PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Justin Fields described it himself as a slow start, very much. A fumble on the first snap and a bobble a couple after that. Then Fields settled down and while no touchdowns, you could see a little momentum growing in the group as the Steelers won 18-10 in Atlanta Sunday.
“No one was stressing the slow start,” Fields said. “That’s not going to happen again. At the end of the day, no one was stressed saying ‘what is going on?’ ‘What is going on?’ We know what we can do on the field. We still have some stuff to work on. We got to be better in the red zone and self-inflicted wounds. We weren’t stressed by the slow start.”
The first two drives resulted in points, but hardly because of a smooth offense. The first field goal drive was 10 plays for 31 yards and the second was 10 plays for 18 yards. Personally, Fields would finish 17 of 23 for 156 yards and rush 14 times for 57 yards and a key first down at the end of the game. While he did fumble on the first snap, he recovered and finished the day with no turnovers.
“Man, Justin is, you know, as I've gotten to know him, man, he is a real steady Eddie, man,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “He's not overly talkative, man, but he's got a steady, strong demeanor. And just being in the stadium with him, man, some of the things that I've seen through team development were confirmed.”
“It's just good to be able to communicate with a guy when things get thick. And you see the clear eyes. He's there. He's solid as a rock, and I think his play and, thus, our play is kind of reflective of that.”
The Steelers back-up found out from starter Russell Wilson, saying he went out on the field Sunday morning and realized he wouldn’t be able to play. Wilson simply told him he was up.
Fields had all the first team 11-on-11 reps the first few weeks of training camp due to the calf tightness that has reoccurred forcing Wilson to be the emergency quarterback on Sunday. He was familiar with the first team and they with him.
“I’ve been in this situation before in my rookie year,” Fields said. “Anything can happen. I always have the mindset of be ready and just be ready for anything.”
Fields said it went pretty smooth in his first game with Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator. With the reaggravation of the calf injury happening Thursday, Fields had time to meet with the OC to go over plays he likes, just in case.
Just in case became reality on Sunday. Next Sunday, Tomlin said he would have more to say about that during his weekly Tuesday news conference that you can hear live on the Fan at noon.
“To be honest, I’m not going to worry about that,” Fields said when asked if he will be the starter in Denver next week. “I just came in wanting to win. I’m glad that we are leaving here with a win. In terms of who is starting, who is not. All I want to do is win at the end of the day. I’m not going to get into all of that.”
“I came here to win, no matter if I threw for 300 yards, 100 yards, no yards. I came here to win. That is the only focus I have.”
He said he and the entire offense will only continue to get better. Right now, he just wants to celebrate being 1-0 after being dumped by the team that drafted him in the first round.
“Personally, it was great,” the Georgia native Fields said of starting his first game as a Steeler. “I have a bunch of family and friends, old high school teammates. I couldn’t ask for a better way.”
“God sure does work in mysterious ways. I’m thankful for Him and really just this moment for this team. Being able to get a Dub against the hometown team was great.”