Justin Fields is getting ready to make his fifth begin for the Steelers, his first evening sport in opposition to the Dallas Cowboys, who fed the Baltimore Ravens their first win of the season in Week 3, largely due to QB Lamar Jackson.
In that sport, Jackson went 12-for-15 passing for 182 yards, however he additionally rushed for 87 and a landing. Sure, Derrick Henry had 152 speeding yards and two scores, however Jackson is the apparent focus of that Ravens workforce. And Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy agreed that they should deal with Justin Fields with comparable respect versus the Steelers.
“Yeah, positively”, he stated about getting ready for Fields in a approach just like Jackson, by way of the Cowboys’ web site. “You’ve bought to be actually on high of your keys and your imaginative and prescient, as a result of when he pulls it down…”. He trailed off, contemplating the harm Fields can do together with his legs—however not simply by operating.
“Truly, I’ve been impressed with the drop-back a part of it. [Fields] will get by way of his progressions fairly cleanly”, McCarthy stated of the Steelers’ quarterback. “He’s attending to his checkdowns. You see the ball going to his checkdowns so much. That tells you the extent of perceive and luxury that he has in a brand new offense”.
Up to now this season, Justin Fields has 145 yards and three touchdowns on 38 makes an attempt. He’s solely averaging 3.8 yards per rush to date, which is atypical of him. Nevertheless, that simply means that there’s nonetheless extra meat on the bone in that division.
“He not solely simply pulls it down and runs, he pulls it all the way down to throw first, too”, McCarthy stated of Fields. “It’s the two-part scramble that you just at all times have a look at from the quarterback place. He’s produced some good numbers on the scrambling throws simply as a lot as on the scrambling run”.
Lamar Jackson has more and more developed into such a passer as properly, although he’ll at all times use his pure property. Proportionally, Fields continues to be taking off nearly as usually as he has traditionally. However he’s doing it with better intelligence, even when the success charge isn’t there but.
The Steelers enter Sunday evening’s sport with a battered operating again room. Najee Harris continues to be plowing alongside, however each Jaylen Warren and Cordarrelle Patterson appear to be trending towards not taking part in. The workforce introduced up Aaron Shampklin from the apply squad, and so they could elevate Jonathan Ward, as properly. However I’d anticipate them to be extra proactive in utilizing Fields on the bottom to compensate for that.
Particularly contemplating they noticed how Lamar Jackson was ready to make use of his legs to get the higher of the Cowboys’ protection, there is no such thing as a motive they might suppose Justin Fields can’t do the identical. They’re two of the very best athletes to ever play the quarterback place at something approaching a reliable stage.