Justin Fields may no longer be the Pittsburgh Steelers' starting quarterback, but the Ohio State product got a few moments to shine last night vs. the Cleveland Browns. And while he did just that on one play, in particular, Fields admitted he was “sick” afterward.
After a preseason injury sidelined starter Russell Wilson for the first several weeks of the season, Fields led Pittsburgh to a 4-2 record while playing some of the most efficient ball of his career. Despite that, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin opted to bench Fields for Wilson once the veteran QB returned to full health last month.
While Fields did not play at all in the first three starts of Wilson's Steelers tenure, he finally made an appearance last week when he rushed the ball twice for 17 combined yards as Pittsburgh defeated the Baltimore Ravens. And in another AFC North matchup, Fields appeared once again last night vs. the Browns.
In addition to attempting his first pass in more than a month, Fields ran the ball three times against Cleveland. The first two attempts resulted in a combined loss of 4 yards, but the third more than made up for the prior failures.
Early in the fourth quarter, Fields took the shotgun snap, faked a handoff, and raced around the edge and down the sideline for 30 yards before being taken out at the Browns' 35-yard line. The play proved to be invaluable to the Steelers, who ended up scoring their first touchdown of the game later in the drive.
Despite serving as a spark for Pittsburgh's offense, Fields explained why he was “sick” after the play.
“I should have scored,” Fields said, via ESPN's Brooke Pryor. “I'm sick, but I just got to make sure I'm warm on the sideline at all times. I kind of felt stiff on that one. On the second one, I felt a little bit looser.”
Steelers lose to Browns in dramatic fashion amid snowstorm
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It would be understandable for any player, especially one only used on specialty plays like Fields, not to have felt warm and loose last night. The game began cold and only got colder, and more notably, the snow really started to come down in the second half. By the time Fields reemerged and ran for 30 yards, Browns' green grass had been covered by a layer of snow, which only grew as the game neared its conclusion.
Unfortunately for Fields and the Steelers, the ‘Thursday Night Football' matchup went in favor of the Browns, who had won just two of their 10 games before yesterday. Despite committing two turnovers in the fourth quarter, Cleveland forced a bad punt by Corliss Waitman before driving 45 yards. Nick Chubb, who suffered a catastrophic knee injury last season vs. the Steelers, scored the go-ahead touchdown with 57 seconds remaining.
Wilson's hail mary into the end zone was knocked down as time expired, giving the Browns their third win of the season and the Steelers their third loss.
In the third of four consecutive games vs. AFC North rivals, the Steelers are set to play the Bengals in Cincinnati on Dec. 1. Cleveland and Pittsburgh will meet again at Acrisure Stadium on Dec. 8.
