Russell Wilson made his preseason and Pittsburgh Steelers debut on Saturday night and it's safe to say things did not go according to plan, as the Wilson-led offense failed to score a single point in five drives against the Buffalo Bills.
The closest Wilson and Co. came was on his final drive, but kicker Chris Boswell missed a 52-yard field goals after the offense mustered up its longest series under the veteran signal-caller, which went for just 22 yards.
Wilson finished after completing 8-of-10 passes for 47 scoreless yards. And, while he certainly wasn't great, he also didn't have much help from his offensive line.
After the game, head coach Mike Tomlin called Wilson's performance "an incomplete study" due to the issues around him.
"Again, it is somewhat of an incomplete study because you just don't get a chance to see them operate or us operate or us establish rhythm and personality when you're not winning possession downs," Tomlin said. "And we weren't the first three or so series of the game. It was three and out and that's... you're not going to get an opportunity to establish rhythm or play the way that you would like as an individual or a collective."
Luckily for Wilson, Justin Fields wasn't able to do much more. Tomlin had a similar reaction for Fields as he did for Wilson, although he did praise Fields for his rushing ability.
"You know I thought he got better in some areas," Tomlin said of Fields. "I thought he did a nice job using his legs whether it was impromptu or otherwise to keep some situations alive but again I just thought the performance was stymied by lack of protection and lack of execution on possession down play."
We'll see if the "incomplete study" will lead to Wilson getting more reps in preseason Week 3. But after what we've seen from the Steelers' offense over the first two weeks of exhibition play, the starters could use the work.
