Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin made a bold move last week, pivoting from QB Justin Fields to Russell Wilson. And for at least one week, it paid off big. Wilson set a franchise record for most yards by a quarterback in his Steelers debut with 264 passing yards. He also threw for two touchdowns in the 37-15 win over the New York Jets.
The offense as a whole was successful as well. The Steelers ran 66 offensive plays and gained 409 yards. RB Najee Harris carried the ball 21 times for 102 yards and a touchdown.
But why the sudden offensive explosion? Is Wilson simply that much better than Fields? Or did offensive coordinator Arthur Smith call a completely different game for Wilson? Wilson did credit Smith with designing a fantastic game plan that allowed him to open things up.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen in a while that the passing game set up the running game,” Mark Kaboly said Monday on the Fan Morning Show on 93.7 The Fan. ” You win, you open up, score some points with the passing game, then you close it down with the running game. That’s what they did. I think it does speak a ton of, we, we’ve said it for a while, at least I said it for a while, the Steelers didn’t fully trust Justin Fields. I think that just was magnified last night. They said, ‘Russell, you haven’t played since Christmas last year. I don’t really care. Go do what you want to do.’ And it worked.”
Wilson was not perfect on the night. Early in the game, boos rained down from Steelers fans in Acrisure Stadium as Wilson missed on some easy throws. The discontent was evident and nearly everyone in the stadium was second-guessing Tomlin’s decision to switch quarterbacks.
Wilson, despite setting the franchise record for passing yards in a Steelers debut, only completed 55.2 percent of his passes on the night. But what he did do was give players like WR George Pickens and TE Pat Freiermuth the opportunity to make plays.
And Pickens especially responded. He finished the night with five catches (on nine targets) for 111 yards and a touchdown. It started with a 44-yard completion down the left sideline with the Steelers trailing 7-3.
RUSS TO PICKENS! BOOM #Steelers pic.twitter.com/MMf4rle08a
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) October 21, 2024
Was it perfectly thrown? Absolutely not. Pickens had to fight back to the ball rather than continue to run under it. But a 44-yard completion is a 44-yard completion. And that was the biggest thing throughout the night. Wilson gave his receiving targets a chance to make plays.
That’s quite different from what we saw the first six weeks of the season. The script last night was different with Wilson than the scripts with Fields. Kaboly calls that proof that the Steelers didn’t trust Fields enough to open up the passing game. He didn’t turn the ball over, which is what the coaching staff wanted. But he didn’t provide consistent big plays in the passing game, either.
And there are definitely differences between how Fields and Wilson throw the ball. Wilson threw with touch down the field, and that’s what allowed Pickens and Freiermuth to make plays.
It’s Pat Freiermuth’s turn to make a crazy catch for the @Steelers 😱
📺: #NYJvsPIT on NBC/Peacock
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/mt4F6F2hSF— NFL (@NFL) October 21, 2024
Perhaps this is what Fields can learn the most from Wilson, how to throw with touch to allow receivers to make a play. Because if Wilson continues to give Pickens, Freiermuth, and others the opportunity to make plays like he did against the Jets, Fields is going to be sitting and watching for a while.
Hopefully, for Fields’ sake, he’ll be given the opportunity to earn the coaching staff’s trust again. Heck, Wilson says he still believes in Fields’s potential for the future. But for now, Wilson appears to be taking advantage of Tomlin’s trust and throwing touchdowns. And that’s what the Steelers need right now.
