Oct 28th 2008 9:26AM by JJ Cooper (author feed)
Filed under: Giants, Steelers, AFC North, NFC East
If you were wondering how the Steelers pulled off their goal-line stand early in their loss to the Giants, they got a little help from Eli Manning.
As they got ready for the fourth and goal play from the one, Brett Keisel read Manning’s lips as he said “32.” So he told the rest of his teammates that they could expect the play to be a run through the two-gap.
“I was watching Eli’s lips the whole time and I saw him say, ‘32,’ so I went over and tried to tell everyone, ‘It’s right here,’ and we stopped it,” Keisel said. “That was a big play in the game.”
Keisel and the defense still had trouble keeping tailback Brandon Jacobs out of the end zone–the 270-pounder is a tough one to stop, but the Steelers did get the stop, although it proved to not be enough in the end. But it is a fascinating sign of how a little slip-up like a quarterback not shielding his mouth from the defense can be the difference on a key play.
