Instant Analysis: Steelers Muck Up Preseason Opener, Lose to Texans 20-12
The Pittsburgh Steelers were sloppy in a preseason-opening 20-12 loss to the Houston Texans at Acrisure Stadium on Friday.
PITTSBURGH — If the two goals of an NFL preseason game are to play clean football and escape injury, the Pittsburgh Steelers finished 0 for 2 on Friday. The Steelers lost, 20-12 to the Houston Texans.
That part is forgivable. No one really cares who wins and loses in the preseason, though the club did have its NFL-best six-game preseason winning streak snapped.
No, the problem was the way they lost:
Starting quarterback Justin Fields and center Nate Herbig botched two exchanges.
Punt returner Quez Watkins wrongly called two fair catches that bounced, then fumbled his third attempt.
Dez Fitzpatrick ran out of bounds while covering a punt, then gave up a huge gain down his sideline that his penalty added to.
On their second try at the new kick return rules, Ryan Watts was flagged for holding.
Fields scrambled into a drive-killing sack.
Joey Porter committed defensive pass interference.
Kyle Allen overthrew a wide open Calvin Austin III in the end zone, who bobbled the pass and didn’t get his feet down.
By the time the Steelers even began to get their act together, they were losing, 14-0.
The sloppiness was so pervasive that it nearly made evaluation of the rest of the club’s play impossible.
Fields finished 5 of 6 for 67 yards — a 113.2 passer rating. Of course, the ball hitting the turf twice and the unnecessary sack fairly erased all of that good will. Was Fields good, bad, ugly? Yes on all counts.
If Mike Tomlin is weighting the in-season efforts more strongly than training camp, as he said, Fields likely did little to improve his status as a potential starter.
Tackle Broderick Jones, splitting time between left and right sides, also struggled.
The bright spots were few and far between. DeMarvin Leal added two tackles, a sack and a pass defended to his strong training camp. Payton Wilson had six tackles in his debut. Jeremiah Moon had five stops and a sack in his tryout for the recently vacated fourth outside linebacker job.
It’s just one preseason game, and losing it and looking rough doing it won’t keep the Steelers from accomplishing their goals for the season, but it certainly was not the first step they were looking for.
Read This Next
