Things were rather ugly for the second straight week in the preseason for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The offense mustered just three points on the night, struggled to win possession downs and couldn’t stay on schedule.
The offensive line was a mess from a protection aspect, and there was very little to work with in the passing game.
But the one positive takeaway from Saturday night’s 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills at Acrisure Stadium was some of the magic that quarterback Justin Fields produced for the Black and Gold.
Fields completed 11-of-17 passes for 92 yards, but he was sacked once and just missed out on a touchdown to wide receiver T.J. Luther in the fourth quarter. At times, Fields looked very comfortable conducting the offense with the second and third stringers, and he showed that most notably with his legs.
Fields rushed for 42 yards on eight carries and had a highlight-reel play after getting out of a sack, rolling to his left and throwing a dart to receiver Dez Fitzpatrick along the sidelines to move the chains.
Following the loss to the Bills, Steelers tight end Connor Heyward had quite a bit of praise for Fields and his athletic abilities.
“Yeah, Justin does a good job when they [offensive line] doing well and when they’re not, just extending plays,” Heyward said, according to audio provided by the team. “He’s been doing that since I can remember, you guys can remember. That’s always been an element in his game, and with [a] quarterback that’s that fast and can extend, it’s a win for us. And he’ll always get us out of stuff with the athletic ability.
“He’s just blessed to do all those things. He can run, throw, jump, everything. He’s a real star athlete as well as quarterback.”
That summarizes Fields well.
He put that all on display against the Bills.
Though it wasn’t the cleanest or prettiest performance, Fields flashed quite a bit. He ripped off a 20-yard run in the first half, added an 8-yard read-option in the second half to pick up a first down, and then capped things with the avoided sack and dart on the run to Fitzpatrick to move the chains.
When things break down around him, much like they did often on Saturday night, Fields has the tools to get out of tight situations, extend plays and try to make magic happen.
For much of the night Saturday, it looked like Fields was back in Chicago, behind an offensive line that struggled to protect him, not enough passing game weapons around him, and him needing to run around to make plays.
That has to be a bit discouraging to him, but he took it in stride and had flashes, which caught the attention of teammates, too.
Still, three points is three points. It wasn’t good enough. But it’s certainly something to take notice of with Fields.
