As we do every week to get you ready for the upcoming game, our X-factor of the week. Sometimes, it’s a player, unit, concept, or scheme. Here’s our X-factor for Sunday’s regular-season opener against the Atlanta Falcons.
X-FACTOR: QB Justin Fields
At this point, it’ll be an upset if Justin Fields doesn’t start this weekend. Russell Wilson can’t escape calf injuries, and the team will be cautious to avoid further injury.
So, assume Fields gets the nod. There are plenty of reasons to be excited. A return to his home state and what he can offer with his legs that Wilson can’t. Read options, scramble drills, and other designed calls to force Atlanta to account for him in the run game. It’s extra stress. Fields can flash a pretty deep ball and showed a great connection with WR George Pickens throughout training camp.
But there will be challenges. The Falcons have revamped their defense, adding EDGE Matthew Judon and S Justin Simmons as starters who should play a ton in this game. What we pointed out in our scouting report and analysts like Dan Orlovsky have mentioned is that the safety duo of Simmons and Jessie Bates can “lie” to Fields. Even in the preseason with backups, Atlanta routinely presented a different post-snap picture. Show two-high before the snap, but rotate and spin down to one-high. That’s an adjustment the receivers will have to make for their routes, but Justin Fields has to know where to go with the ball.
They’re things Fields has seen before, but given his turnover history, playing in the first game of the year against a new coaching staff, and not having all the starting reps during the week.
Fields should and will have the chance to make big plays, but he’s still gotta protect the football. That’s mission No. 1. Whether that’s being able to read the defense, protecting the football on a sack, losing the turnover battle is usually a lost game for the Steelers.
Pittsburgh’s plan was to shelve the Fields’ era until who knows when. Ready or not, it looks like he’s going to be the guy. Fields’ personality, as he mentioned during a Friday meeting with the reporters, is one of a slow heartbeat. Nothing seems to get to him, and he’s even-keeled through and through. He’ll need to play that way and avoid getting knocked off balance by all the looks and disguises the Falcons will challenge him with. If he can do that, play well, and win the game, he might not give the starting job back.
