Complementary football has been the name of the game for the Pittsburgh Steelers this season. When they are at their best, the offense, defense and special teams are all capable of providing the necessary spark to take control of a game. The lack of complementary football might be what is wrong with Russell Wilson’s play over the last month, according to former NFL QB Chase Daniel.
He was asked if the Steelers should still trust Wilson as their starting quarterback after three-straight losses and a handful of key turnovers.
“Yeah, I mean, they should,” Daniel said Thursday via FS1’s The Facility. “Look, mistakes have been made the last couple weeks. Russell was a part of that. We were like, ‘Hey, this is the answer.’ This is still the answer, guys. He has turned the ball over at inopportune times, meaning red-zone turnovers. It’s something that you cannot do. Back-to-back weeks now with red-zone turnovers. Last week was a fumble, this week an errant throw. But when you talk about do you trust your quarterback, sometimes when you turn the football over you lose confidence. Russell Wilson’s been through stuff like this in his career, so I’m not worried about [that].”
One of the benefits of having a veteran quarterback like Wilson is the fact that he’s seen and been through every scenario you can imagine in the NFL. He’s battled through poor stretches of play, leaky offensive lines, broken offenses, and everything else you can imagine.
He isn’t going to lose confidence or let the turnovers make him gun-shy. This offense can’t afford for him to be gun-shy with the explosive passing game one of the few reliable sources of offense this season.
But if confidence isn’t the issue with Wilson, then what is?
George Pickens’ injury was cited for a lot of the offense’s struggles for the three weeks he was out. The offense posted 248.3 yards and 13.3 points per game without Pickens. In his first game back, the Steelers’ total yards were a little better with 364, but they still managed only 10 points. The yard total was also inflated a bit by the 80 yards gained in garbage time on the final drive.
So if Pickens’ absence isn’t what broke the offense, what did?
“Since Week 12, that defense has allowed 27.7 points per game. Not good,” Daniel said. “So when you’re on offense and you’re a quarterback and you know your defense is not playing well and you know their defense is not the Pittsburgh Steelers defense of old or what we’re used to, sometimes you press. And when you press as quarterbacks, you make bad plays. That’s what I think is happening with Russell Wilson.”
Think about every loss the Steelers have had this year and what Mike Tomlin mentions after the game. Usually one of the first sentences in his postgame press conference has to do with a lack of complementary football.
The defense’s performance absolutely has an effect on the offense and vice versa. When the defense can’t get off the field, the offense can never get in a rhythm. When the defense allows a ton of points, it narrows the play book and forces the offense to take more risks to play catch up.
The reason the Steelers were moderately successful with quarterbacks like Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph is that neither were asked to win the game. They could make enough plays to secure victory, but the run game and the defense were carrying most of the load. It feels like, right now, Wilson is being asked to win the games with the defense and the run game largely failing.
So fixing Wilson really isn’t the problem. The Steelers need to fix other aspects of the team and then hopefully Wilson will go back to looking like the quarterback he was earlier in the season.
