The Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback battle between Russell WIlson and Justin Fields took a turn for the worse Saturday in the team's preseason loss to the Buffalo Bills, 9-3. However, if there was one that outplayed the other, it would arguably be Fields, possibly due to one play made during the slog.
With over five minutes left of the fourth quarter, Fields had the best play of the night for the Steelers offense where he showed his exciting escapism as he was facing heavy pressure, looked like he would be sacked, but got away from it. He would then roll left and hit an impressive throw on the run, completing the pass to Dez Fitzpatrick for 19 yards.
On the night, Fields threw for 92 yards while completing 11 of his 17 pass attempts where he had no touchdowns or interceptions, was sacked once, had a quarterback rating of 78.6, and also had 42 yards on the ground. The former first round pick who is looking for a fresh start with Pittsburgh touched on his dual-threat ability after the game and talked about his mindset according to ESPN.
“I'm just playing football out there,” Fields said. “At the end of the day, if I got to run a little bit more, then that's what I have to do. But I don't go into games saying that, ‘Oh, I'm going to have to run a lot more or show off my legs more.' I'm just reacting and playing football.”
Justin Fields “got better in some areas” per Steelers coach Mike Tomlin
Despite the underwhelming performance as a whole from the Steelers, Fields would be the quarterback between the two that produced the only scoring drive which ended in a field goal. Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin said that the 25-year old “got better in some areas.”
“I thought he got better in some areas,” Tomlin said of Fields. “I thought he did a nice job utilizing his legs, whether it was impromptu or otherwise, to keep some situations alive.”
As for Wilson, he completed eight of 10 passes for 47 yards, had a quarterback rating of 86.2, but the offensive line did him no favors as he was sacked three times for a loss of 21 yards. Tomlin himself would call it an “incomplete case study” and that they have to do a better job at protecting the quarterback, but Wilson spoke about coming back from his calf injury.
“I felt strong,” Wilson said. “Anytime you have an injury, sometimes if you're worried about it, you're in the back of your mind. Didn't feel that at all really the past week or so. And I felt really good this past week and everything else. And so to play out there tonight just to get back out there in the black and gold was really cool.”
“I think the best thing that I can do, personally, is just stay consistent in an approach,” Wilson said. “Had a little bump in the road with my calf. But the best part is I was out there tonight and playing. … And I know what I can do when I'm a hundred percent, I'm getting close.”
The Steelers next preseason game is next Saturday against the Detroit Lions.
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