Justin Fields’ performance in the preseason debut against the Houston Texans has garnered some negativity. The sense of disappointment heightened after Fields had a couple of fumbles with two of the Steelers’ centers, Nate Herbig and Zach Frazier. Mike Tomlin isn’t blaming anyone, but he sure as heck isn’t happy about it. A preseason game ending 20-12 isn’t really Mike Tomlin’s cup of tea.

Tomlin took the podium and didn’t waste any time getting into the specifics. “You know, a really sloppy performance to be honest with you.” That was the opening statement by Coach Tomlin, who is dedicated to looking into every nook and cranny of the tape to find out what went wrong and who messed up.

Tomlin being questioned about Justin Fields’ fumble was inevitable. It’s the building blocks of football and that play going wrong put a frown on the HC’s face. The reporter indirectly asked Tomlin whether Frazier was responsible for messing up that C-Q exchange. Tomlin didn’t want to shift the blame on anyone without proof.

“I don’t know what happened. I hadn’t talked to any of the parties involved in terms of assessing blame assessing the ramifications of the center exchange. Just rest assured it was a fundamental component of the ball. We work it every day. We start out practices with it and so it’s unacceptable,” said Tomlin with a serious look on his face in the post-game presser.

Talking about the Herbig-Fields fumbles, they led to a loss of 4 yards on a first-down snap. Then another major fumble happened when Herbig was handing the ball off to Fields. The center quickly snapped the ball and went on his way to block the incoming rush. Fields, after dropping the ball, had a hard time collecting it. He eventually did, but was tackled by two Texans immediately. Per Tomlin, that C-Q exchange “negated a lot of good things going on in those first couple of drives.”

Speaking of good things, Justin Fields’ performance wasn’t all that bad. His pass to the RB Najee Harris came under pressure. However, Harris turned it into a 16-yard gain and made something happen for the Steel City team. He could’ve been sacked, but saved it in the nick of time. Even after that 4-yard loss because of the fumble, Fields completed the next three attempts and helped his team gain 37 yards. Even his throw to George Pickens was great. He also had a 20-yard completion with Van Jefferson on Pittsburgh’s third drive as well.

After Russell Wilson’s injury scare, Mike Tomlin had no option but to put Kyle Allen and Justin Fields on the front lines. Though Justin Fields has some polishing up to do, Allen did some heavy lifting today with 17 of his 23 passes completed over 193 yards. He scored a touchdown but was intercepted once.

But coming back to Justin Fields, there are some other things that he and Steelers have to worry about.

Justin Fields and the Steel City blues

Fields went 5 for 6 in the preseason opener but scored no touchdowns. Moreover, he fumbled the ball not once, but twice. He also took two sacks on third downs, hindering the Steelers’ drive even further. Justin Fields holding the ball for too long has been a concern for a while. These mistakes repeating might mean that he has a long way to go before he becomes the QB1.

“Just can’t shoot ourselves in the foot. Have to do the routine things routinely. Q-C exchange. Like I said, I think that’s the thing that stopped us when we weren’t driving the ball well. It’s not a good feeling when you’re second-and-13, second-and-14. It’s hard to score like that,” said Tomlin of Justin Fields.

It gives more of a reason for Tomlin to let Russell Wilson take charge in the next game against the Bills. In fact, Russell Wilson is slated to be the starter in the upcoming game. Justin Fields, however, is upset about what went down. He unveiled a similar train of thoughts to the head coach.

“I think just tighten up the details,” Fields said. “I think we’re focusing on just controlling what we can control and not shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s just a repetitive thing. As long as we do that, put ourselves in great field position and do the routine things routinely, I think we’ll be great because other than that, like I said before, just move the ball well. I think we executed well, ran the ball well.

The QB room still has a long way to go. However, Mike Tomlin thinks that these fumbles were a shared responsibility between the quarterback and the center, and it needs to be examined.