Plays of the Year: Eli Rogers knots the score before halftime

Steel City Underground presents “Plays of the Year” featuring the tops runs, catches, hits and everything else in-between from the Pittsburgh Steelers 2018 season.

In Week 16, the Pittsburgh Steelers playoffs lives were on the line as they traveled to the Mercedes Benz Superdome to play the NFC-leading New Orleans Saints. The Saints were leading the Steelers, 14-6, with just over ten minutes left in the game before Ben Roethlisberger took the field and executed a near-perfect offensive series. It was capped off by a touchdown and successful Eli Rogers two-point conversion.

Roethlisberger marched the Steelers offense down the field. Fifteen plays and 97 yards later, after chewing up over six minutes off the game clock, Big Ben found a wide open Jaylen Samuels in the right flat for an easy touchdown. The score was 14-12.

Having had success this season in converting two-point tries, head coach Mike Tomlin went for it. Roethlisberger was able to find in nearly the same location on the field. Despite four defenders in the area, they were focused on JuJu Smith-Schuster and Vance McDonald, leaving Rogers wide open for the toss-and-catch to knot up the score, 14-14, with just 40 seconds left before halftime.

Unfortunately for the Steelers, they would lose the game and then miss the playoffs.