Halicke: Jefferson's score shows ability to attack opponents' tendencies

The Steelers' offense was dormant in the first half of Sunday's 27-14 win over the Browns, but they turned it on in the second half with two straight touchdown drives after the break. The first one came on a slick run-pass option (RPO) that wound up with a Van Jefferson 10-yard touchdown catch.

The play call took advantage of the Browns' tendency in the game to crash down and stop the run, and Russell Wilson executed it to perfection:

"We kind of got hot in the second half," Wilson said after the game. "We came out and executed our offense, executed what Arthur wanted to get to. I thought that was a good thing. It was cool to see Van get in the end zone on that play. With tempo with that."

Here's the play laid out, thanks to CBS' broadcast giving everyone the All-22 live during the broadcast:

NFL ON CBS

I had the play broken down while in the locker room by somebody heavily involved. This was an RPO designed to be used in tempo and, as Wilson said, they went into this play without a huddle to keep the Browns' personnel on the field. Wilson had to pick which side of the play to attack based on what the defense was showing. In attacking the right side, Wilson had to read Myles Garrett off the edge. If he played back and contained the edge, he had to hand it off to Jaylen Warren. If he crashed in on Warren, he was to pull the ball and look for MyCole Pruitt in the flat as his primary read.

Jefferson was responsible for any potential pick to open up the flat route to Pruitt, then run a spot route. Denzel Ward stuck with his assignment and took away the flat route. But since Garrett, Devin Bush (N0. 30) and the play-side safety Rodney McLeod Jr. all completely sold out for the run, all Jefferson had to do was hit his spot where he found the most amount of grass. Wilson using his legs opened things up for Jefferson, who moved into more open space with the Browns' defense crashing on Wilson during that scramble, giving him an easy target to hit.

This is what a well-designed and well-executed play looks like. Without George Pickens in the lineup for Pittsburgh, the Browns were more inclined to try and stop the run. This play call took advantage of that and gave Wilson an easy pitch and catch for six points.

"I got to give credit to Arthur, all the stuff we were able to do," Wilson said. "A lot of it is spending time on film study and what we can see, what we like."