On the first third down of the game last Sunday between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Chargers in primetime at SoFi Stadium, Steelers standout receiver DK Metcalf found himself open behind the Chargers’ secondary on a scramble drill from quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Metcalf was racing towards the front right pylon when Rodgers uncorked the deep shot. What should have been a walk-in touchdown instead fell incomplete, foretelling what type of night it was going to be for the 41-year-old Rodgers as he missed a number of throws he tends to make.
For Metcalf, who spoke to reporters on Wednesday, it wasn’t a misfire from Rodgers.
He didn’t run his route correctly.
“I had a corner-post, and I saw Aaron roll out to the left. So, I kind of broke my route a little flatter than it should have been,” Metcalf said of the play, according to video via Steelers.com. “So I should have kept the route high.”
Here’s the All-22 view of the route from Metcalf and the throw from Rodgers on the failed connection on third down on the first drive of the game.
You can see Metcalf is running a corner-post with his head fake outside to his left, trying to get the safety to open up. After the quick head fake, Metcalf cuts inside on the post part of the route, running diagonally across the field.
Rodgers is already breaking out of the pocket before Metcalf is even at the top of his stem to use his head fake, so by the time Metcalf gets his head around, Rodgers is rolling left and setting up to launch for him. As this is happening, Metcalf is looking back at Rodgers and is flattening his route a bit.
DK Metcalf on missed deep connection in 1st quarter: "Well, I had a corner-post, and I saw Aaron [Rodgers] roll out to the left. So, kind of broke my route a little flatter than I should have been. So, I should have kept the route high." #Steelers #NFL pic.twitter.com/2zx0smTri5
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) November 12, 2025
Instead of continuing to work towards the pylon, Metcalf is working more towards the sideline, putting his trajectory around the 10-yard line, whereas Rodgers lets this thing fly and is aiming inside the 5-yard line, giving Metcalf room vertically.
When Metcalf says he should have kept the route high, he means he should have aimed for the back pylon in his route, continuing to attack downfield vertically, rather than gaining ground horizontally. If he doesn’t flatten the route and instead pushes vertically more, he probably easily runs underneath this throw for a touchdown.
You can see in the clip above that right around the 15-yard line, Metcalf realizes he’s too flat on the route, and Rodgers puts it further up the field. He tries to adjust, but he’s unable to get underneath it, and it falls incomplete.
That might have looked like an early, bad miss from Rodgers, but Metcalf is taking the blame for the pass falling incomplete. Hopefully, the two can get on the same page a bit better this week and capitalize on a deep shot or two, should the opportunity arise against the Bengals.
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