Plays of the Year: Chase Claypool completes trick play TD pass to Derek Watt
Steel City Underground presents “Plays of the Year” featuring the top runs, catches, hits and everything else in-between from the Pittsburgh Steelers 2022 season.
With all the misdirection run-pass options the Philadelphia Eagles use against opponents, including the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8 of the 2022 NFL regular season, they got caught off-guard by some creative trickery themselves.
In the Steelers’ second offensive series of the game, Kenny Pickett was moving the ball down the field. There were two plays in the series, however, that illustrated that Pittsburgh wasn’t going to get “cute” but had their own ideas on being creative with their play calling.
On second-and-goal from the Philadelphia six-yard line, Najee Harris took a direct snap and threw a short pass to Diontae Johnson, who was pushed out of bounds at the two-yard line.
Unable to convert the third down, the Steelers trotted out Nick Sciba for a field goal attempt. The Eagles defense was called for a delay of game penalty. The penalty gave the Steelers a one-yard game and an opportunity for another field goal attempt. Instead, Pittsburgh went for the score.
With just 1:57 left in the first quarter, Pickett took the snap and handed the ball off to Chase Claypool. It looked to be an all-too-common for this squad sweep. Instead, Claypool ran wide and threw a left-handed pass to fullback Derek Watt into the end zone for a touchdown.
The play was innovative and completely misread by the Eagles defense. It also marked a first for Claypool and Watt; Claypool threw his first career touchdown pass and Watt caught his first career touchdown.
After seeing the Eagles score so easily in their first series, the Claypool to Watt play made a statement that the Steelers were in the game to compete, redeeming offensive coordinator Matt Canada for that call at least. It also ended some of the narrative that Watt has little value to the team beyond special teams play.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to ground the soaring Eagles, who easily ousted the Steelers by a final score of 35-13, with Claypool’s pass to Watt being Pittsburgh’s only touchdown of the game.
