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Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff Writer
PITTSBURGH — As the offense trudged off the field following its third consecutive three-and-out early in the second quarter Monday night, loud boos rained down from a listless Acrisure Stadium crowd. And if there was any doubt about the primary target of the vocal frustration, the chants for Justin Fields made it abundantly clear: Russell Wilson‘s subpar play and inaccuracy was at the heart of the crowd’s discontent.
Two hours and 34 unanswered points later, though, the crowd sang along to Biz Markie and Mac Miller as Wilson quarterbacked the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 37-15 win against the New York Jets in prime time, setting a franchise record for passing yards and points scored in a debut along the way.
Wilson finished his injury-delayed regular-season debut with 264 passing yards and three total touchdowns. And after completing just 2 of 6 attempts for 19 yards in the first quarter — including a 15-yard completion to Darnell Washington on his first attempt — Wilson completed 14 of 23 attempts for 245 yards in the final three quarters, increasing his completion percentage from 33% in the first frame to 60% in the final three.
“I thought he was excellent,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “I thought he got better as the game went on. But I’m not surprised by that. It has been a while since he’s played some ball, but I thought he settled in, knocked the rust off and distributed the ball around and played well.”
Wilson, of course, heard the boos early in the game, but he said afterward that his steady mentality helped him rebound from a rocky start that saw the Steelers go 0-of-3 on third down in the first quarter as underthrown passes bounced to the turf and others were haphazardly thrown away as the Jets’ pass rush closed in.
“I really believe in being neutral, not being too high, not being too low,” Wilson said, adding that he followed the advice of his late mental conditioning coach, Trevor Moawad: “Stay the course.”
Wilson likened his performance to a baseball player starting 0-for-2 at the plate but said he “felt like I was going to get hot.”
“And sure enough, we did,” Wilson said. “… You catch the wave, and once you find it, you don’t let go. And I think the biggest thing is just knowing who you are, knowing the belief you have in yourself and knowing that also, too, that was my first time back, and I was like, ‘OK, I’m starting to feel it again. Here we go.'”
That moment he felt it again, Wilson said, came as he connected with wide receiver George Pickens for the pair’s first touchdowns of the season with 27 seconds until halftime.
“Throwing that first touchdown on George was the moment I was like, ‘All right, there’s going to be a lot more of these,'” Wilson said. “I believe just sometimes it takes that first home run, that first double off the wall, whatever it may be. Obviously, it’s October, so I’m talking baseball, but I just think that when you put all the hard work in, and guys are doing the work and at some point it’s going to turn in your favor, and it did tonight. We did a great job, and I’m excited by our football team.”
Wilson was right. There were more scores to come. He found the end zone two more times, once on a 1-yard sneak and again on a 4-yard throw to wide receiver Van Jefferson for the veteran wide receiver’s first score of the season.
“I thought Arthur Smith did a great job letting me cut it loose and guys getting open and guys moving around just making tremendous plays,” Wilson said. “I thought he called a great game. He helped me get into a groove. … He said it may take a second. I never believed that, but it did and then we caught a groove, we believed in it.”
Wilson completed 5 of 6 attempts on passes of at least 10 air yards, averaging 24.8 yards per attempt on such throws. Wilson was also 3-of-4 for 92 yards and a touchdown when targeting Pickens on deep throws. After the game, Pickens, who finished with 111 yards on five catches, explained what made their skill sets mesh: “Me locating the ball downfield and Russ’ pre-read, seeing what coverage it is before he says hike.”
Prior to the game, Tomlin took ownership of the decision to start Wilson over Fields, who went 4-2 in six starts while Wilson worked back from a training camp calf injury. After the win, former NFL wide receiver and Pittsburgh native Brandon Marshall jumped into Tomlin’s news conference and asked the head coach if the decision to start Wilson was his “boldest.”
“That’s why I’m well compensated,” Tomlin said.
Wilson downplayed the idea of internal strife in the organization around the quarterback decision.
“We are in a tremendous situation where we are,” Wilson said. “I think there’s a lot of outside noise that makes it seem like it’s a negative thing and this rivalry internal, and it’s not, man. We just want to win. That’s what we’re focused on.
“I got to give Justin Fields credit, man, just all the things that he was able to do, how great he’s been playing, man, he inspires me every day. … He’s a tremendous quarterback, he’s a franchise quarterback, he’s a leader. He’s got all the intangibles and whatever I can give to him and show him and just be around him, that’s part of my job.”
“I think that we’re just having fun winning. We’re having fun playing ball,” he continued. “Coach Tomlin believes in all of us, and he does a tremendous job. And this guy, he’s a tremendous football coach, and we trust him, and we know who he is and he’s very transparent in everything else with us, too.
“We just love winning. We just love being a part of the process.”