Mark it down. Third-and-9 from the Steelers 26-yard line, the first play of the fourth quarter in a game against the Colts where the Steelers had managed to turn a 16-3 halftime lead into a 17-16 deficit by playing 15 minutes of awful football in all three phases.
Just as Ben Roethlisberger announced his presence in that Saturday afternoon training camp practice at Saint Vincent College in 2004 with that laser back to the middle of the field thrown on a dead run that hit receiver Zamir Cobb in the chest 25 yards downfield, Kenny Pickett showed he had the bonafides of an NFL starting quarterback on the first play of the fourth quarter in a Nov. 28 game with a 4-6-1 team hosting a 3-7 opponent.
This is not to suggest Pickett’s rookie season of his professional career now is on the same arc as Roethlisberger’s was 18 years ago, or that third-and-9 from the 26-yard line is some prophecy that he eventually will turn out to be what Roethlisberger was for a very long time. All it says, all it should be taken
