PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It wasn’t what he had hoped, but he wasn’t totally disappointed. What Justin Fields said of his first opportunity to play as a Pittsburgh Steeler in Friday’s 20-12 preseason loss to Houston.
“I think we ran the ball well, moved the ball well,” Fields said finishing 5-6 for 65 yards. “I think, just a summary of the game, we were just shooting ourselves in the foot, fumbled snaps, I think all three phases. We could definitely be better on that part.”
Fields took blame for the two fumbled center exchanges. Center Nate Herbig also took the blame saying it was 100% his fault.
“I thought he did some nice things, but obviously he was a component of the center/quarterback exchange,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “From my perspective, that’s dual responsibility on the center and the quarterback. It negated a lot of good things going on in those first two drives.”
Fields said he started in a good rhythm Friday night at Acrisure Stadium, going five for his first five. They were moving the ball well, it was those fumbled snaps that killed a couple of drives. He thought they got in and out of the huddle fast and with no mistakes. He felt good overall.
It was his first game also working with first-year Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
“You can kind of get a feel for what Arthur's thinking, how he goes about the game, how he just communicates with you on the sideline and stuff like that,” Fields said. “So that was good. Just being with them and kind of having a real in game experience with them.”
Asked a couple of different ways about the game, Fields kept coming back to the mistakes. He said they need to go back and tighten up on the details. They need to control what they can control. Fields feels like it’s a repetitive thing.
“As long as we do that, put ourselves in great field position and do the routine things routinely, I think we'll be great because other than that, like I said before, just move the ball well,” Fields said. “I think we executed well, ran the ball well.
When we were doing the routine things routinely, of course the ball was moving downfield. So just do that.”
If there was one thing he definitely liked, it’s wearing a Steelers uniform.
“I think our uniforms are really cool,” Fields said. “I like the black and gold. It was awesome to put the new threads on, get in a new stadium, get a new feel. It was awesome.”
The performance wasn’t, we’ll see how it changes for preseason game two Saturday, August 17. Tomlin said Russell Wilson will be available for that game.