How many times this week did Williams practice that route during the week with Wilson?
“None. I didn’t run it one time,” Williams said.
But Wilson wanted that matchup on the outside with Washington cornerback Benjamin St.-Juste, and he wanted Williams running it.
“He said, ‘I want you to run this route,'” Williams said. “I think Calvin went out. He was running that route all week. He actually ran it earlier in the game. It was for him. He was out, so I went in there and made a play.”
Wilson took the shotgun snap, dropped back a couple of more steps and lofted the ball to the front corner of the end zone, trusting Williams to win.
“It was a big-time catch by Mike,” said Wilson. “I just tried to give him a chance, you know, and let him do his thing. The guy had 1000-yard seasons over his career. A guy whose made plays, a guy who’s faced adversity. You love it when guys face adversity and they come through on the other end of it.”
Wilson did that on Sunday, as well.
It wasn’t his best game. Some of the big-time deep throws he had made in his first two starts with the Steelers fell incomplete in this game.
He finished just 14 of 28 for 195 yards. But he also threw three touchdown passes with an interception on third down that was essentially an arm punt.
And the touchdown might not have even been his best play of the game.
That came after the Steelers got a fourth-down stop on the Commanders with 1:28 remaining in the game at the Pittsburgh 42.
Facing fourth-and-1, the Steelers could have punted the ball back to Washington – which had used its timeouts to stop the clock – with 1:08 remaining.
The Steelers lined up as if they were going to run a quarterback sneak. And Wilson used cadence to get rookie defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton to jump offsides.
“In the huddle, we didn’t have a play called,” said center Zach Frazier. “All we were doing was breaking the huddle and trying to sell like we were going to sneak it. We broke the huddle and sprinted to the ball and Russ got them with the hard count.”
Wilson reacted like a kid who had just won his ticket to the Willy Wonka chocolate factory, doing a little dance.
For Wilson, now 3-0 as the Steelers’ starter, he’s having fun playing the game. And winning. He’s now 12-2 in his career when facing a rookie quarterback as he did in this game.
And the Steelers are now 7-2 heading into a monumental AFC North showdown next Sunday against the Ravens (6-3).
“Excellence is built daily,” Wilson said. “It’s the obsession with the process. It’s obsession with the adversity too. Knowing that you’re going to come out on the other end of it. And I think so many people, they check out when it gets a little bit hard and tough (situations) and obstacles come your way. I think great players, the great organizations and the great teams are able to overcome obstacles and just trust the process.”
It helps when you’re a veteran player, especially a quarterback, who has been through them all.
You can’t be afraid to fail in big situations because the other side of it is just so darn sweet.