, behind a number of teams for wild card positioning in the AFC.
