Aug 26, 2022 5 min read

Two preseason games down and just one to go for the Steelers. They’ll host Detroit at Acrisure Stadium Sunday then it will be on to the regular season.

In the first two preseason games, quarterbacks Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph combined to complete 54 of 73 passes for 514 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions. That’s a quarterback rating of 120.5.

Now, it’s only preseason, but it beats seeing them have no touchdown passes and six interceptions.

This offense hasn’t been the train wreck that things have been in New England, where Bill Belichick didn’t replace offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels when he left to become head coach of the Raiders and now has Matt Patricia, his former defensive coordinator and failed Lions head coach who has never before called an offense, doing so.

That’s hubris.

No, the Steelers quarterbacks have looked good in this preseason, much the same way they’ve largely looked good in training camp. And yet every national broadcast you turn on or article you read questions how good the team’s offense will be in 2022.

Again, it has just been the preseason. But outside of the offensive line play – more on that in a second – the offense has looked better than it did a year ago.

The Steelers handpicked Trubisky and Pickett to run Matt Canada’s offense.

n That offensive line is worrisome, but not to the degree it was last year. Why?

Ben Roethlisberger was completely immobile last year. The only scrambles he’s been involved with the past few years have been on a golf course.

In 16 games last season, he rushed for five yards.

This group of quarterbacks – even Rudolph – has much more mobility.

They’ve even had to put scramble rules – what the receivers have to do when the quarterback scrambles out of the pocket – back into effect.

“It just kind of happens,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said. “Obviously, when we get to our break point, we look back at the pocket and you know. We have certain rules that we’re supposed to do when we’re on a scramble. It’s cool having a quarterback with mobility who can get out of the pocket.”

The Steelers didn’t have that in 2021.

“No. Not at all,” Freiermuth said with a laugh. “Not at all.”

That’s no cut at Roethlisberger. For the first dozen or so years of his career, he was one of the best all-time in keeping a play alive once things broke down. But age and injuries robbed him of that.

He could still shrug a defender off in the pocket, but once he did so, the ball was coming out. He wasn’t extending the play beyond that.

In turn, that made the Steelers very easy to play against for large stretches of the past couple of seasons. Defenses knew exactly where Roethlisberger was going to be at. And they knew the ball was likely coming out very quickly.

n Devin Bush clarified his statements from two weeks ago at Saint Vincent College regarding his future. He knows he came off as flippant when he said he’d be in the NFL next year no matter what happens this season.

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to be here. I never said I didn’t want to be with the Steelers next season. I just said it wasn’t up to me. People come and go here,” he said. “Let’s just be honest about it. Whatever happens here, I’m going to be in the league. That was my point. Say I don’t come back to the Steelers. If somebody picks me up on the vet minimum, I’ll still be in the NFL. I mean, I’m 24 years old. There are other first-round picks, and they get a chance. You know what I’m saying?

“I’m not going to say nobody is going to pick me up. Somebody would at least say, ‘Come to our camp.’ At least I’m going to get that shot. That’s what I meant when I said I’m still going to be in the NFL. I’m not saying, ‘Oh, I’ll be in the NFL no matter what.’ That’s not what I’m saying.”

Fans – at least some of them – will forgive Bush, if he plays well this season. He was better in the team’s win last week against the Jaguars than he had been in the preseason opener against the Seahawks.

n When your team is beaten 14-2 and the only good news you can come up with out of it is that your rookie shortstop who is batting under .200 for the season hit the hardest hit baseball in the seven years Major League Baseball has measured such things, you’ve got problems.

It’s great that Oneil Cruz hit a ball 122.4 miles per hour. But it was a single. In a 14-2 loss. In a season in which the Pirates are now on pace to lose 100 games.

Cruz has struck out 79 times in 191 at-bats. That’s 41.3 percent of the time. He can’t hit an offspeed pitch, largely because he swings out of his shoes every time he takes a cut.

Here’s a novel approach. How about hitting the ball 110 miles per hour and making more contact?