Tag: Steelers

PITTSBURGH — With three turnovers — including two in the red zone — in the past two games, Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson said the solution to successfully balancing aggression with carelessness is simple. It’s the same recipe the Steelers need to follow to stop their three-game slide in the regular-season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday.

“You got to have amnesia in this game,” Wilson said Wednesday. “It is one of those games that they got good players, we got good players, there’s going to be highs, there’s going to be lows throughout the game, throughout the season, through all that and just having amnesia.

“… I think that’s going to be key for winning football as we go here and search for what we’re all searching for.”

Wilson took his advice to heart in the Steelers’ first meeting with the Bengals this season when he and the offense recovered from a pick-six on the first series of the game to win in a shootout.

After throwing three interceptions in his first seven starts this season, Wilson committed three turnovers during the team’s three-game losing streak. The two in the red zone — a fumble at the end of a 19-yard run just short of the end zone against Baltimore and an interception in the end zone against Kansas City — are uncharacteristic of the veteran signal-caller.

Wilson’s interception in the Christmas Day loss came a play after Jaylen Warren‘s touchdown was wiped out due to a holding penalty. Fighting the urge to make up for a missed opportunity is the key to limiting costly mistakes, offensive coordinator Arthur Smith said.

“I use the Blackjack analogy,” Smith said. “You lose a hand. You don’t need to start splitting bad cards or doubling down when you shouldn’t, trying to win it all back the next play.

“If the opportunity’s there, sure take it, but sometimes I think it’s human nature. … There is a fine line, and you don’t want to take somebody’s initiative away, but you get in these tight games against good defenses, they’re not going to hand you things.

“There’s an art to that, not forcing things when they’re not there. It’s not being conservative. It’s trying to play smart football.”

Wilson has just 16 red zone interceptions in his 13-year career. This year, though, he has two interceptions inside the 20-yard line, including a pass that was too high for Darnell Washington in the end zone during the Week 11 win against the Ravens.

Still, Wilson isn’t getting rattled by the mistakes.

“I got a lot of baseball in me,” said Wilson, who played in 93 games in the minor leagues from 2010 to 2011. “You think about baseball, you go 30-for-100, you’re a Hall of Famer. You got to be able to focus on the next pitch. I think it’s the same thing in any sport, really. I think the best players in the world, they’re able to remain neutral. “Steph Curry is probably a 93%, 94% free throw shooter, something like that. If he misses a free throw in the Finals, it doesn’t mean that he’s not any good anymore.”

Wilson has completed 64.6% of his pass attempts in 10 starts this season with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions. Though he jump-started the Steelers’ passing offense when he took over the starting job in Week 7, Wilson has struggled since throwing for more than 400 yards in the Week 13 win against the Bengals. Wilson averaged 177 passing yards in the past four games with 5 touchdowns, 2 interceptions and the fumble. His average yards per attempt also dipped over the past four games. Against Cincinnati, Wilson averaged a season-best 10.9 yards per attempt. In the loss to the Chiefs, however, he averaged a season-worst 5.5 yards per attempt. Facing the stout defenses of Cleveland, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Kansas City, Wilson’s QBR also declined. He posted an average QBR of 104.6 in his first six starts, but that rating dipped to 88.5 in the past four weeks.

Wilson said focusing on practice is the key to avoiding lingering thoughts on shortcomings. It’s a mentality he and the rest of the Steelers are embracing ahead of Saturday night’s game. Though the Steelers have already clinched a playoff spot — and could be out of contention to clinch the AFC North title by kickoff, pending the outcome of the Ravens-Browns game, there’s still plenty to work toward ahead of next week’s wild-card round.

“Part of the amnesia is that if you focus on the work and obsess with the work, that allows you to free yourself of the negativity sometimes, too,” Wilson said. “It’s part of the journey of seeking perfection — is there’s always highs. There’s mountain peaks, there’s great moments, tough ones. The ability to embrace the adversity, not running from it.

“We don’t have time to run from adversity, we have time to run through it, we got to climb the wall, we go run through it. There’s no magic pill of getting around it. We just focus on the work and we focus on the next pitch, the next play.”