Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin described his team’s home preseason loss to Houston last week as a “sloppy” game with many inconsistencies and errors.
Tomlin mentioned that how the team performs in the last week of training camp at St. Vincent College will be important in showing how they handle challenges.
“There’s some things that we’ve got to do better, some things we’ve got to tighten up,” Tomlin said. “It’s capable of happening, obviously, in the first preseason game, but not that we find comfort in that. We work too hard to have the results we had, so it’s disappointing.”
Tackle Troy Fautanu, the Steelers’ first-round pick, will miss the week of practices and the team’s next home game on Saturday against Buffalo because of a knee sprain. Tomlin said he is “optimistic” about Fautanu’s quick return but will be monitoring his injury “day by day.”
Fautanu, the 20th overall pick, had a brace on his left knee after the game against Houston. He played during the second offensive series and was on the field for the first and second quarters at right tackle.
“He was doing really well,” Tomlin said. “We wanted to give him a lot of work because that’s where he is in development, but I like the general trajectory of it.”
In last Friday’s game, Houston’s first two touchdowns came from a Pittsburgh penalty and a special teams’ turnover. On the other hand, two of Pittsburgh’s first three drives moved past midfield but were stopped by a sack and a fumble from a bad center-quarterback exchange.
“You can’t play football like that and think you’re going to be in games,” Tomlin said. “It’s amazing we had the ball in a one-score game at the end when you consider those things.”
Justin Fields completed 5 of 6 passes for 67 yards but fumbled near midfield on the first series, ending the drive with a punt. He fumbled the first snap of a three-and-out and took a sack at the Houston 36-yard line, ending a promising eight-play drive.
“It’s hard to put a drive together when you have a fumbled snap and you’re second-and-13 and you’re behind the sticks,” Fields said. “Just the self-inflicted wounds are the only things that hurt us, especially when I was in the game.”
Before the Texans’ second drive, Dez Fitzpatrick was penalized for running out of bounds without being blocked during a 22-yard punt return, which gave Houston the ball at the Pittsburgh 36-yard line.
Texans’ quarterback C.J. Stroud quickly took advantage and threw a pass to Tank Dell, who avoided a couple of missed tackles and scored a 34-yard touchdown.
Pittsburgh tried to tie the game in the second quarter but failed after four attempts from inside the 5-yard line. Three consecutive runs got the Steelers to the 2-yard line, but on fourth-and-goal, Kyle Allen missed a wide-open Calvin Austin III in the back corner of the end zone.
“Sometimes, as an offense, you just don’t want to beat yourself,” Allen said. “A lot of people are getting used to being back on the field, it’s some people’s first time … it’s to be expected in the first game, but I think we wanted to execute better as an offense.”
The offense wasn’t the only area that had problems. On the Texans’ next drive, Quez Watkins muffed a punt that Houston recovered at the Pittsburgh 30-yard line. The Texans scored a touchdown six plays later to go up 14-0.
Watkins had a better practice on Sunday. He caught a deep throw from Fields along the sidelines and then grabbed a 16-yard touchdown during the two-minute drill.
“He needed a day today,” Tomlin said of Watkins. The Steelers didn’t practice in pads on Sunday, but Tomlin was happy with the session. He is more focused on how his players will perform next Saturday against Buffalo.
“There’s no substitute for experience,” Tomlin said. “The first-timers got experience last Friday and we’re leaning on their work this week and expecting them to be dramatically better in their next opportunity.”
