The Pittsburgh Steelers were a disaster offensively over the final month of the regular season, and head coach Mike Tomlin says he is open to making at least one significant change in the playoffs.
With his team preparing to face the AFC North division rival Baltimore Ravens in the opening round of the playoffs, Tomlin was asked on Monday if he has considered the possibility of utilizing Justin Fields more. Tomlin said he is open to that and that Fields has had no role recently due to an abdominal injury.
“I’m certainly open to utilizing Justin. He has an awesome skill set,” Tomlin said. “We’ve done some of that in the past. We’ve done less of it in recent weeks. He experienced an injury or so a couple weeks back that slowed some of that. But certainly in an effort to win this game, I am open to any combination or combinations of the division of labor in an effort to do so. And so I’m certainly open to that as we develop plans this week.”
Mike Tomlin on if he's open to using Justin Fields more this week: "I'm certainly open to utilizing Justin. He has an awesome skill set. We've done some of that in the past. We've done less of it in recent weeks. He experienced an injury or so a couple weeks back that slowed some…
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The Steelers scored 17 or fewer points in their final four games of the regular season, all of which were losses. Russell Wilson seems to have hit a wall after playing at a Pro Bowl level earlier in the year.
Pittsburgh lost 34-17 to the Ravens a few weeks ago, so they will need to come up with a much different game plan on Saturday night.
Fields was used late in some games during the regular season and even got away with a big mistake in one of them. Perhaps Tomlin will give offensive coordinator Arthur Smith permission to utilize the dual-threat quarterback more to keep the Ravens guessing.
