Justin Fields, not Russell Wilson, led the Pittsburgh Steelers to their 18-10 win in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons. It wasn’t an exciting effort by Fields and the offense, but they got the job done.
They never made it into the end zone as K Chris Boswell put up all 18 of the Steelers’ points with his leg. But the second half was decidedly better than the first half, and Fields seemed to warm up as the game went on.
Fields was asked about the slow start in his media availability after the game.
“Yeah, we definitely got off to a slow start,” Fields said in a press conference posted on the Steelers’ YouTube page. “Especially the first play, and then I missed the throw to Van. But after the first drive, we settled in a little bit, and especially as the game went along.”
The first offensive series for the Steelers was about as bad as it gets. The very first play was a botched snap, bringing back bad memories of Fields’ preseason debut in Pittsburgh just a month ago. Fields rolled out to his right on the second play, and missed an open Van Jefferson on the run. Then the Steelers burned a timeout.
It was beginning to look like a disaster on offense with the sudden change of plans at starting quarterback just hours before the game.
“We know we were better than that, so nobody was stressing,” Fields said. “…Like I said, that’s not gonna happen again. At the end of the day, nobody was stressed. Nobody was like, ‘Oh, what’s going on.’ So we know what kind of game we play. We know what we can do on the field and like we said, we still got some stuff to work on. We still gotta be better in the red zone, be better with self-inflicted wounds.”
Then Fields broke off a 12-yard run on 3rd and 7 to convert for a fresh set of downs on that first drive.
They managed to get a field goal on their first two drives, and each drive was 10 plays in total. At the end of the day, the Steelers want to possess the ball on offense and control the pace of the game, and they were largely able to achieve that goal.
The 18-10 score didn’t suggest a great offensive performance, but the time of possession was a big positive for the Steelers. In total, the Steelers possessed the ball for 35:36, and Atlanta just 24:24. That difference was even greater in the second half, when the Steelers had the ball for 19:19 to the Falcons’ 10:41.
And they made up for the consistent splash on offense by some timely explosive plays. The final possession before the end of the first half was great, with a 41-yard completion from Fields to George Pickens along the right sideline. And at the end of the third quarter, Fields found Pickens for another 40-yard gain. Both of those drives resulted in a field goal.
The Steelers’ offense operated within the intended framework of possessing the ball, limiting turnovers, running the ball well, and creating explosive plays out of structure or off play-action passing concepts. They can win a lot of games that way, and things will hopefully only get better as the unit jells.
