What the hell was Chase Claypool thinking? That’s the question on Steelers fan’s minds Friday morning after the chance of a comeback was further dashed by the wide receiver’s celebration.
With under 40 seconds left, Claypool caught a first down and with the clock still running, decided to do his first down point celebration, with the Steelers down 36-28 in the fourth quarter.
That knocked about five seconds off the clock. Then lineman Trai Turner, trying to get Claypool to give the referee the ball so they could spike it, knocked the ball out of Claypool’s hand, shaving off several more seconds of precious time.
After the Steelers finally are able to spike the ball and stop the clock, Claypool’s anger goes on full display seemly frustrated with his teammates.
After the game, Claypool spoke about it.
“Definitely have to be better,” Claypool said. “I got tackled near the hash, did my first down point and went to hand the ball to the ref. He had just got there. Even if I had just got up and looked for him, he wasn’t there. He ran down the field to come get the ball.”
“The ball got knocked out of my hands, that’s what costed us time. I definitely have to be better. I know I’m near the hash. I know the ball is placed on the hash. I got to be better. They ball shouldn’t be knocked out of my hands. It should have been a penalty.”
That penalty would've gone against Turner because he was the one that knocked it out of his hands.
Those antics came even after Mike Tomlin benched Claypool for a time after he got his team a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness in the first quarter after he pushed Vikings cornerback Bashaud Breeland in the facemask.
Asked after the game if Claypool got the message after being benched, Head Coach Mike Tomlin said, “we’ll see.”
Well we did see with Claypool’s inexcusable celebration costing his team preciously time in a must-win game.
Claypool may have had eight catches for 93 yards, but he also nearly fumbled and missed a big block on top of his other two egregious errors.
And Twitter let him have it:
In a game where your offense and defense were horrendous in the first half and you still have a chance to at least tie it up, Claypool's antics are turning the Steelers headache into a migraine.