This wasn’t very surprising, but the entire world was anticipating a quarterback change in Pittsburgh. The Steelers just recently lost to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday Night Football. It was a pretty good start offensively in the first half of the game, but they just forgot how to move the football in the second half of action. Fans have already been clamoring to bench Mitchell Trubisky in exchange for the rookie Kenny Pickett. The sluggish performance in the second half made everybody anticipate that change, but it never happened.
According to the team’s head coach Mike Tomlin, they didn’t even think about making the change. Reporters relentlessly asked him about the possibility of re-evaluating the position following their second straight loss. He had a simple answer for that, saying, “I’m not in that mindset, I’m interested in reviewing his tape and looking at the totality of it and figuring how we collectively get better. So, the answer to that question is definitively no.”
Steelers Need More From Trubisky
Trubisky threw for 109 yards and a touchdown while only missing on four out of his 13 total pass attempts in the first half. It looked like the Steelers were shaking it up and letting it fly early on in the contest. Unfortunately, they didn’t adjust in the second half in the slightest. Cleveland forced punts on four out of the Steelers five total drives in the second half. They scored only three points in the drive they didn’t punt in and lost by double digits. By the time the game finished, Trubisky completed 20 out of his 32 passes for only 207 yards and that sole touchdown.
Trubisky was targeting the sidelines heavily throughout the night. He completed nine out of 12 passes for 129 yards when throwing intermediate passes to the sidelines. He was only one for six when throwing the ball deep for just 36 total yards. The Browns clearly knew this pattern was happening and started to shut down the side of the field and forcing him to keep targeting the middle of the field. I think it’s safe to say that Pittsburgh will have to open the playbook up a little bit for him moving forward.
To wrap up his interview, Tomlin said, “I thought he made some plays but we all collectively came up short, and so that’s how we measure performance. Winning is our business and we didn’t handle business. So, we don’t break that apart and look for the feel-good.”
What do you guys think about the approach that Pittsburgh has been showing with their quarterback room? Does Trubisky deserve to keep pushing forward as the starter? Or does the rookie Pickett deserve his own opportunity to get out there and show the world what he can do? It’s a pretty difficult situation that is going to be covered quite a lot as the season progresses. I say that Pickett starts sometime this year, but it won’t be this upcoming week.
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