The Pittsburgh Steelers had a very important must-win game heading into a contest against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12 of the 2023 NFL season. The AFC North is tight, and if the Steelers wanted any chance to compete in the division or for a playoff spot, it was crucial that they found a way to win in Cincinnati. Due to the stakes being so high in this game, all players should be playing their hardest. Well, this wasn't the case on one play for Steelers wide receiver, Diontae Johnson.
Associated Press
Steelers Diontae Johnson has been quite vocal about his frustrations.
Steelers' Johnson Gives Embarrassing Effort
The Steelers were driving deep in Cincinnati territory on their second drive of the ball game in hopes to put some points on the board. This occurred during their first game since the firing of Offensive Coordinator, Matt Canada, and the offense seemed to be running more efficiently.
Second-year quarterback, Kenny Pickett seemed to look comfortable. On a second-down play from the Bengals 15-yard line, Pickett found Johnson in the back of the end zone on a beautiful pass, but Johnson apparently dropped the ball as he fell to the ground.
Jordan Schofield / SteelerNation (Twitter X: @JSKO Photo)
Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson worked at perfecting his route running during the 2023 offseason
It's okay to drop the ball. Everyone makes mistakes. For Johnson, he drops more passes than most receivers, but most Steelers fans are used to it. The main thing most fans took issue with was the effort he showed on the next play.
It was a run play drawn up for Jaylen Warren, however he didn't have much room to run. While fighting for extra yards the ball slipped out and it was a fumble recovered by the Bengals. Johnson showed no sort of effort on this play; he didn't try to block during the play, he didn't try to recover the fumble, and he didn't try to chase down the defender that recovered the fumble.
Diontae Johnson giving tons of effort on that fumble.
— Colin Dunlap (@colin_dunlap) November 26, 2023
pic.twitter.com/vueVFDJqi9
For a professional football player to act like this on the playing field; it's atrocious. Especially in a game that is so important for the Steelers and their aspirations for the postseason. It's unclear if Johnson often decides to take run plays off, or if he chose to just do this because he had a bad drop the play before. He also could have been mad at the coaching staff for not throwing the challenge flag on his drop, since he got three feet down in bounds, but didn't control the ball all the way down to the ground.
Abigail Dean / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers WR Diontae Johnson was hit with a hefty fine after speaking out on the awful officiating during their Week 9 victory
This effort from Johnson comes after getting into fights with his teammates in Week 11, and now, Johnson and the Steelers are currently trying to find a way to win a Week 12 matchup, and keep themselves in the wild card spot for the AFC playoffs. This win would be big for them to keep pace with the Cleveland Browns, a team they lost to in Week 11. Johnson made up for his drop and pathetic effort later on by catching a nice ball down the sideline for 39 yards.
What did you think of Johnson's effort? Let us know in the comments below!
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