Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool talked to the media after the team’s 29-17 loss about playing with tempo and his confidence level in quarterback Mitch Trubisky. In the first half, Pittsburgh ran the most up-tempo and no-huddle we’ve seen from them yet this year, and it resulted in two first-half touchdowns, which matched their total for the season up to that point.
“There was success with tempo so I think that just opens doors up in the future to be able to go back to that,” Claypool said via team transcripts.
Earlier this week, Matt Canada talked about potentially going more up-tempo as a part of the Steelers’ gameplan, and they did so with success in the first half. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s something that continues in Week 4 against the Jets and in future weeks.
Claypool also talked about Trubisky.
“My confidence in him has always been at its highest. He threw a ball downfield and he was putting the ball where it needed to be. I do not remember a time when he made an inaccurate pass. So, he did his job.”
Trubisky did attempt to push the ball downfield more, albeit with mixed results. He played turnover-free football, but mechanically, there were still some issues. Trubisky bailed out of clean pockets on a few occasions and still has a habit of throwing off his back foot when he really doesn’t need to. For a starting quarterback in the NFL, especially one with as much experience as Trubisky has, it’s unusual to see.
Although he did take more shots downfield, the Steelers once again virtually ignored the middle of the field. Tight end Pat Freiermuth didn’t get his first catch until late in the fourth quarter, and it just wasn’t an area of the field the Steelers tried to attack much.
If the playmakers are happy with how Trubisky is performing, then there’s not really going to be a ton of urgency to make a change. While Claypool isn’t going to come out and throw Trubisky under the bus, he did at least try and make plays downfield, which is a change from Sunday’s game, and for a lot of the first half, the offense looked to be clicking.
Their inability to convert on third downs or hit on the majority of their downfield shots killed them in the second half, and while Trubisky missed some reads (namely Diontae Johnson at the end of the first half), he wasn’t absolutely awful. He was better than he was on Sunday, and hopefully, he can build off his performance tonight and be better against the Jets in Week 4.
