Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Patrick Peterson may be regretting the comments he made leading up to the team’s 2023 regular season opener against the San Francisco 49ers.
Peterson stated last week that the 49ers offense had “tells” that would enable him to be on the receiving end of an interception, but that wasn’t the case.
It was quite the opposite. The 49ers offense had its way with the Steelers defense en-route to a dominant 30-7 road victory.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy carved up Peterson and the rest of the Steelers defensive unit, totaling 240 yards and touchdowns without an interception.
Purdy completed 19 of his 29 pass attempts for 220 yards, adding 20 yards on the ground as a runner. He was dissecting the Steelers defense and the 49ers offense had no problem moving the ball down the field repeatedly.
Despite this, Peterson doubled down on his stance from before the game. “I had an opportunity to get two picks, I just didn’t grab them in,” said Peterson after the game. While he did deflect two passes, Peterson and the rest of the Steelers defense surrendered 30 points in an embarrassing home loss to start the season.
Whatever “tells” Peterson was alluding to, he and the Steelers failed to capitalize. The Steelers will need to turn it around quickly if they want to avoid dropping to 0-2 when they host the Cleveland Browns in a Week 2 divisional battle on Monday Night Football.
