The difference Russ made last night

[WindyCitySteel]

It was all the little things that come with being an established, savvy veteran -- leadership, command of the huddle and line of scrimmage, execution of play action, particularly the fake handoff -- true pro QB'ing that Fields is somewhat lacking in and may never have.

I thought his passing was average, a few throws quite poor, but he got a lot of help from his receivers (and fallen defenders) outside of one egregious drop by Austin. It looks like he's lost a bit on his fastball, maybe that will come as the rust is shaken. He also left a couple of rushing first downs on the table that Fields would have easily picked up, but we knew that would happen going in. If he overcomes it with splash, all is good.

Overally, hard to argue with the output, but there's still a lot to clean up. It honestly reminded me of the Rudolph game vs. Cincy -- give you playmakers a chance and let them ball. Not sure how sustainable it is, especially against better teams, but there's no turning back now.

Also, not for nothing, helped having an interested Pickens playing 79% of the snaps after 67% and 59% in the previous two weeks, and mostly against man coverage.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

Agree with this. A much different feel than with Fields. Savvy vet vs. younger athlete. He throws more with finesse instead of power. Plays more with his head than his arms and legs.

Started off pretty well on the first drive then looked like crap for most of the rest of the half until the last drive. Austin didn't help with the third down drop leading to a 3 and out. Just hoping that what we saw for most of the first half was more about knocking off rust and not a guy who will routinely throw the ball into the ground.

As for the underthrows, I'm trying to think if there were any not to Pickens. I'm wondering if he is just trying to throw jump balls to Pickens with the understanding between them that he will go up and get it. Could it be that the strategy is anytime you see him one-on-one, you throw a catchable ball in his direction and it's his job to come down with it?

[WindyCitySteel]

Gonna piss people off, but his PFF grade was 64, which matches the eye test. This is why box scores and passer rating are notorious liars, especially in small sample sizes.

The passing GAME as a whole might have rated 109 or whatever it was, but to assign that all to the QB when there were defenders that fell down, balls bouncing off of defenders' helmets to receivers, great catches over defenders on underthrown balls, broken tackles and YAC, wide open play action throws, etc., is terribly misleading.

[NorthCoast]

Gonna piss people off, but his PFF grade was 64, which matches the eye test. This is why box scores and passer rating are notorious liars, especially in small sample sizes.

The passing GAME as a whole might have rated 109 or whatever it was, but to assign that all to the QB when there were defenders that fell down, balls bouncing off of defenders' helmets to receivers, great catches over defenders on underthrown balls, broken tackles and YAC, wide open play action throws, etc., is terribly misleading.

Tale of two halves. It's never all about the QB, but the QB is the guy that puts the ball in play.

[WindyCitySteel]

Tale of two halves. It's never all about the QB, but the QB is the guy that puts the ball in play.

The way people use passer rating as a metric, it's literally ALL about the QB.

And when it's underthrown and hits the back of the defender's helmet but still goes for a 40-something yard gain, passer rating is useless. Ditto Garrett Wilson gift wrapping and handing an INT to Beanie, who returned it to the 1.

Those plays go the other way, that game might go down to the wire.

Stack it, go back to the lab, get better for the next game.

[Chucktownsteeler]

Sour grapes.

[Oviedo]

Gonna piss people off, but his PFF grade was 64, which matches the eye test. This is why box scores and passer rating are notorious liars, especially in small sample sizes.

The passing GAME as a whole might have rated 109 or whatever it was, but to assign that all to the QB when there were defenders that fell down, balls bouncing off of defenders' helmets to receivers, great catches over defenders on underthrown balls, broken tackles and YAC, wide open play action throws, etc., is terribly misleading.

You are really hating that they Steelers won last night, aren't you?

Perhaps you can start a thread with all your preplanned criticisms that you were hoping to post. Should make for a good laugh

[WindyCitySteel]

I don't think the last two posters are capable of separating fandom from cold analysis. Thrilled we won, but not agreeing with the analysis I see and hear.

You don't have to take everything personally.

