Steelers’ Russell Wilson quickly was sacked after scoring a drive

Russell Wilson led a scoring drive during his sole game of the preseason in the preseason finale, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin said after a 24-17 defeat against the Detroit Lions on Saturday that the Steelers “just needed results that are indicative of how we’ve worked.”

By Brooke Pryor

Aug 24, 2024 10:49 PM

DETROIT -Coach Mike Tomlin needed to see just five plays from Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers ‘ first-team offense in their final game of the preseason on Saturday.

While the Steelers fell short 24-17 to the Detroit Lions, Wilson’s team scored its first score of the preseason in his only game. After that, Tomlin removed Wilson to make way for Justin Fields, who played in three games and also led a scoring drive himself in the offensive line of the first team.

“We just needed results that are indicative of how we’ve worked,” Tomlin explained about his decision to remove Wilson after a single series. “And so they were able to put together a score and drive and really just provided an opportunity to get Justin in there sooner, and so that’s why we did it.”

After Fields was removed the game, the backups Kyle Allen and John Rhys Plumlee played the remainder of the game playing for more than two minutes. Though the preseason game is over, Tomlin said he will not announce the starting quarterback, even though Wilson’s lack of action on Saturday and his “pole position” to start the preseason suggests that he’s the most likely candidate. The Steelers are among two teams as well as those of New England Patriots which haven’t yet decided on the starting quarterback for Week 1.

“We’ll make a decision at the end of our work week,” Tomlin stated. “This upcoming week there are three consecutive days of Steelers against. Steelers work and why not make it happen?

“It minimizes the Steelers versus Steelers work when we started making decisions prior to the completion of that. We’ve got ample time to prepare for Atlanta and make whatever decisions or announcements regarding divisional labor or pecking orders and so forth and so we’ll do it at the end of the work week.”

In his last game of the preseason, Wilson needed just five minutes to guide the offense towards the final zone. The quarterback completed each pass attempt for 26 yards. This included a 32-yard pass for George Pickens on third-and-11 following the previous throw at the receiver led to losing 6 yards. A couple of plays later wide receiver and running back Cordarrelle Patterson reached the end zone when she sped through the middle to score a 31-yard touchdown, opening his lanes up due to the timely blocks from the rookie center Zach Frazier and left guard Isaac Seumalo.

“Last week we just didn’t stay on schedule, and this time we did,” Wilson stated. “I think another element, too was what I said to you during the course of this week that the best thing is being in a position to be able to enjoy the final of the game with all your teammates. This game is all about and just being at a point where you can get there and celebrate that. There’s a lot more work to complete and we have to focus on our goals and continue to work.”

Wilson played five games in the last week, however the team didn’t score any points in the scoreboard The team scored only 1/3 of a third-down. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith added that he had been deliberate with the call-ups for Wilson in particular, limiting how much he ran in order to safeguard the quarterback’s injury to his calf. But this time, Wilson said he had more freedom.

“I think that we were trying to be strategic last week,” the player stated. “It was kind of like”OK, the doctors allowed me to play last week, and I wanted to be able to play in front of our fans. So I put on that black shirt on and go out and be playing alongside my team. So I’m thinking this week is going to be an opportunity to play on the road and play our first two games. will be on the road to be able to perform the silent count and complete all the tasks that we have to do in order to get to the finish zone.”

While Fields was substituted for Wilson following the first drive, the offensive line was in the game for just one period.

“Because I just wanted to put some people around him that could protect him,” Tomlin stated in explaining why he decided for keeping his offensive line’s main players on the field.

“That’s appropriate. You can see I got nervous when we moved on from some of those groups, and I got him out of there.”

In the shadow of the starters Fields along with the team, composed of second-team talent players such as Scotty Miller as well as La’Mical Perine made an impressive six-play three-minute scoring drive that was capped with the Perine scoring touchdown. Fields connected with Van Jefferson for a five-yard gain in the opening game of the drive and then two plays later, the tight end was hit by MyCole Pruitt on the 22-yard play-action over the middle, setting the group up at the 2 yard line.

It wasn’t a pretty day for Fields but. He had another mishap with the center but this time with Zach Frazier on third down in the second game of his series. Then he concluded his third game by taking another sack.

“They did all right, but there’s also room to grow,” Fields stated about his offensive line. “So just going to look at the mistakes that we had and what plays we could have done better on and get better.”

But, Tomlin said he was happy with the overall quality of work during their final chance to present their case for starting position.

“They both moved the ball,” Tomlin declared. “They won possession downs. They were able put the ball in the final zone. Things that we didn’t do up to this point had been done during the practice phase.”