He saw just five series and attempted just 10 total passes, but in that relatively limited action overall, the performance from veteran quarterback Russell Wilson in his debut as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers left many wanting to see more from the Hall of Fame caliber quarterback.
Wilson finished 8-of-10 for 47 yards and was sacked three times, failing to lead the Steelers to any points in the 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills, though kicker Chris Boswell did miss a 52-yard field goal.
In that performance, Wilson looked like he wanted to get the ball out quickly behind a shaky offensive line, which, who could really blame him? Head coach Mike Tomlin called it an “incomplete study” on Wilson in his first preseason action, but for former NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who appeared on ESPN’s Get Up! Monday morning, there was plenty to go off of with Wilson, and plenty to be concerned about.
Particularly Wilson’s lack of consistency he showed and the struggles executing the simple passing game.
“I think that’s the biggest issue [consistency] right now,” Orlovsky said on Get Up! Monday morning, according to video via ESPN on YouTube. “The Russ that we saw isn’t operating this offense, and they’re certainly not contenders with the Russ that we saw from this past weekend.
“There’s a lack of consistency.”
Consistency for a guy who missed quite a bit of time in training camp due to a calf injury suffered in a conditioning test is hard to come by in brief action, that’s for sure. But it was rather concerning that the Steelers’ offense looked like that on Saturday night against the Buffalo Bills.
Wilson wanted to get the ball out quickly and efficiently behind the offensive line, which really struggled to protect him. The three times Wilson was sacked on Saturday night against the Bills wasn’t entirely on him, but at least one was in Orlovsky’s eyes, and the bigger concerns for Wilson was the execution within the offense.
In that specifically, Orlovsky was concerned with some of the decisions Wilson was making within the quick passing game, something he broke down even further in a video he posted to his Twitter shortly after his appearance on Get Up.
“…It’s not like we’re operating this quick passing game efficiently,” Orlovsky said in the video on his Twitter page, breaking down some decisions made by Wilson on the night.
One such play came late in his performance, where standout receiver George Pickens was lined up in the slot against Buffalo linebacker Joe Andreesen in a 3-by-2 formation, with trips to the right.
It’s the exact look a quarterback should want with his standout receiver, but instead of letting the play develop just a bit and let Pickens win on his route – which he does — Wilson fired a hit route to the far side of the field to Van Jefferson for minimal game. That decision was a microcosm of the night for Wilson in Orlovsky’s eyes.
“…I’m getting in this formation to get this matchup right here, George, on the backer. George wins. Wins big. Why aren’t we throwing the ball there?” Orlovsky said of the decision in his video. “The execution of the simple passing game still lacks.”
Even with a new offensive coordinator in Arthur Smith and some new concepts in the short, quick passing game, it’s still very concerning, at least right now in the preseason, that the Steelers are struggling under center to execute those plays properly and efficiently.
Hopefully Saturday’s performance against the Bills was just Wilson shaking the cobwebs off and getting rid of the ball quickly just to try and find some rhythm, taking some decision-making out of it in an effort to try and stay on schedule. But if not, hopefully he can clean up the decision-making process within those concepts, because throws were there that he didn’t see or didn’t take.
That can’t happen in the regular season.
