Now that Russell Wilson is finally, fully back from his preseason calf injury, the heat has turned up a bit on Justin Fields as starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was one thing when Mike Tomlin didn’t have any other options at his disposal; the team had no choice but to live with however Fields played. But with the guy who originally beat him out for the QB1 role looking on from the sidelines, every decision Fields makes from here on out is going to be heavily scrutinized, every play parsed to determine whether the former No. 11 overall pick is really the right choice for the Steelers moving forward.
It seemed like we got our answer in the first half of Pittsburgh’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders, when Fields delivered a brutal interception … only to have it wiped away by some very fortunate officiating that may just have saved his job — for now, at least.
Fields, as we saw so often during his stint with the Chicago Bears, tried to do a bit too much, delivering a ball late and over the middle and off his back foot. It resulted in an interception that could have swung the game and even led to Fields being benched in favor of Wilson, if the officiating crew hadn’t flagged Raiders defensive tackle Matthew Butler for a highly questionable roughing the passer call.
The roughing on Fields negates INT #Steelers pic.twitter.com/O4m0v2VOO9
— Steelers Depot 7⃣ (@Steelersdepot) October 13, 2024
The refs ruled that Butler landed on Fields with excessive force, wiping the pick off the board. And because the football gods are not without a sense of humor, of course Fields promptly led Pittsburgh down the field before capping things off with a touchdown run to give his team a 12-7 lead at halftime…