The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered their first loss of the season on Sunday at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts. They fell behind big, trailing 17-0 late in the first half. But QB Justin Fields helped the Steelers scratch and claw their way back to give the team a fighting chance before losing 27-24. Still, 3-1 is a good spot for the Steelers, and they still sit atop the AFC North standings.
The defense has been the main driving force behind the Steelers’ winning record. However, Fields has been playing quite well despite the lack of big numbers. Pro Football Focus graded Fields as a top-five passer when doing straight drop-backs. He has the second-fewest turnover-worthy passes among all NFL quarterbacks who have attempted at least 100 passes this season. And PFF has him with the seventh-best passing grade in the league.
But the Steelers are only averaging 18.8 points per game, 22nd in the league. If Justin Fields is playing as well as PFF says he is, will the Steelers start producing more points soon?
“The fact that all those kind of underlying metrics are really good and the offense has kind of just been mid, I think there’s a chance that it breaks out,” said PFF’s Seth Galina when talking with Trevor Sikkema about Fields’ performance so far this season on PFF’s YouTube channel. “And it could happen against this Cowboys team on Sunday.”
Is Galina arbitrarily saying the Steelers could break out on offense against the Cowboys because that’s their next opponent? No, there’s definitely more to the story. PFF has graded the Cowboys’ pass coverage as the 10th-worst in the league through four games. They’ve given up the 20th-most passing yards this season. The Cowboys are giving up 26 points a game, 27th in the league.
To make matters worse, Dallas is expected to be without star defenders Micah Parsons and Demarcus Lawrence on Sunday night. That’s bad news for a defense struggling to keep opponents out of the end zone.
And it’s good news for Justin Fields, who is leading an offense that has done good things but isn’t scoring touchdowns regularly. If Fields can remain accurate and make smart decisions with the ball, he could capitalize on the Cowboys’ suspect defense.
And perhaps another pass catcher like Las Vegas Raiders WR Davante Adams, who has reportedly requested a trade? That might be more wishful thinking, but one can only dream, right?
You can watch the entire in-depth discussion of Justin Fields and the Steelers’ offense below:
