Give the Steelers plenty of credit. For the first ten games of the NFL season, Mike Tomlin has managed what might be the most difficult high-wire act in football, taking two discarded quarterbacks and finding ways to win using both of them. Pittsburgh raced out to an 8-2 record, then stumbled badly against the Browns in a weather game in which their red zone struggles finally came home to roost.
That loss was a blip on the radar that wasn’t unexpected, but the past few weeks have exposed the Pittsburgh’s biggest issue going forward. As impressive as Tomlin has been in juggling his somewhat dynamic duo, the Wilson/Fields combination comes with obvious problems when it comes to winning a first-round playoff game.
That old two-quarterback adage is now real for the Pittsburgh Steelers
First, let’s pinpoint the specific issues. Wilson is starting to do more of what helped engineer his downfall in Seattle, which was holding the ball until the last second, then making ill-advised throws. High-risk, high-reward throws are fun to watch during the season, especially against an inferior opponent, but they rarely work in the playoffs.
Fields’ problem is different. He’s still not an accomplished pocket passer, and at this point you have to wonder if he’ll ever get over that hump. This became obvious when Tomlin inserted him against the Browns in clear running situations, at which point Cleveland completely disregarded the possibility that Pittsburgh might call a play-action throw to hem Fields in and prevent him from doing what he does best.
Combine the strengths of Wilson and Fields, and you’ve got a superb quarterback built to make a deep playoff run. As it stands, though, they represent solid proof that when you’ve got two quarterbacks, you really have none.
Making changes will be tricky with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields
Another issue associated with this particular two-headed quarterback combo is that their previous teams have tried to make changes in ways that failed badly.
Russell Wilson basically drove Pete Carroll crazy with his endless “let Russ cook” campaign during his last couple of years in Seattle, and Sean Payton punted even more quickly on the possibility of redesigning his offense to fit Wilson’s remaining skill set in Denver.
In Chicago, the Justin Fields story played out in an analogous fashion. The coaching wasn’t nearly as good, but the Bears gave Fields every chance to clean up his pocket passing game and take care of the ball. But the bottom line is it simply didn’t happen.
There is a possible short-term solution
If changing Wilson and Fields isn’t going to work, then what exactly is the solution to this problem for the Pittsburgh Steelers?
There’s no good one, really, but a tentative look at Pittsburgh’s schedule provides a possible way forward. The Bengals and Ravens both have clear defensive issues, and the Browns are the Browns. The Steelers can win playing the same way in Cincinnati next week, and after that they get a home game against Cleveland that’s now a must-win.
The schedule turns tough after that with a road trip to Philly and then Baltimore on the docket, but doing that would give the Steelers more control of their destiny going forward. It will probably take 11 or 12 wins to clinch the AFC North, and doing that would give Pittsburgh a home playoff game, which is much more winnable for a team that’s committed to a two-QB tandem.
The key to doing this will be on Tomlin, as always. He’ll have to find a way to help his team avoid the kind of letdown they just experienced in Cleveland. The Pittsburgh coach has a reputation as a master motivator, but this situation will be one of his biggest challenges as he tries to finish his high-wire act and pull off something that rarely happens.