Plays of the Year: Dobbs wins the game

Steel City Underground presents “Plays of the Year” featuring the tops runs, catches, hits and everything else in-between for the Steelers 2017 season.

Preseason games are generally boring affairs. Especially when you’re watching the final of the four exhibition games when most of the each team’s starters are on the bench.

In fact, this would accurately describe the Steelers and Panthers game from way back on August 31st, 2017. With all of the big names standing on the sidelines, the Steelers ran with Terrell Watson and Knile Davis (instead of Le’Veon Bell or James Conner) at running back, while Landry Jones started under center, attempting only six passes.

Pittsburgh’s fourth-round draft pick, rookie quarterback Joshua Dobbs, entered the game with nearly six minutes remaining in the first quarter. The Steelers would score points off of a Chris Boswell field goal and a deep pass from Dobbs to WR Justin Hunter but still trailed at halftime 14-10.

Neither team could move the ball enough to score again in the second half, as the Steelers still trailed by four with 49 seconds left in the game. Dobbs was given the go-ahead to attempt to win the game and marched Pittsburgh down to the Carolina one-yard line within 40 seconds. Two of those big plays were made by WR Marcus Tucker, including a 34-yard connection that helped stop the clock when the receiver went out-of-bounds.

Dobbs moved under center, as the offensive players sprawled out for a pass, sucking the Carolina defense away from the line of scrimmage and allowing a scrambling quarterback to do what he does best…

Dobbs marched the Steelers (mostly practice squad players and/or hopefuls) 53 yards in five plays, consuming 47 seconds with the half’s only score.

The Steelers would walk out of Bank of America Stadium with a 17-14 victory.