While many were to blame for the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ 17-31 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, there was arguably no bigger mistake than rookie Kaleb Johnson’s kickoff mishap — and he understands this all too well.
Following the loss, when Johnson was asked if he understood the landing zone rule on kick return, he claimed it didn’t matter — because the mistake had already happened.
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“If I wasn’t sure, if I was sure, it doesn’t matter,” Johnson told reporters post-game. “I still got to do what I got to do, and I still got to go in there and execute it the way it needs to be executed.”
Johnson’s inability to understand the rule — that he must recover any kick return that hits the landing zone — gave Seattle a two-score lead late in the contest, one that Pittsburgh unfortunately couldn’t come back from.
Despite this egregious rookie mistake, Johnson’s teammate RB Jaylen Warren offered words of encouragement regarding the mishap, sharing that it’s all about the “counter punch” — how he performs on the next play.
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This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers’ Kaleb Johnson breaks his silence on big mistake vs. Seahawks