Crossing routes???

[TimmayLake]

The Rams have about 150 yards passing on crossing routes so far. Why don’t the Steelers use them? Canada loves the horizontal game so why do we not using cross routes like the Rams?

[TimmayLake]

No takers on this?

[franco32]

Because crossing routes are in the middle of the field. That is a dangerous area where turnovers can happen. We live in our fears.

[jebrick]

There is a tweet from Mike Frazier showing the Steelers ( in the Rams game) running ALL (4 in the picture) of their receivers on crossing routes into the middle. He was complaining about the spacing as they were stacked 5-8 yards apart up the field. I pointed out that 1) they are attacking the middle of the field and 2) at least 2 of the Wr were WIDE open.

So they do use crossing routes. They may not use them correctly but such is life with Canada.

[SteelerDayTrader]

The Steelers don’t run a lot of MOF WR crossing route’s because there is a belief in the organization that those get WRs injured

This has been intimated in the press several times by Ben and others

[Ice]

The Steelers don’t run a lot of MOF WR crossing route’s because there is a belief in the organization that those get WRs injured

This has been intimated in the press several times by Ben and others

So, organizationally, definitely living about a decade in the past on this particular issue. Sounds about right.

If you're going to use them, understanding of each individual opponent's scheme and strategy on defense is also necessary, and we already know the philosophy on preparing a plan to attack different opponents differently.

[TimmayLake]

I believe on Nacua's 5 or 6 catches on crossing routes he was untouched for a good 20 yards after making the catch. He was WIDE OPEN on these crossers....so I'm not buying the "throwing in the MOF is too dangerous" angle. The only way Nacua would have been injured on these crossers is by tripping on his own jaw over disbelief about how absurdly uncovered he was on these routes.

[Pabst]

I believe on Nacua's 5 or 6 catches on crossing routes he was untouched for a good 20 yards after making the catch. He was WIDE OPEN on these crossers....so I'm not buying the "throwing in the MOF is too dangerous" angle. The only way Nacua would have been injured on these crossers is by tripping on his own jaw over disbelief about how absurdly uncovered he was on these routes.

I wouldn't say it was *one specific thing* that worked regarding Nacua on those routes. Looking at a few of them:

- On the 30 yard completion in the 1st quarter, the Rams had the perfect playcall vs the Defense. The Steelers blitzed 6 and were in man coverage (Peterson was ~10 yards off the ball).
- Not a crosser, but the long gain on 3rd and 11 in the mid-2Q was good play design vs Cover 3.
- The long gain in 2Q with about 2 minutes left was the result of great protection. Long developing route, and also not a great play by Wallace.
- 3rd quarter, 3rd and 7 that set up the Rams final TD - Good play design and good protection. Atwell and Kupp cleared out the defenders (JPJ's missed tackle resulted in an extra 10 yards)

There were a couple others, but they weren't big plays or anything.

[jebrick]

I saw that the Steeelrs switched to more man coverage in the 4th quarter and it shut down a lot of the passes. Also putting JPJ on Nacua helped.