Minkah Fitzpatrick's sideline audible and more late-game magic lift Steelers over Packers (2024)

PITTSBURGH — Minkah Fitzpatrick has been — for lack of a better term — quite the pain in the ass of Teryl Austin over the past couple of weeks. With Fitzpatrick out with a strained hamstring, he’s been in the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator’s hip pocket ever since, as he waits for his return to the field.

Fitzpatrick is that kind of guy. Lucky for the Steelers.

“He’s always around,” Austin said with a chuckle late last week.

And with the Steelers leading by four with three seconds left and the Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh’s 16-yard line Sunday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium, Fitzpatrick lost his mind. He wasn’t shy about letting the nearby Austin hear about it.

Fitzpatrick didn’t like the Steelers’ planned defensive play call, and he did a little more than suggest his idea to Austin. The Pro Bowl safety was so adamant that the Steelers called timeout to talk it over.

“Yeah, I had an idea,” Fitzpatrick said after the game with a sheepish smile. “So me and (defensive backs coach) Grady (Brown) talked (Austin) into changing it.”

Instead of playing man coverage at the line of scrimmage and having a shell of players with their feet just inside the goal line, Austin switched the call to have seven defenders lined up at the goal line like a picket fence. It resulted in a game-winning interception by Damontae Kazee, as the Steelers once again found a way to win a close game.

STEELERS SECURE THE W WITH A LAST-SECOND INT. #GBvsPIT pic.twitter.com/i2Bn3W97aq

— NFL (@NFL) November 12, 2023

“I had no idea,” said safety Keanu Neal, who had an interception in the end zone a little more than three minutes before that.

The Steelers faced a very similar situation at Baltimore in 2020. In that game, Fitzpatrick broke up the pass in the end zone on the final play of regulation, and the Steelers won, so he had something to pull on.

Luck? Maybe. Or just maybe something else is going on here?

That’s just how it has gone for the Steelers this year. Out of their six wins, five have been clinched by some sort of a defensive stop inside of the final two minutes. The other was the offense running out the final 5:28 of regulation against the Los Angeles Rams.

Even LeBron James made a reference to the Steelers last week, comparing them to his Los Angeles Lakers when he said — only half-correctly — that the Steelers had been outgained (correct) and outscored (incorrect) by every opponent despite having a winning record.

Whether it has been a Joey Porter Jr. pick, a Levi Wallace interception, a fumble return by T.J. Watt, a Kenny Pickett-led game-winning drive, or Sunday’s finish — when Fitzpatrick got in Austin’s ear, and Austin was comfortable enough in his position to take advice from a player and a young defensive backs coach — it’s working.

“A win is a win,” Kazee said. “I’ve been in this league long enough, and it is hard to win this league. I am going to take it and not stress about it.”

“There is so much parity in this league and so many variables that it doesn’t matter if you win by one, three, five, 20,” defensive lineman Cameron Heyward said. “A win is a win.”

The Steelers have twice as many wins as losses despite a minus-26 point differential, and that in itself has been somewhat miraculous.

They sit at 6-3 and just behind the Baltimore Ravens (7-3) in the AFC North, with back-to-back road divisional games at Cleveland (6-3) and Cincinnati (5-4) looming.

This is all with an offense that can’t get out of its way at times, a maligned offensive coordinator and a defense that has been inundated with injuries, including to Fitzpatrick, Heyward, Cole Holcomb, Montravius Adams and now Kwon Alexander, who is expected to miss the rest of the season after injuring his Achilles early in Sunday’s game. Holcomb (knee) is already out for the season.

“We were leaking in a lot of places today,” veteran defensive back Patrick Peterson said. “The coaches believe in the guys we have, so get in there and make a play.”

It wasn’t pretty. None of the wins have been. They have been thoroughly beaten by the San Francisco 49ers, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars while eking out wins in all the other games. Odds are that it will catch up to them.

In 2020, the Steelers started 11-0, but you could feel that they were doing it with smoke and mirrors. They ended up hanging on to win the division thanks to a late-season win over the Indianapolis Colts but then stumbled in the postseason.

This team is the complete opposite of that team, but you might have to start believing. Things like what happened late in the Packers game aren’t the norm. In one way, this is very unusual.

“I guess we are the heartbreak kids,” Heyward said. “We live for the moments and don’t apologize for it and suck it up at the end when we need it. You have to learn how to win, and that’s what we are doing right now.”

Right now, it just happens to be late-game heroics. Sometimes that is more impressive than just blowing out a team. It creates character and gives confidence to what is a young group.

“Just like coach said at camp about Jimmy Butler: You can go the whole game without a basket, but let’s see what you do in the final two minutes,” Kazee said.

The Steelers have been flawless in that area, and you have to attribute that to Mike Tomlin.

Tomlin gets too much criticism locally and too many accolades nationally, but what we have seen on the field so far this year is directly because of his coaching and his style. Players buy in, whether it is all B.S. or not.

This group is buying in and winning — a great combination.

Sure, there is going to be a time when a last-minute throw goes against them and they lose a game they should’ve won. That’s inevitable. But there is hope that the team has found an offensive identity — Pittsburgh has 371 rushing yards, 650 total yards and 43 points over the last two games, suggesting it is on the right track.

Now, the Steelers need better quarterback play, but that’s something for another day.

“We are executing better,” center Mason Cole said. “It is as simple as that. The last few weeks we have. There is still a lot left out there. Winning is all that matters. Whatever it takes to win. There are no pictures on the scoreboard. All that matters is that we keep winning the game.”

When you create two turnovers in four minutes, that matters.

Peterson has taken a lot of flack this year, but his play with just under four minutes left was as important as Fitzpatrick’s role. Christian Watson ran an out-and-up on Peterson, and Jordan Love put in right on the money. Peterson showed what a veteran of a decade-plus can do by tipping it to Neal for the pick.

What a play by @P2 and @Keanu_Neal 🙌

📲: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/T87FSnfvVk pic.twitter.com/jsAtyqMKU2

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) November 12, 2023

“I didn’t see him there, but I just know we had a half-field safety over the top,” said Peterson, who also blocked an extra point in the second quarter. “I was tipping it to somebody. I just didn’t know what safety was there. I knew one of my guys was going to be there. We are very opportunist. We find ways to make plays. We preach about getting the ball out, and we have to have it. That’s just the coaching around here. We find ways to make those timely plays.”

And in this case, a timely suggestion by an injured player on the sidelines.

So, go ahead and let LeBron make his jokes. Let those national pundits make fun of the Steelers.

The Steelers have six wins and you know what? Only Baltimore, Kansas City, Philadelphia and Detroit have more.

(Photo of Damontae Kazee, 23, and Minkah Fitzpatrick, center: Philip G. Pavely / USA Today)

Mark Kaboly is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Pittsburgh Steelers. He joined The Athletic in 2017 and has covered the team since 2002, first for the McKeesport Daily News and then the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Mark, the president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America, has covered the Steelers in three Super Bowls (XL, XLIII, XLV). Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkKaboly