Why Do Players Lose Their Minds On Hail Mary Passes?

Things got weird again on Thursday night, when the Pittsburgh Steelers took on the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland's Huntington Bank Field. Despite the increasing snow that turned the game into an old=school NFL Films special, most of the scoring happened in the second half. The score went from 10-3 in the Browns' favor at halftime to 24-19 in the Browns' favor when Cleveland running back Nick Chubb scored on a two-yard touchdown with 54 seconds left in the game.

That forced the Steelers to drive downfield as quickly as they could for an adequate response, and nothing but a touchdown would do. With six seconds left, and the ball on the Cleveland 35-yard line, Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson tried the Hail Mary.

It did not go as Pittsburgh hoped. Game over, and the 8-3 Steelers had lost to the 3-8 Browns. 

On the play, the Steelers had a 3x1 set, with receiver George Pickens as the outside slot receiver. As Pickens is by far the Steelers' best contested-catch target, one would expect that the ball was going in his direction. But that didn't happen, because Browns cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. boxed Pickens out to the back of the end zone. 

Si, instead of focusing on the ball and trying to get out of Emerson's way, Pickens decided that Thursday night was alright for fighting. 

Here's another interesting angle. With 6:15 left in the game, just after Wilson threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to receiver Calvin Austin III, Wilson tried to hit receiver Cordarrelle Patterson on what turned out to be an unsuccessful two-point conversion. But postgame, Wilson specifically mentioned Patterson's athletic potential in those contested-catch situations. 

“We almost had it," Wilson remembered. "We had a shot at it. CP is a Hall of Fame player. He’s played receiver, he can do everything. He caught a sweet one in practice two days before in the back corner. Just like that, almost had it. It was a contested play. We knew that’s going to be a contested play. We have to find somebody to get it up to and give them a chance, and unfortunately, didn’t come down with it.” 

Patterson was not on the field for the final play. 

"Just keep grinding." Pickens said after the game, when asked what the loss told the Steelers about the rest of their season. "The conditions played a huge part in today's game. I don't really think the Cleveland Browns are a good team at all. I think the conditions kind of saved them today."

Well, it also helped that on the Steelers' final offensive play of the game, they had 10 men on the field — both physically and mentally. 

Yes, Hail Mary passes are weird plays. But that is the time for every NFL player to tap his internal Bill Belichick with the simple mantra: "Do your job."