2023-12-04 02:33:28
Diontae Johnson scored a touchdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. That’s an accomplishment in and of itself — since his Pro Bowl season of 2021, Johnson has hauled in only two touchdown grabs as the Steelers moved on from Ben Roethlisberger and entered their Kenny Pickett era.
Backup Mitchell Trubisky found Johnson for a fourth-quarter, garbage time touchdown once morest the Arizona Cardinals at Acrisure Stadium. The touchdown brought the Steelers closer, but not close enough to avoid the upset at the hands of the now 3-10 Cardinals. What captured the attention for most viewers was Johnson’s celebration — a full dance routine with the ball as a launchable prop.
The celebration immediately proved controversial, with football fans taking to social media to sharply criticize Johnson for not taking the situation seriously enough.
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Johnson roundly criticized
One Steelers fan on X (formerly Twitter) called Johnson‘s celebration “loser behavior” — a common refrain from Pittsburgh fans who are already less-than-enamored with the five-year veteran’s behavior across recent weeks.
Johnson last week stood still and watched as running back Jaylen Warren fumbled in the first quarter of the Steelers‘ win over the Cincinnati Bengals — a lack of effort and hustle that Johnson promised would not happen once more.
Perhaps Johnson was overcompensating, or just really happy to find his way into the end zone amidst another difficult season. But ultimately, it was the last scoring play of a 24-10 Pittsburgh loss — a result that hurts the 7-5 Steelers’ playoff chances.
Pickett to miss at least a couple weeks
Of course, Trubisky was in the game due to Pickett‘s ankle injury, which occurred in the second quarter — just before the Cardinals launched a decisive 99-yard touchdown drive.
Pickett was injured on a third-and-goal scramble and was removed for the next play — a Trubisky handoff that was stopped at the line of scrimmage. Pickett did not return to the game, even following a pair of weather-related delays — an indication that the injury will cost Pickett multiple games.
ESPN‘s Adam Schefter has reported that Pickett will miss a couple weeks of action, which would rule the second-year signal-caller out of Thursday night’s game once morest the New England Patriots and next weekend’s visit to Indianapolis to face the Colts.
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