PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The bar is not set high. Over the last couple of seasons, the Steelers offense has been one of the lowest scoring in the league. That being said, it's a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback. They believe they are starting to build something.
It's not something massive, it's more like the first few bricks of a foundation. But it's a step. And it's being built with trust. A trust that has had to be earned from both sides.
You can imagine there would be struggles with trust from Fields. Not really given a chance to win the Steelers starting job, Fields became starter due to injury. He's coming from what has been a losing organization during his time in the NFL. It's not to absolve Fields from losses in Chicago, rather it hasn't been the best environment for him.
If you are Arthur Smith, you spent the offseason preparing for an offense with Russell Wilson as the starter. Even when you had time with Fields due to Wilson's calf injury in training camp, Wilson appeared to be ready to go in the regular season until that same calf injury cropped up again. How will this young man, who had never won three games in a row and had 30 interceptions to 40 touchdowns in 42 starts, win games with a rebuilding Steelers offense?
Every week the offense has improved. It started with a field goal barrage at Atlanta, to a grind out win in Denver. The home opener was another defensive game where Fields ran and threw for a touchdown with no turnovers. He struggled in the first half against Indy, committed a huge turnover, but responded. Three consecutive touchdowns in the second half, first time the Steelers have done that in three years.
"I think everybody on the team knew," Fields said. "I know us as an offense knew that we were just hurting ourselves on the offensive side of the ball, so it was just a matter of time before we started getting things going."
Fields has earned a trust with his teammates. Fields said he is super-confident in all his teammates. He also said he feels trust growing with Smith. All of their time together game-planning and dealing now dealing with four game situations. They are starting to see results of their work.
"He damn near took the game over," Smith said of Fields on Sunday.
The offensive coordinator added the trust is growing every day and it fires Smith up. He could feel Fields getting into a flow and when that happens not only does the player feel it, so does the play caller. He said it didn't matter what he called late versus the Colts, you felt like it was going to work.
Fields and Smith, along with the rest of the offense, haven't figured it all out. There is much to work on. They've now had a little sustained success. Where that leads them, Sunday will be another indicator.
