View From 522: Russell Wilson did the job, but so did the Steelers playmakers
My expectations were exceeded in his first start of the season.
My expectations for Russell Wilson’s first start at quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers were extremely low. It is not that I thought Wilson is a bad quarterback or was a bad signing. I just felt the situation and the matchup created a lot of potential issues, and that the problems and concerns with the offense went far beyond the starting quarterback.
That is not to say Justin Fields was consistently great in his first six starts. Because he certainly left some plays on the field.
Still, with three backup offensive lineman starting against a good defensive line and a strong pass defense, not to mention Wilson making his first start after missing three months with a calf injury that mostly kept him from practicing or running the first team offense, I just thought there was a chance for things to get ugly.
In the first half, they did. The fans also noticed as there were several boos and even a few calls for Fields to come back in.
The second half was entirely different as the Steelers stole momentum away from the New York Jets, established their run game, and started to make plays in the passing game.
I give Wilson a lot of credit for bouncing back, and he moved a lot better than I anticipated. The offensive line played significantly better in the second half, Wilson got rid of the ball quickly, and the most important part of the equation was that the Steelers’ playmakers actually made plays.
This was a huge criticism that I had with the offense in the early part of the season, where their wide receivers — whether it was George Pickens or somebody else — simply never came down with the contested catches and never helped out their quarterback. On the occasion that they did, several of those plays were wiped out by penalties. That happened with a potentially huge play with Pickens in Atlanta to wipe out a potential touchdown drive. It happened in Denver when Fields’ best pass of the season was taken back by a holding penalty on Broderick Jones. They had a touchdown in that game taken away on a bogus offensive pass interference penalty in the end zone. Against Dallas they had several big play opportunities slip through receivers’ hands.
None of that happened on Sunday night.
Pickens made two insane catches down the sidelines, including one that he caught off the shoulder pads of a defender. Even his touchdown catch late in the second quarter was a tough play.
Tight end Pat Friermuth made a diving one-handed catch.
They played a mostly clean game in terms of penalties and rarely put themselves behind the sticks.
I am not trying to take away from what Wilson did or the way he played on Sunday night, but a lot of came down to players around him making plays they were not making earlier in the season when they had the opportunity to make them.
Wilson does have a great deep ball, and he did seem to have more rhythm than Fields in the passing game. Even with that, we are probably having a very different discussion about that game and the offense if Pickens does not make two insane circus catches to help drive the offense. But he did. He needed to. Sometimes your offense needs that. Not every pass is going to be perfect to a wide open wide receiver with 25 yards of separation. Sometimes your guys just need to make a play. It is a necessity. It is a requirement.
In the end, I feel a lot better about Wilson playing than I did a week ago, and I still am pretty content with the quarterback situation. They might not have their franchise guy or their long-term guy, but they significantly upgraded on what they had a year ago with two capable quarterbacks they can win games with.
Some other thoughts from Sunday’s game and where the Steelers are going into this week’s Monday night game against the New York Giants.
1. Huge shoutout to the Steelers crowd at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday night. The place was packed from the start and the fans brought the energy. Back in the day the Sunday night and Monday night games used to be THE GAMES on the schedule that everybody wanted to be at, and they always had a different vibe to them like they were always a huge game. Over the past 10-15 years that started to change as those were always the games season ticket holders looked to sell and nobody wanted to buy. This game had that old school night game vibe. The place was packed. It was loud. It was energetic. The vibes were strong.
2. Russell Wilson and George Pickens made the big plays on offense, but the player of the game was easily rookie defensive back Beanie Bishop. His interception before halftime completely changed the game. At that point the Jets were winning 15-6, driving for more, and could have potentially taken a three score lead going into halftime while also getting the football back to start the second half. Bishop’s interception completely stopped that momentum, gave it back to the Steelers, and then set the stage for their first touchdown. Then after the Steelers took a 16-15 lead, he put them in a position to add to it with his second interception of the game that was followed by a big return down to the one-yard line. Not bad work for an undrafted free agent out of West Virginia.
3. Going back to the passing game and Wilson, I thought a lot of the things you could say about the passing game through the first six weeks were still there on Sunday night. They still largely ignored the middle of the field, and while they did take some chances downfield most of the passes were short, high percentage passes out into the flat. They were also set up by some turnovers, including one touchdown drive that set them up at the one-yard line. The difference, again, was the catches that got made on contested passes that were not getting made earlier. The offense was not that far away from having similar games to that. Instead of getting tackled at the one-yard line in garbage time like he was against the Los Angeles Chargers, Najee Harris took this garbage time carry into the end zone for a touchdown. One more yard against the Chargers gives them 27 points. They probably could have had 10-14 more points in Denver without some poorly timed penalties. They got stopped on a fourth-and-one in Atlanta on the three-yard line that could have given them a chance to score 30 points in that game. I still maintain the offense was not that different. They just had some more things go their way. Again, this is not meant to be takeaway from Wilson or what they did on Sunday night. It is just to point out they have not been far away from these types of games. Overall the offense is averaging 23.0 points per game. That is 16th in the NFL. That is not only significantly better than what we have been seeing here in recent years, it is at least respectable. If they keep getting the defense they have been getting they might be on to something here.
4. Najee Harris is back to running angry. Stunning stat: he already has five runs of 20 yards or more this season. That is tied for the fourth most in the NFL.
5. Danny Smith’s special teams are truly something to behold right now. The number of blocked kicks they are getting is absurd, and the coverage units are playing fantastic. Chris Boswell is outstanding as expected, but replacement punter Corliss Waitman has also been a pleasant surprise filling in for the injured Cameron Johnston.
6. The defense has mostly been outstanding and I have no real complaints with this unit. They are allowing just 14.4 points per game, the second-lowest total in the NFL, and they were mostly outstanding on Sunday night. We already talked about Bishop and his contributions on Sunday night. Rookie middle linebacker Payton Wilson is becoming more and more noticeable and has been all over the field, and Patrick Queen has been coming around and I think better than he has been getting credit for being. Donte Jackson has been way better than every expectation anybody had, while Joey Porter Jr. is playing like a true lockdown cornerback. DeShon Elliott has been one of the best offseason additions they made and a huge difference-maker in the secondary. Cameron Heyward has been a force. T.J. Watt does not have the sack totals but he is still all over the field and seriously impacting games. The return of Alex Highsmith on Sunday night also proved to be huge in stopping the run. This is still the side of the ball that is going to give them their best chance to win. The offense just needs to be decent to give them enough points to win games. So far it has been.