INDIANAPOLIS (93.7 The Fan) – You talked to a Steelers player in preparing for the Colts, the word from the quarterback on down was they needed to get off to better starts. Yet here they were again, two first downs in the first quarter Sunday and only three points in the first half, that on the final play.
Half of the questions to Justin Fields after the game on Sunday were about not being able to get anything going from the beginning. Again with the struggles early for the offense. The Steelers current starting quarterback it’s pretty simple what they have to do.
“It's not a pregame routine,” Fields said after the loss to the Colts. “It's not doing something special or drinking a different color Gatorade. It’s none of that. It's just coming out first play, coming out focused, ready to go. We didn't do that at the start. We got going as time went along. It's performance at the end of the day, and we didn't come out with the right intent. We’ve got to be better.”
Steelers are 28th in the league in points scored in the first half through four games. They average 7.3 points a game in the first 30 minutes. What hammers this home for Steelers fans and those who were on offense last year, it’s a carry-over from 2023 when the team averaged 8.7 points in the first half. That number was also 28th in the NFL.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Steelers tackle Dan Moore. “We put emphasis on starting fast, especially this week. It goes back to things we talked about in team development-not shooting ourselves in the foot, pre-snap penalties, details.”
He said a lot of the mistakes were self-inflicted with not just inability to carry out the call, but penalties on top of it.
Tomlin pointed to the sloppiness after he discussed it last Tuesday as a key going into game prep for the Colts.
“Extremely frustrating, because that was the emphasis, was to start fast,” said center Zach Frazier. “We can’t keep doing that to ourselves.”
What Fields pointed out several times was what makes it maddening is he believes what is holding the team back isn’t what the opponents are doing to them. They aren’t being tricked or ill-prepared, rather Fields said it’s all about them.
“We just come out and execute, block the right guys, get the ball out when I need to get the ball out – it's just execution at the end of the day,” Fields said. “There's no mysteries – it's not mystical. It's just doing our jobs. Everybody doing their jobs. This is the greatest team sport there is. So, if we get all 11 guys on the offensive side doing their job, we won't be in the position that we were in.
“Especially when they come out to a hot start, we’ve got to be able to respond in that manner. So, we got to be better on the offensive side of the ball early for sure.”
Fields added they can’t warm up to things, you got to come out hot. It pairs with something offensive lineman Spencer Anderson said on Monday using the comparison of ‘knocking the dust off’ early in a game. He said Mike Tomlin tells them all the time they aren’t afforded the opportunity of warming up to a game.
Fields said the slow starts aren’t practice related, meaning they are practicing well and he feels prepared. It’s just doing it from the first whistle. Sunday they never really got a rhythm going until late in the second quarter with the first points at the buzzer. They come out after halftime and put up 224 yards and scored three touchdowns in the second half.
In 53 percent of their games last year, the Steelers had one score or fewer in the first half.
It’s been discussed. They know what the issue is. It’s nothing new. Can they fix it?