Joe Starkey: Justin Fields should keep Steelers' QB job for now

Please do not read this as a glowing endorsement of Justin Fields. He wasn’t great Sunday in the Steelers' 32-13 win. Hardly. I still wonder if he would have been pulled if not for a debatable roughing the passer call that wiped out a late first-half interception.

If that pick had counted, the Steelers likely would have gone to halftime trailing 7-6, with everybody screaming about another meager first-half performance from the offense. Fields likely would have gone to the break 10 for 18 for 83 yards, a killer interception and a passer rating of 44.4.

Russell Wilson, anyone?

You know Wilson is itching to play, and this was the first time he was available as the No. 2 quarterback.

Instead, after officials ruled that Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle Matthew Butler landed on Fields with “all or most” of his body weight — maybe 64.7% of it? — the Steelers lined up with a first down at the Raiders’ 12. Fields gobbled up 11 of those yards on the ground, including the final three on a fourth-down scamper.

There’s no way Wilson would have outrun Tyree Wilson to the corner of the end zone, as Fields did, and therein lies the reason Fields should keep his job for Sunday’s game against the New York Jets: His mobility gives the Steelers their best chance behind a banged-up and leaky offensive line. He ran for 59 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries and made some of his best plays simply by avoiding sacks on Raider jail breaks.

In other words, I’m not sure I want to see the soon-to-be 36-year-old Wilson, coming off a calf injury, running for his life behind this line. It might become necessary if Fields (14-of-24, 145 yards) doesn’t provide more of a consistent passing threat, but it’s not advisable just yet.

As CBS analyst Charles Davis put it: “(Fields’) numbers aren’t overwhelming, but he made a lot of good plays today.”

He also made a few bad ones that could have been catastrophic. Besides the called-back interception, there was a fastball of a lateral that understandably eluded Jaylen Warren, who luckily landed on the free ball. That could have gone for a defensive touchdown. On the next play, Fields unleashed an ill-advised floater to the end zone — yes, it was caught by Pat Freiermuth — but he’d crossed the line of scrimmage by the time it was unleashed. Things sometimes get a little crazy with Fields running the show.

Still, KDKA’s Chris Hoke figures Tomlin will stick with Fields.

“I don’t think coach Tomlin is going to make that change until (Fields) plays really, really bad, which I don’t anticipate, or there’s an injury,” Hoke said.

I wonder about that, but if I’m Tomlin, Fields gets the start against the Jets, who have 18 sacks in five games.

Meanwhile ...

— Loved that Tomlin opened his postgame media session by shouting out Steeler Nation for filling another road venue and turning it into Terrible Towel Mardis Gras. That should never be taken for granted. It is one of the great spectacles in all of sports.

— I can’t decide if it was smart or sad that the Steelers tried to appease embattled receiver George Pickens with a late touchdown. They didn’t need the points, and as Davis said on the broadcast: “I don’t think it’s a whole lot of investigation here to know what’s going on: You’re trying to take care of your guy for the future.”

Pickens dropped the pass in the end zone, his second drop of the day. He caught three of his eight targets for 53 yards.

— Najee Harris had one of the best games of his career with 106 yards and a touchdown on just 14 carries, plus two catches for 16 yards. He ran maniacally all game and broke five tackles on one ferocious foray into the Raiders secondary. Harris gets sensitive when his breakaway ability is questioned, but it’s questioned because he’s not a breakaway runner. On this day, though, he looked quicker and more dangerous than he usually does.

— The Raiders don’t have a quarterback, a running back or a wide receiver. Other than that, their offense is lethal. The Steelers defense did what it should do against as pathetic an offense as you’ll find in the NFL at the moment.

— As mentioned earlier, the roughing the passer call on the Raiders late in the first half changed the direction of the game. It wiped out an interception and kept the Steelers’ go-ahead touchdown drive alive. It was a debatable call, as it always is when the “body weight” stipulation comes into question.

Here’s the NFL’s rule: “When tackling a passer who is in a defenseless posture (e.g., during or just after throwing a pass), a defensive player must not unnecessarily or violently throw him down or land on top of him with all or most of the defender's weight.”

How does one define “all or most?” What is most? Is it 51% of the defender’s body weight? What an asinine rule.

— Another game-turning play in the first half happened when the Raiders decided to give Dylan Laube, a rookie out of New Hampshire, his first career carry late in the second quarter — a pitch out, no less, which to that point had been a terrible play for both teams. Nobody was running wide. Laube had the ball punched out by T.J. Watt, who had two knockouts on right crosses in this game. He forced another fumble at the goal line after the Raiders failed to challenge what might have been a touchdown.

— Sometimes, the officiating just goes your way, and it was the Steelers’ turn Sunday. A truly ridiculous roughing the passer call led to a second-half touchdown, and a ticky tack man-ineligible-downfield call wiped a Raiders touchdown off the board.

I’m with Hoke, who said, “I do not believe there was an illegal man downfield.”

— Patrick Queen had his best game in a Steelers jersey, with 13 tackles (six solo), and DeShon Elliott has proven to be an excellent acquisition. When he hits people, they drop.

____