[hawaiiansteel]

Russell Wilson sets Steelers franchise record during Pittsburgh's win over the Jets

Wilson is already in the Steelers record book

By Bryan DeArdo

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/russell-wilson-sets-steelers-franchise-record-during-pittsburghs-win-over-the-jets/

[Captain Lemming]

Gonna piss people off, but his PFF grade was 64, which matches the eye test. This is why box scores and passer rating are notorious liars, especially in small sample sizes.

The passing GAME as a whole might have rated 109 or whatever it was, but to assign that all to the QB when there were defenders that fell down, balls bouncing off of defenders' helmets to receivers, great catches over defenders on underthrown balls, broken tackles and YAC, wide open play action throws, etc., is terribly misleading.

Again where do people rely on JUST QB rating in small sample sizes? You make up the opinion of the other side brother.

That said I would suggest that as a veteran QB who understands Pickens gifts he simply is throwing jump balls confident that his guy will get it.

Let me ask you. IN HIS CAREER how many Pickens jump balls have been picked? It is far less risky than you think.

[Northern_Blitz]

It was all the little things that come with being an established, savvy veteran -- leadership, command of the huddle and line of scrimmage, execution of play action, particularly the fake handoff -- true pro QB'ing that Fields is somewhat lacking in and may never have.

I thought his passing was average, a few throws quite poor, but he got a lot of help from his receivers (and fallen defenders) outside of one egregious drop by Austin. It looks like he's lost a bit on his fastball, maybe that will come as the rust is shaken. He also left a couple of rushing first downs on the table that Fields would have easily picked up, but we knew that would happen going in. If he overcomes it with splash, all is good.

Overally, hard to argue with the output, but there's still a lot to clean up. It honestly reminded me of the Rudolph game vs. Cincy -- give you playmakers a chance and let them ball. Not sure how sustainable it is, especially against better teams, but there's no turning back now.

Also, not for nothing, helped having an interested Pickens playing 79% of the snaps after 67% and 59% in the previous two weeks, and mostly against man coverage.

I said this in another thread, but I'm interested to see what the results look like on PA vs games with Fields.

It will be too small a sample to see anything real. But it seemed to me like we did better on PA yesterday. Although maybe that's because it "felt" like we've been doing poorly on PA for the last few weeks at least.

[WindyCitySteel]

Again where do people rely on JUST QB rating in small sample sizes? You make up the opinion of the other side brother.

That said I would suggest that as a veteran QB who understands Pickens gifts he simply is throwing jump balls confident that his guy will get it.

Let me ask you. IN HIS CAREER how many Pickens jump balls have been picked? It is far less risky than you think.

Fields threw plenty of jump balls that Pickens did not come down with. Heading into this game, Pickens drop rate had skyrocketed and his contested catch rate had plummeted.

[WindyCitySteel]

I said this in another thread, but I'm interested to see what the results look like on PA vs games with Fields.

It will be too small a sample to see anything real. But it seemed to me like we did better on PA yesterday. Although maybe that's because it "felt" like we've been doing poorly on PA for the last few weeks at least.

He did much better than JF, one reason is that he sells it better. Another is that it seemed that they really focussed on using Washington a lot, he was wide open 3-4 times.

https://x.com/Alex_Kozora/status/1848475432464601554

[WindyCitySteel]

"Russell has great touch on deep balls, this is why he's better than Fields"

https://x.com/brgridiron/status/1848372539413631323

https://x.com/Steelers_DB/status/1848466785651060969

[Starlifter]

37 points against a defense that while missing some players (isn't everyone?) is a highly rated unit.

you can spin stats however you want to support any argument. All I know is what I saw.

A sloppy ineffective first half until the game turned on the interception.

After that, I saw:

an offense that had everyone involved
an offense that produced chunk yardage
an offense that wasn't limited to one part of the field
an offense that had some cleverly designed plays
an offense that was able to sustain drives (7 minutes to end the game comes to mind)

so yeah, it's just one game - and I'm not making super bowl plans just yet.

But what I saw last night was something we haven't seen in a long time. I believe someone posted we haven't had a performance like that since 2019.

The stadium was rocking, the fans were having a blast, the steelers were jumping into the bleachers.

I suppose there will always be some that want to find a way to be miserable.......

but last night was a great time at Acrisure. I hope there's more to follow......