Arthur Smith’s offense is not exactly off to a rousing start, not when the first-team unit has yet to produce a point in two preseason games.
Not when Russell Wilson played five series in his debut and didn’t produce a first down until the middle of the second quarter.
Not when Justin Fields was held scoreless as the starter in the preseason opener, generated only a field goal on five possessions in his second appearance and already has been involved with three fumbles.
Not when the first-team offense has generated 124 yards and six first downs in two games. Not when the longest run has been 9 yards. Not when the longest completion has been 20 yards. Not when the starting offensive line has allowed Wilson and Fields to be sacked a combined five times.
But, hey, it’s the preseason. Not to worry, right?
“We need to evaluate (players), and so sometimes it can get distorted, good or bad,” Smith said. “Preseason could distort reality, good or bad. We’ve all seen it.”
Perhaps, but there’s still a measure of scar tissue that remains from the Matt Canada era, and it is Smith who has been entrusted to heal the wounds as the new offensive coordinator.
He is not worried about what he has seen in losses to the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills, mainly because of what he has seen from his offense during training camp practices. Nonetheless, whether preseason or not, whether the play-calling is as vanilla as a triple-swirl cone, he said it is up to the players to block and execute. And there hasn’t been an acceptable amount of that.
Smith said it all has to be kept in the context that it’s the preseason.
“You know that’s not their standard, and that’s not acceptable, but at the same time, you’d rather go through that now than have that happen Week 1,” Smith said. “There’s a lot going on there. We’ve had a really good camp, but the reality is, when we’ve got in there in the lights, we found a way to — and this is taking nothing away from the other defense — but we got to get out of our own way. Those are the things we have to clean up.
“The longer you’ve been in this, I go back to my own experiences, in 2019 (in Tennessee), I didn’t think we were great in the preseason and come opening day we scored 40-something points against the Browns (43). I’m not saying we’re going to do that in Atlanta (Sept. 8), but we hope to. It’s just, you’ve got to have context.”
Still, Smith would like to see something a little more tangible from his starters when the Steelers conclude the preseason Saturday in Detroit. Maybe the Steelers would even like to win a game and avoid their first winless preseason since 2013. Since 1992, the Steelers have had only two winless preseasons — 2013 and 2006. Each time, they finished the regular season 8-8.
Conversely, the last time they had a losing record in the preseason was 2016, when they went 1-3. But they went on to finish 11-5, win the AFC North and get to the AFC championship game.
“Preseason record doesn’t go on your permanent record,” Smith said. “It’s the old joke where Indy went 0-for every year, and they won 13 games almost automatically with Peyton (Manning).”
If it were up to Smith, he might not even play his starters in Detroit, not if his recent history is any indication.
Last year, in his third and final season as head coach in Atlanta, he rested all his starters for the final preseason game, ironically enough, against the Steelers.
Mike Tomlin, though, chose to play all his regulars, with the exception of Cam Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi, against the Falcons. It is reasonable to conclude he will do the same this time.
Smith said Wilson probably needs to get more snaps because he was limited in the early portion of training camp because of his calf injury. That’s why Wilson wanted to play more than just a couple of series against the Bills.
“He wanted to play … he hasn’t gotten a lot of reps,” Smith said. “I don’t care how many years you’ve been in this thing, whether you’re in a new system, a new city, whatever it is, the great ones want to get out there and sharpened up to play.”
Smith, though, said he was careful which plays he called for Wilson because he wanted to be sure to protect him as much as possible and not get him injured before the regular season.
“There’s things schematically you don’t want to put him in a hard way,” Smith said. “There’s risk in everything when you step out there. So I think that limited him a little bit. I give him credit for being out there.”
Wilson was sacked three times against the Bills and had the pocket collapse quickly around him nearly every time he attempted to throw. Smith was not about to make excuses, even though he has had two rookies — No. 1 pick Troy Fautanu and No. 2 selection Zach Frazier — playing with the first-team offense.
Fautanu was beaten for two sacks against the Texans, and Broderick Jones, last year’s No. 1 pick who is playing with a balky brace on his right elbow, was beaten twice against the Bills.
“We want to play our guys in the preseason,” Smith said.
“There’s nowhere to hide. We could create the hype machine, but the reality is we got some things to fix. If you don’t play, you’re going through a lot of unknown. You’re speculating a lot. We had some tough lessons we got to clean up, procedural things.
“You get in these practices, the quarterbacks not live, sometimes you get away with things. They may not blow the whistle, and you think you’re good, then you get in stadiums … and it clearly defines some things that we have to fix.”
