Make It Rain: Pittsburgh pulled off one of my favorite blitzes

We know that the Cleveland Browns loss is almost 10 days away and all of us, especially the players, are trying to put this game behind us. It’s hard to blame them. But I couldn’t get past this game without mentioning one of my favorite play calls from the game. It ended in otherwise forgettable incompleteness and didn’t even end in a flash, but it’s worth breaking it down in more detail.

The wording varies, but I know it as a “rain” call. What it boils down to is that it is a blitz call with two off-ball linebackers lining up in the A’s on either side of center. The speed camera is determined by which direction the center is facing. Or more precisely, where he doesn’t. Whichever side the center turns, that linebacker is eliminated. The linebacker removed from the slide blitzes.

Head, I win. Tails, you lose. That’s the game. Do injustice to the center no matter what it does.

Here’s the call to action against Cleveland. Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen show off a blitz look in the A-gap. The Browns center slides to the right (left of the defense) off the snap. So Wilson takes cover while Queen leaks. Unfortunately, the running back also stays in and gets enough of Queen to prevent him from breaking through and hitting QB Jameis Winston. Nevertheless, Winston’s throw at the line of scrimmage is blocked by DL Cam Heyward and is incomplete.

This works best against empty sets where there is no running back. Otherwise, the protector has a much easier and cleaner job of picking things up. The center slides one way, the back takes the other gap, and the offense isn’t put in an impossible position. That’s one of the reasons the MIKE linebacker is identified so the rest of the defense knows which way the center is turning.

I admit that I can’t be 100% sure that this is a “rain” flash. Maybe Wilson would definitely get into reporting. Queen has been blitzed a lot more this season (admittedly, he’s playing 100 percent of the snaps). But based on Wilson’s actions here, charging forward until the middle slides to him, it certainly looks that way.

Others have described the course of the call in better detail than I know and can explain here. But it comes from the Nick Saban/Bill Belichick defensive tree — because of course it does — and was one of his favorites. Here’s a great GIF of Belichick making conversational signs and imitating raindrops with his fingers during a game with the New England Patriots.

The Steelers haven’t blitzed much this year, although they have surged against mobile quarterbacks. But it was a cool wrinkle, even if it wasn’t against the right protection that would have otherwise given Queen an easy path to the quarterback.