Mitchell Trubisky is 1-0 as the Pittsburgh Steelers' starting quarterback. That being said, there are several things Trubisky and the Steelers' offense would like to improve upon entering Sunday's game against the New England Patriots.
Specifically, Trubisky would like to connect on more deep passes than he did during Pittsburgh's season-opening overtime win against the Bengals. While he did connect with Diontae Johnson on a nifty 25-yard completion in the extra session, Trubisky was unable to connect with George Pickens, Chase Claypool and Miles Boykin on deep routes during other periods of the game.
"We've just got to hit those," Trubisky said on Wednesday. "We hit those in practice. We hit a couple in the preseason. The one early [in Sunday's game] to Boykin, if we hit that one I think it opens up a lot of different stuff for us and maybe it's a different story on third down. ... So we're just gonna continue to take those shots, continue to work on the timing and practice and we would like to come up with those big plays."
Trubisky and the offense deserve credit for playing a clean game against the Bengals as far as turnovers were concerned. Conversely, the Bengals' offense coughed up the ball five times against the Steelers' aggressive defense. The way Sunday's game transpired created a unique situation for Trubisky and the offense. They wanted to take care of the ball without getting too conservative.
"I know when your defense is playing that well and they're getting turnovers, you just want to take care of the football," Trubisky said. "But we got to have that killer mindset, aggressive mentality to really take teams out of the game and just not allow them to keep it close.
"I was proud of the way we took care of the football, but you've got to have that aggressive mentality to score points. And it's not just the calls, it's got to be everybody on the field. It's got to be a player's mindset."
Trubisky said that he hopes to connect with Pickens on more passes moving forward after the highly touted rookie caught just one pass in his regular-season debut. Trubisky does not, however, feel that the Steelers have to change much as far as the play-calling is concerned. It's what the offense does with the plays, he says, that can make all the difference.
"I think we [threw] a good amount of deep balls in the last game," Trubisky said. "We've just got to hit them, and I think if you hit him earlier, then that opens up the intermediate and short stuff as well. ... Once you hit those, I think you really see where you're at and what else opens up within your offense."
