Rookie WR comes up big
97-yard touchdown seals win and carves place in Steelers lore
DETROIT — JuJu Smith-Schuster was running as if someone stole his bike.
With the Steelers backed at their 3-yard line on third down, the rookie receiver caught a pass over the middle from Ben Roethlisberger at the 28 and never stopped running until he beat three Detroit Lions defenders to the end zone.
By the time he was done, Smith-Schuster had the longest pass play in team history and the Steelers had a 20-15 victory against the Lions.
“He was moving like he was riding his bike,” guard David DeCastro said.
Smith-Schuster’s 97-yard touchdown was the defining moment of the Steelers’ third consecutive victory. Not only did it tie for the longest offensive play in team history, it came just four plays after the first of two goal-line stands when the defense stopped the Lions on three consecutive plays from the 1-yard line.
DeCastro said he was so giddy about Smith-Schuster’s touchdown, “I’m out there doing celebrations. What the heck is going on with that?”
“We can’t be more lucky to have a kid like that on our team,” said center Maurkice Pouncey.
“Big-time player, great performer,” wide receiver Antonio Brown said with admiration. “He stepped up big. Huge play. Biggest play in history.”
On any other stage, Brown’s five catches for 70 yards, including a 40-yarder down the middle to set up Le’Veon Bell’s 5-yard touchdown, would have been the biggest receiving moments.
But, on this night, it was all about Smith-Schuster, who made any number of big plays and finished with seven catches for 193 yards — the second-most receiving yardage in a game in the NFL this season.
“He’s special,” DeCastro said. “He has a great attitude, great skills, especially for a rookie.”
Smith-Schuster has quickly developed into one of the Pittsburgh’s most likeable athletes. He had half the town looking for his stolen bicycle last week and he responded to a big ovation at the Penguins game a couple nights later by playfully pretending to ride a bike.
Coach Mike Tomlin called his hide-and-seek touchdown celebration against the Cincinnati Bengals “cute.”
His big smile and boyish demeanor — heck, he’s only 20, the youngest player in the NFL — have had a positive effect on everyone, especially his teammates.
“He’s an affectionate person,” Brown said. “He brings a lot of emotion, a lot of energy. He’s always fun to be around. He’s one of those guys, if you’re having a bad day, or having a bad week, you definitely want to be around him.”
The game began with Smith-Schuster catching a 41-yard pass on the first play from a scrimmage that led to the first of two Chris Boswell field goals.
It included an 18-yard catch-and-run on third down on the first possession of the second half that led to the other Boswell field goal, this one from 38 yards, to give the Steelers a 13-12 lead.
But no play was bigger, or more unexpected, than the 97-yard catch-and-run on third-and-9 from his 3 toward the end of the third quarter. The Steelers call it “76 Go H Option.”
Smith-Schuster lined up in the right slot, made a nice move to get open past cornerback Quandre Diggs and caught Roethlisberger’s pass in stride at the 28.
“It was a get-open-and-go,” said receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey. “And he got open.”
But maybe the biggest surprise came after Smith-Schuster caught the ball.
Timed at a modest 4.54 in the 40 at the NFL combine, he outran three defenders to the end zone — Diggs, safety Glover Quin and nickel back Miles Killebrew. That surprised even his teammates, who didn’t think Smith-Schuster was that fast.
“He isn’t fast,” Heyward-Bey said. “That was power.”
“I didn’t think he would make it,” DeCastro said. “It was surprising. What a play.”
“I thought he would be caught by the second guy,” Pouncey said. “I’m glad he didn’t.”
The touchdown eclipsed the previous longest pass play in Steelers history — a 95-yarder from Roethlisberger to Mike Wallace against the Arizona Cardinals in 2011. It tied Bobby Gage’s 97-yard run against the Chicago Bears in 1949 for the longest offensive play in team history.
Not only was it the longest pass play in the NFL since Sept. 11, 2016, when Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints had a 98-yard completion, but it also tied for the 15th-longest pass play in league history.
“I thought he kind of ran out of gas,” Brown said. “But he got it done.”
Like riding a bike.