Halicke: Both Wilson, Fields finally help display offense's real potential

DETROIT -- Forget about the final score of the Steelers' preseason finale against the Lions at Ford Field. It really doesn't matter that they lost, 24-17. The offense was a main focus here, specifically on the quarterbacks.

Well, regardless of the final score, you can say "mission accomplished" as both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields engineered touchdown drives, putting the Steelers out to an early 14-0 lead.

And if you want to try and make any bold predictions regarding the quarterback (non) controversy in Pittsburgh, Wilson will be the starting quarterback Week 1 in Atlanta. While it's not officially etched in stone, Mike Tomlin undoubtedly has his chisel within arms reach. All Tomlin needed to see was Wilson help engineer a five-play, 60-yard drive on the opening series before taking the 12-year veteran out of the game. 

"We just needed results that were indicative of how we worked," Tomlin said after the game. "They were able to put together a scoring drive and really just provided opportunity to get Justin in there sooner."

It almost looked like it was going to be a repeat of what we saw in last week's loss to the Bills. Wilson played five series, yet the offense only moved the chains once during that time. A big reason why the offense had been so terrible in the first two preseason games was because they were consistently playing behind the sticks.

This happened yet again on the second play of the series when Wilson hit George Pickens on a screen that took just a little bit too long to develop. While it appeared Pickens evaded the first tackle for a nice gain, he was ruled down for a loss of six yards:

I like the design here. Notice how the play-action role out to the right clears space for Pickens to run. Isaac Seumalo is just a bit slow to get over there and clear Mitchell Agude. Small details like these can be refined.

What needed to happen from there was finding a way to convert third-and-11. Wilson went back to Pickens for a 32-yard gain on a beautiful hookup:

"Third-and-11, I needed to make a play," Pickens said after the game. "I knew on that drive right there I needed to make a play."

That he did. Pickens wasn't the first read on this play, but the offensive line gives Wilson plenty of time to go through his progression. Wilson notices Pat Freiermuth on the crosser, but also finds Pickens wide open after having beaten the pants off Essang Bassey on a corner route. I've said it many times, and I'll say it again and again if I have to: Wilson can still throw the ball down the field. He does exactly that here as the pair hooked up for perhaps one of the more important plays for the offense in this game.

"We did a really good job on offense. It was a collective effort," Wilson said. "I thought how we moved the ball, obviously George did a great job on that third-and-11 conversion. He ran a great route. Great protection. It was a great team effort. I thought our guys did a really good job of getting up and down the field, which is what we wanted. We knew that we were able to do that. We’ve had a really good training camp, OTAs and all that. We finally put it on the field under the lights."

Wilson didn't have to do anything spectacular to move the offense down the field. After all, this offense will be built on the running game. All either of these quarterbacks have to do is be consistent out of play-action to expose the defense. This was epitomized on Fields' first series of the game, which also resulted in a touchdown:

Honestly, this one play could have been my entire Chalk Talk from this game. Screw the final score. If you want to see an idea of what Arthur Smith wants to do on offense, it's right here.

Notice how the Lions are in a two-high shell. This is exactly what defenses want to do against the Steelers. They want to find a way to defend the run while operating with two high safeties. That way they don't have to load the box and they can keep Wilson and Fields from taking the top off of them.

The primary way to beat defenses that do this is to obviously run the football effectively, just as the team did against Seattle last season. And then when defenses bring an extra safety down into the box and play middle field closed, then the passing game is opened up to take deep shots downfield. 

The other way to beat defenses this way is doing exactly what's done here. Use play-action to freeze the linebackers, give a chance for the quarterback to read the safeties, then, fire a strike down the seam. And Fields does this beautifully here. Not only is the pass right on the money, but he throws this with anticipation.

Watch when Fields begins his throwing motion. When he does, MyCole Pruitt is still covered up by the linebacker. That is throwing with anticipation, which means you're trusting what you see and making throws off of that. For Fields to become a better overall quarterback, this is exactly what's needed more often.

Then again, it might be all for naught. Despite any rhetoric -- valid or not valid -- that Wilson can't throw the ball over the middle, he's absolutely capable of making these throws, too. And if he does this sort of thing, along with the type of throw we saw to Pickens on the first series, Fields might not get any opportunities to really improve on this in the regular season.

Wilson will go into the season as the starter. And yes, Saturday's performance should make you feel a little bit better about that. Yes, the Lions sat the majority of their starters. That's why nobody should be pre-ordering Super Bowl tickets.

But, getting into this type of rhythm heading into the season is key for any offense. The Steelers can't control who lines up across from them. All they needed to do in the preseason is beat the guys across from them. They didn't do it in the first two games, but the guys who matter on offense did it Saturday, including both quarterbacks.