If there's been any player who has showed up in every game this season, it's Antonio Brown. And he showed up in the biggest moment on Sunday night at Heinz Field when he caught a 26-yard pass on a corner route when the Steelers absolutely needed to move the ball to set up Chris Boswell's game-winning field goal for a 31-28 victory over the Packers.
So, how exactly did Brown do it this time?
If there was any play that was a microcosm of Ben Roethlisberger's connection with Brown, his throw on first-and-10 with 17 seconds remaining would be it. Roethlisberger had been picking apart the Packers' Cover 2 schemes all night and faced another situation where the Packers had a cornerback underneath Brown and a safety over top of him.
The trick is trying to throw a pass that fits into a tight window, which is something only elite quarterbacks can do consistently. That's what happens here. Watch below as Brown engages with rookie cornerback Kevin King. King tries to take away any short route Brown might run, but Brown's corner route is run sharply enough to get behind King and too fast for rookie safety Josh Jones to get there:
Why the Packers would line up two rookies on that side of the field with Brown in such a clutch moment is a mystery, but they both got schooled by a master. His route shakes off King and his cut to the outside freezes Jones enough to give him the space for Roethlisberger to fit the ball.
Before we get into the actual catch itself, the setup for this play is spectacular in that Roethlisberger stared Brown down for the entire play and the Packers still couldn't jump this pass. So not only did he throw the perfect ball, but usually when a quarterback stares down a receiver that long, a safety is able to make a jump on the ball. But because of Brown's perfect route and Roethlisberger's perfect placement, there's nothing the Packers can do.
Now let's look at the actual physics of the catch. First and foremost, look at where the ball is placed, right on the sideline so that Brown can both catch the ball while going out of bounds. It's in a spot where Jones cannot touch it.
"Ben Roethlisberger made a great throw," Brown said. "I could get it on the sideline. I was just grateful that we could make that catch in the perfect amount of time."
When people talk about how Brown is a workout warrior and practices relentlessly to improve his game, this is where it shows up. Not only does he make the spectacular grab with his hands while being shoved to the ground, he has the wherewithal to drag his right foot and keep his left foot in bounds:
I've seen hundreds of catches by Brown in his career and plenty of them have been career-defining and out-of-this-world amazing. This one goes right up to the top of all his most ridiculous plays that no other receiver could make.
Mike Tomlin's assessment: "I've been looking at AB for a long time. It's AB."
Roethlisberger: "I guess, with all due respect, I'm not surprised or amazed. It's what he does. He's special."
While the Steelers are used to seeing Brown pulling stunts like this, the Packers and referees working the game were not. You could even see during the game that when the down judge ran up to the spot of the catch, downs judge Greg Bradley couldn't even make the call and completely deferred to the decision of side judge Alex Kemp:
Kemp is the referee that eventually signals for the catch, but it looked like even he wasn't sure what he just saw and was looking for every reason for Bradley to make the call. While their decision only took about 15-20 seconds to make, it felt like minutes while we waited in the Heinz Field press box.
Eventually Ed Hochuli confirmed their call of a catch when he had the benefit of high-definition replay cameras and a slowed down look of Brown dragging his right toe while his left foot was clearly in bounds.
But even the Packers' defense couldn't believe what they just saw, as all they could do was futilely hope that Brown didn't do what the world saw him do.
“I’m just looking on the jumbotron hoping he bobbled it a little bit,” starting cornerback Demarious Randall said. “Hell of a catch, man. He showed why he’s the best receiver in the league.”
While Randall and other Packers who weren't right on top of the pass could only hope for the Heinz Field jumbotron to give them a break, their rookie cornerback King, who was right on the play, also couldn't tell live if Brown pulled off the impossible.
“That definitely was a good catch,” King said in the Packers' locker room. “I wasn’t sure if he got in or not. Seeing the replay, he got it in. That’s the NFL. It’s a game of big plays. A guy like that is elite for a reason because he makes big plays day-in and day-out."
What helps Brown be as elite as King describes is how he is not only physically talented, but he's a student of the game that knows exactly what he's facing in the defense. While I had the benefit of a press box view that can view the whole field and could determine the schematics of the Packers' defense from above, Brown knew exactly what kind of defense the Packers using and how to beat it.
When Brown was in his press conference, I asked about how the Steelers had been preparing to face that Cover 2 in which the Packers would bracket a cornerback underneath Brown with a safety over top.
"We knew that on third downs they were going to give us a two-high look," Brown said of the Packers' game plan. "The safeties were going to get deep and try to keep everything in front of them. We did a good job of taking our chances on early downs, hitting those zones in later downs."
While the Packers' decision to use lots of two-high safety looks on third down was the story of the game, they reverted to that defense on this first down play. Brown had been beating that coverage all night, but of all his catches, this was the one that showed how prepared he was to put the team on his back and deliver in the game's biggest moment.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Packers, Heinz Field, Nov. 26, 2017. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS