Depending on which plays you watched, Pittsburgh Steelers QB Justin Fields played either his best or his worst game. He made some truly highlight plays, and also used his legs effectively, including on two rushing touchdowns. If you isolate his highlights, you could certainly make the case that he has the makings of a franchise player.
Unfortunately, you can’t separate the bad from the good, and the Steelers are still working on reducing the bad. Fields had his share of bad yesterday, including ill-advised throws, more center-quarterback exchange issues, and lack of pocket awareness. You can even go back to the usual complaint of missing open receivers.
The question is how much can you work on mitigating the bad while accentuating the good? What does a Justin Fields ceiling look like when he is at his full maturity, so to speak? There is no reason, for example, that he has to continue struggling with snap exchanges. And to his credit, he has made progress in areas of prior concern.
Former Steelers DL Chris Hoke believes he has seen enough from Justin Fields to see that franchise guy in him. The only question is if they can actually get it out of him because the good, in his mind, is truly good enough.
“Every week he’s getting better”, Hoke said of Fields Sunday on the KDKA Nightly Sports Call show. “Some of this stuff, he’s got to clean up. Some things are starting to pop up in the last two weeks, an interception last week, this week the fumble, which I think is just trying to do too much, and then that last play where he picked up his leg, a lack of focus that he talked about”.
“If [Fields] cleans those little things up, then he had a perfect game in my mind”, Hoke continued. “When you go 24-of-34 for 312 yards, no picks, a touchdown – he also ran for 55 yards – to me that is an exceptional game for a quarterback. Take away those turnovers and that sloppy play on that one and I think you’re looking at a guy who’s on the rise”.
Justin Fields went 22-of-34 passing for 312 yards with one touchdown pass. He also rushed for 55 yards on 10 attempts for two touchdowns. The game marked just the second 300-yard passing game of his career and also his second with multiple rushing touchdowns. With one passing touchdown and two rushing touchdowns, he also produced at least three scores for the sixth time of his NFL career.
But he also took four sacks, many of them escapable, especially his 20-yard loss on which he fumbled. The play that will stand out is Justin Fields taking a snap to the facemask at the end of the game, for which he took the blame for not paying attention.
You always have to take the bad with the good for any player, but how much bad can the Steelers eliminate from Fields’ game? I agree with Hoke that he has shown he has the talent in him, but the bad comes with it.
