I was also surprised to see the Steelers run that fake punt play. However, the Steeler gunner was left completely unguarded on that play. Thus, the Steelers snapped the ball to the upback who lobbed a pass to the wide-open gunner.
The pass hit the gunner right in the breadbasket for what would have been an easy first down. The gunner just simply tried to run before he secured the pass, and he dropped it.
You lost me at “the upback lobbed a pass to the wide open gunner”. Thing is, upbacks aren’t QB’s….and gunners aren’t wide receivers. And pitch and catch plays where the ball must 30 yards in the air aren’t automatic for actual QB’s and WR’s, either. There’s all sorts of things that could go wrong in that situation. It only took one thing to go wrong, and it did.
And by the way, the gunner didn’t try to run before catching it….he actually had to shorten his stride and slow down, and turn his body around, because the ball was slightly under-thrown. Not terribly underthrown, but enough to disrupt the timing. Then of course, in the midst of that he did drop the pass. So, 2 things that went wrong actually. The play was there, which means it could have been a great call in a situation like being at midfield of a tie game instead of at your own 16 yard line with a 7-0 lead. But alas.
Concerning your statement about no coach ever making a worse decision, you are obviously forgetting about this:
Touché.