It’s not often that a quarterback catches a pass, much less catches his own pass batted down at the line of scrimmage. Aaron Rodgers did that in today’s win over the Ravens. He might have saved the game in the process.
Here’s the play.
He explained his thought process when he prevented the interception.
“I was trying to bat it down. I was trying to get my hand on top of it and push it down, and when I did, I felt whoever’s big paw was there. So I kind of had to David Tyree for a second, and then it was kind of a battle for the football,” Rodgers said via the Steelers’ YouTube after the game. “I didn’t realize at the time my knees were down, I was just struggling with it, but he was grabbing on my left wrist, and then there was some extracurricular [activity] at the bottom of the pile. And I was just pissed jogging off the field, so I’m glad that call went our way.”
In 21 years, 253 starts, and 12,062 offensive snaps, that was only Rodgers’ fourth career reception. All four of them went for negative yardage. In other words, none of them were successful trick plays where he was the intended receiver or anything like that. His career receiving stat line is now four receptions for negative 20 yards.
The play came on a 2nd-and-10 with 7:01 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Steelers were protecting a 27-22 lead, and the interception would have set up a potential go-ahead drive for the Ravens starting at the Steelers’ 32-yard line. Even if they didn’t score a touchdown, they would have easily been in field goal range to cut the lead to two points. That obviously would have completely changed the Ravens’ final drive, where Lamar Jackson got them down to the Steelers’ 30-yard line before Alex Highsmith’s game-ending sack.
Ironically, Rodgers nearly made the interception possible at first by reflexively reaching for the ball and bumping it further up into the air.
“I wasn’t trying to catch that one. I promise I wasn’t trying to catch that one,” Rodgers said. “But I’m glad it wasn’t a pick.”
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was furious after the game that the play, initially ruled a turnover for Baltimore, was overturned in favor of Pittsburgh.
One of the most important and consequential plays of the game was a happy accident made possible by Rodgers’ situational understanding, attempting to swat the ball down.
