Charging into a Thursday Night Football matchup without their starting quarterback remains a possibility for the Steelers.
It still could be Mitch Trubisky under center as Kenny Pickett recovers from a rib injury sustained late in the first half of Sunday's game. There are high expectations for Trubisky to live up to his standing as one of the highest-paid backup quarterbacks and one of the most trusted of his kind in the NFL, should Pickett be unable to suit up against the Titans.
Pickett said after Tuesday's practice, though, that he is playing "for sure," in response to my question about his process of getting cleared. He added he would be better "in a couple days" but did some "light" throwing in Tuesday's practice.
"When I'm coming through, being able to have torque, rotating is a huge part of that," Pickett said. "Just being smart these two days and getting ready to go for Thursday night."
Pickett was considered a "game-time-type" decision by Mike Tomlin Monday. That leaves Matt Canada with a unique challenge in preparing two quarterbacks to play on a short week -- amid attempts at overcoming obstacles that have continued to limit the offense.
"I think both of our quarterbacks are talented and can play, so we've just got to move forward with our plan and have great faith they both can execute it as they will," Canada said Tuesday on the South Side. "If something were to happen -- let's hope we stay healthy -- Mason (Rudolph) as well. We've got to game plan what we see on tape and it's a limited rep week, anyway, right? Didn't practice yesterday, short couple days, today, so it's not like there's a lot of reps to divvy up. We'll just progress as we would've and see where we go when it's time to kick off and see how Kenny's feeling and make a decision by that point.
"... "We've got to prep with what the best plan is. I think, obviously, they're pros. Mitch is a pro. You prep like you're starting every game no matter what. That's the only way you can be ready to go play. We've got great faith in that and they've worked really hard and we'll see where we are when it's time to play."
Canada added Pickett made the decision that "he wasn't able to play at the level to help us win" against the Jaguars despite testing with some throws on the sideline once the second half began. Trubisky threw for a touchdown and two interceptions in short-order relief Sunday.
"Doing what I felt like I could to try to go back out there," Pickett said. "I couldn't throw it the way I needed to throw it to help us to win, so I listened to what the doctors said and go from there."
Of the 15 games Trubisky has played in over the last three seasons, he has started just five of them. Tomlin acknowledged he is "really comfortable" with Trubisky as a backup quarterback and he is an "asset" to Pickett from a day-to-day standpoint, but he wanted to see what Trubisky could do with a couple of days worth of preparation as the starter.
"Just preparing to be ready to go as always," Trubisky told me after Tuesday's practice. "Short week so we're crunching a lot of information in a small amount of time. Walkthrough today was good. Just a lot of mental reps. Just getting ready to do what I have to do. ... It's good to get the reps in practice with the guys but definitely getting into the game (Sunday) helps establish a little bit of rhythm. If I get back out there, I'll be ready."
Trubisky's most-recent start was in Week 15 of last season against Carolina, in which he completed 17 of 22 passes for 179 yards in the Steelers' 24-16 victory. The Steelers rushed for three touchdowns -- one each from Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren, and Trubisky -- and benefitted from a 50-yard field goal from Chris Boswell for their scoring.
The Steelers rushed for 156 yards in that game. If Trubisky is going to start against the Titans, the Steelers could employ a similar strategy.
But, the Titans hardly present a get-right opportunity for the Steelers' rushing attack, as they have allowed 107.4 yards per game and four total rushing touchdowns. Tennessee linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair is tied for ninth in the league in total tackles, and the duo of Denico Autry and Jeffrey Simmons has combined for 9.5 sacks this season.
"I think we always want (the running game) to be (an asset)," Canada said. "That's a fair question, but we certainly have not made any bones about -- we want to run the football, we want to be good. We have to continue to try to be better in the run game, establish the run game, and that'll be something we feel good about. We do, we will, but we just have to start doing it on game day."
The Steelers were limited in their chances for big plays in their loss to the Jaguars. Ninety-seven of their 211 receiving yards came after the catch, but 51 of those were accumulated by Harris and Warren out of the backfield. The explosive runs were completely shut down, as well, as Warren's longest run went for eight yards and Harris' longest run went for three Sunday. The longest runs of the game came on a 10-yard Calvin Austin jet sweep and a 10-yard Trubisky scramble.
"Some explosive pays are run-after-the-catch, so those are a short throw that ends up being a bigger play," Canada said. "Obviously there's times where we take shots down the field and we want our guys taking what they give us, in a sense, and if they see something where the defense is vulnerable, then we'll try to take advantage of that."
