Mike Tomlin made the massive resolution to begin Russell Wilson over Justin Fields for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 7 matchup in opposition to Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. The Steelers had been 4-2 underneath Fields whereas Wilson nursed a calf pressure, and Fields wasn’t precisely enjoying poorly on the market, so this was a storyline price watching all week.
It was a principally ugly begin for Russ, with boos coming from Steelers followers after an early area purpose was adopted by three consecutive three-and-outs. NBC saved panning to Justin Fields like they had been anticipating Tomlin to personally yank Wilson out of the sport and reinsert Fields into the lineup.
After which the explosive performs began hitting. Wilson’s 2-of-8 begin was a distant reminiscence and George Pickens was enjoying out of his thoughts.
However Pickens wasn’t the one one getting in on the enjoyable. Van Jefferson scored a landing that virtually condemned the Jets to their fourth straight loss, all whereas his dad Shawn Jefferson was on the sidelines as New York’s receivers coach.
Earlier within the evening, Pat Freiermuth showcased his catching abilities.
Wilson completed 16-of-29 for 264 yards, 2 landing passes, a speeding landing on a sneak, and only one sack taken regardless of the Steelers lacking a number of starters (and backup facilities) on the offensive line. In the meantime, Aaron Rodgers was 24-of-39 for 276 yards, 1 landing, 2 interceptions (though the second was actually a drop by Garrett Wilson), and 0 factors after halftime. The Jets are 2-5 and nowhere near matching the preseason hype of a Tremendous Bowl contender.
We’ve seen Wilson and Rodgers do battle with the Seattle Seahawks and Inexperienced Bay Packers respectively, with the house crew profitable one hundred pc of the time. That development continued on Sunday evening, and Wilson now has pulled the head-to-head rating to a 5-5 tie.
Pittsburgh’s 37-15 win (after being down 15-6) is simply the third win of 20+ factors for the Steelers relationship again to 2021. As for Wilson, it’s his first win of 20+ factors since his last residence begin as a Seahawk, when Seattle hammered the Detroit Lions 51-29 within the penultimate week of the 2021 season. None of his 11 wins with the Denver Broncos was by greater than 17 factors, so this was his most lopsided victory since leaving Seattle in 2022.
The Steelers are 5-2 and face an eroding New York Giants crew with an offense designed to be destroyed by Pittsburgh’s protection. It’s extremely probably that Pittsburgh can be 6-2 coming into its bye week, earlier than an actual gauntlet of division video games (nicely, 4 gauntlet video games and two in opposition to the Cleveland Browns), the Washington Commanders, and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs present an actual check for them.
There’s nonetheless a number of season left, and whereas I can’t make the case that we noticed classic Russ in opposition to the Jets, he had sufficient performance to maintain his beginning job. We might but see yet one more Wilson postseason look if the Steelers can preserve this up.
