As Mike Tomlin says, a win is a win... but don't tell that to Justin Fields. The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback set a goal to emerge victorious for the second straight week, but scoring 13 points on offense and relying on the defense to do the heavy lifting isn't what he had in mind.
After the Steelers held off the Broncos in Denver for a 13-6 victory, Fields spoke to CBS' sideline reporter, Aditi Kinkhabwala. The 25-year-old quarterback acknowledged the victory but was hardly satisfied with the offense's performance.
"We did enough to win," Field explained. "I don't think we played good enough as an offense. Of course, our defense played great; came up with some big stops. Still got some work to do on the offensive side of the ball in terms of not shooting ourselves in the foot, self-inflicted wounds with penalties and stuff like that."
"We did enough to win... still got some work to do on the offensive side of the ball."
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 15, 2024
- a 2-0 Justin Fields to our @AKinkhabwala pic.twitter.com/sHbwNR0XFc
Fields expressed his gratitude that his team was able to pull off the win, but he knows these low-scoring contests won't lead to lasting results.
Steelers must keep up aggressiveness on offense
It was a tale of two halves for the Steelers in Week 2. After coming out strong and making plays down the field, the game script looked vanilla in the second half as it was clear head coach Mike Tomlin wanted to play ball-control offense and milk as much time off the clock as possible while minimizing risks in the passing game.
When you have a two-score lead, this philosophy can prove good enough to nail in the win against an inferior opponent, but it won't work against good NFL teams who can put up points.
Through the first two weeks of the season, Fields has led Pittsburgh's offense to a mere 15.5 points per game. While there have been some missed opportunities, much of this is out of Fields' control.
Had the Steelers kept up the intensity throughout the game and allowed their talented quarterback to air it out down the field to George Pickens, we could have been looking at double the score from Pittsburgh. But that's not how Mike Tomlin likes to play football with a lead.
As good as the defense has been, the Steelers need to keep up the aggressiveness on offense and prove that they can hang with the best the AFC has to offer. A good record will only get you so far if you get into the playoffs and don't know how to put the ball in the endzone.
Fans agree wholeheartedly with Justin Fields. We can be thankful for the Week 2 win against the Broncos while still acknowledging this offense has a lot of work to do moving forward.