Steelers Gameday Steelers News
Russell Wilson Not Sweating Steelers Slow Start on Offense
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson is not fretting about the offense's lackluster performance against the Bills.
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers offense had a dreadful performance in Saturday night’s 9-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills, but quarterback Russell Wilson is not fretting.
“If our practices weren’t as good as they have been, you would be a little be a more heightened and concerned,” Wilson said. “We go against a great defense every day. Obviously, we played the Bills on Thursday (in a joint practice), did a good job against them the other day. They played well tonight, made some plays and everything else. But I think the sense of urgency is always high. If we had scored three, four touchdowns the sense of urgency still should be high.
“I think that’s where you can’t be tricked and fooled on a moment. You have to understand it’s a long process. It’s a process you got to enjoy. It’s going to be hard. To win, it’s ugly sometimes. It’s tough, it’s challenging. It’s worth it though, and we’re going to do the work.”
Through two preseason games, the first-team offense has scored zero points. Mike Tomlin thinks not winning possession downs and offensive line play has been the biggest issue.
“Still not winning enough possession downs on offense, particularly early in an effort to establish rhythm and gain plays and develop personality,” Tomlin said after Saturday night’s loss. “When your not winning possession downs in the early portion of the game, all of those things really get stymied.”
“Absolutely,” Tomlin added when asked if he wants to see his first-team offense score more points. “In order to do that, you got to win possession downs. And we’re just not doing that right now, so that problem lingers.”
Due to the inefficiencies on offense, Tomlin thought it was tough to get a good read on Wilson’s performance. Wilson completed 8 of 10 passes for 47 yards (4.7 average), no touchdowns, no interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 86.2. He also was sacked three times for 21 yards, which disrupted the rhythm of the offense.
“Again, it’s somewhat of an incomplete study because you just don’t get a chance to see him operate, or us operate, or us establish rhythm and personality when you’re not winning possession downs,” Tomlin said. “And we weren’t, the first three or so series of the game it was three-and-out, and you’re not going to get an opportunity to establish rhythm or play the way that you would like as an individual or a collective.”
Russell Wilson thinks staying on schedule is the biggest correction that the offense needs to make.
“If we just stayed on schedule. The biggest thing is staying on schedule,” Wilson said. “We had too many third-and-longs in the first two drives in particular. We did some good things on offense, but at the same time, we just got to give us the best chance possible to be successful. And that’s third-and-shorts and third-and-mediums. We converted one of those later in the second quarter or whatever it was, Van (Jefferson) did a good job sitting over the middle. I think the best thing we can do is put our heads down and keep on getting to work.”
Read This Next
