By Ray Porter Jr.
Fresh off their 13-6 victory vs. the Denver Broncos, the 2-0 Pittsburgh Steelers will now travel home to prepare to host the 2-0 LA Chargers for their Home Opener at Acrisure Stadium. During his weekly News Conference, Steelers head coach Mike Tomin gave this summary of their Second victory of the season.
“Man, it’s hard to win in this league. I’m grateful to sit here at 2-0 with two road games to get us started,” said Tomlin. “Was highly concerned environmentally about Denver. Hadn’t been in that environment I don’t think since maybe 2018 as a collective. I know the intensity of their fan base, how loud that venue can be, and so I was really concerned about the environmental components of the matchup. I thought we did a nice job of minimizing that, particularly in the early portions of the game.”
The Steelers scored their first TD of the season on their first drive of the game when QB Justin Fields found TE James Washington for a 5-yard TD. The rest of the points were off the foot of K Chris Boswell as he added two field goals.
“We were able to push through the red zone and put seven on the board. I think seven points as opposed to field goals has a way of doing some of those things,” Tomlin commented. “I was really pleased with our ability to manage some of the environmental things. I liked the way our guys communicated in the game. I liked their just approach to preparation regarding the environment.”
Tomlin also expressed some displeasure: “I got displeased with the amount of penalties we absorbed, really in all three phases. We had a penalty in the return game that minimized our return games…we’re bringing in officials for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week. I believe that’s appropriate given our last outing in that regard in terms of not playing penalty-free.”
Tomlin is also sticking with Fields as his starting QB vs. the Chargers. “So, we’re readying ourselves around Justin. We’ll stay in that mindset until something else happens.”
Tomlin on the status of QB Russell Wilson: “As I sit here today, Russ is not scheduled to be a full participant in practice. We’re readying a plan that features Justin and his readiness. We’ll follow Russ throughout the week. If his participation gets to a level, participation, and quality where we should consider him, we’ll delve into that at that time.”
Tomlin doesn’t expect second-year OT Broderick Jones to start either considering his three penalties.
“I had every intention of using Broderick, but when Broderick started getting highly penalized in play, I backed off it and I held my breath and played Troy [Fautanu]…. I’m going to give Broderick [Jones] an opportunity to rebound. He’s a talented young player. I am sure he suffered some disappointment in terms of Troy starting. It’s a natural thing. But he must move past it, and I must give him an opportunity to move past it as a leader.”
Tomlin had this to say about the Chargers: “Really excited about this matchup. Excited for a lot of reasons. It’s our first home game. Nothing like playing in Acrisure for us. We respect it. But it’s still exciting, nonetheless. I’m also excited because we’re playing a dominant 2-0 football group, a group that’s done as much as you can do at the early stages of the season. They’ve won some games in convincing fashion.”
About the Chargers offense: “If you talk about the offense, it starts primarily with the architect Greg Roman. Have a lot of respect for Greg. Competed against him a lot over the years obviously in the AFC North. …He’s got some familiar people, guys that have experience within his system. J.K. [Dobbins] and Gus [Edwards] in the backfield, but also [Bradley] Bozeman at center, [Hayden] Hurst, and [Eric] Tomlinson at tight end…Can’t say enough about Justin Herbert and his talents not only as a thrower, but his mobility is a challenge.
About the Chargers defense: “On the defensive side, man, their coordinator Jesse Minter, I feel like I’ve known him all his life. I worked for his dad Rick [Minter] years ago at the University of Cincinnati when Jesse was a high school guy. He spent a lot of time with me. When you’re talking about their defense, you’re talking about [Joey] Bosa and [Khalil] Mack no doubt. If you think about the edge people he coached at Michigan in recent years, [Aidan] Hutchinson, and others. He hasn’t been devoid of spectacular edge talent.”
The Steelers hope to continue their winning ways, especially in front of the home crowd, but they also know that they must continue to make improvements along the way.
“We’re not hoping and wishing our issues away, we have to take tangible action, particularly at the early portions of the year where we’re laying down some guardrails in terms of what we value, how we go about business, how we take corrective action to improve and increase our chances of winning. It’s just ball that goes with September and we better be urgent about it,” said Tomlin.
Notes: The Steelers Placed LB Tyler Matakevich on the Reserve/Injured List, signed CB James Pierre and DB D’Shawn Jamison to the practice squad, and terminated CB Zyon Gilbert and WR Shaquan Davis from the practice squad.
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