Plays of the Year: Diontae Johnson lays out for Roethlisberger deep touchdown strike

Steel City Underground presents “Plays of the Year” featuring the top runs, catches, hits and everything else in-between from the Pittsburgh Steelers 2020 season.

Entering Week 16’s matchup with the Indianapolis Colts, the Pittsburgh Steelers were on a three-game losing streak – which seemed improbable a month earlier when they had started the season 11-0.

In the next-to-last game of the season, the Steelers had to get back on track but it didn’t appear promising from the start. The Steelers offense had struggled all afternoon. Criticized often during that three-game losing streak for their inability to generate offense, many of those critics began to question if this was the end of Ben Roethlisberger.

Is his arm shot? Is it time to retire?

Turns out, the old gunslinger still has “it”.

Down 24-7 and missing out on scoring on their previous drive (which was the best of the game thus far) the Steelers offense needed a spark. Turning the ball over in the red zone, the defense gave Pittsburgh hope by forcing the Colts to punt and getting the ball back into Big Ben’s hands.

It’s clear the 38-year-old quarterback had had enough of rhetoric on, or off, of the field as he dials up a play that he was not on the same page with WR Diontae Johnson earlier.

Johnson, who also had issues with dropped passes last season, wows the virtual crowd at an empty Heinz Field by laying out for this pass (which traveled 50 yards in the air, per Ed Bouchette of the Athletic), good for a 39-yard touchdown connection.

This play sparked a series of scores which led to 21 points gained, unanswered, by the Steelers within the next ten minutes of the contest.

They would go up 28-24 on a Roethlisberger to JuJu Smith-Schuster touchdown strike later, and finally break their losing streak, securing the AFC North division title and a 12-3 record heading into the final week of the 2020 regular season.