Steelers QB Mitch Trubisky asserts he wants to be aggressive, take shots downfield

In his first start for a new team, Mitch Trubisky benefited from a defense that created five turnovers and scored seven points.

The day after his coach suggested that contributed to a Pittsburgh Steelers offense that favored safe and conservative above aggressiveness and high-risk-high-reward, Trubisky on Wednesday insisted he wanted to be more than just a quarterback who manages the game and avoids turnovers.

“I don’t think (being conservative) was a mindset,” Trubisky said of the offense during Sunday’s 23-20 season-opening overtime win at the Cincinnati Bengals.

“I think that’s something that just progressed throughout the game. I know when your defense is playing that well and they’re getting turnovers, you just want to take care of the football — but we’ve got to have that killer mindset, an aggressive mentality to really take teams out of the game and just not allow them to keep it close.”

In five quarters Sunday, the Steelers had four passing plays that gained more than 10 yards. Just one of those went to a wide receiver (the 25-yard gain on Diontae Johnson’s leaping, one-handed toe-tap in overtime).

Trubisky, who went 21 for 38 for 194 yards, had the second-lowest yards per attempt (5.1) of any quarterback who played a full game in Week 1. His 9.2 yards per completion ranked 26th among Week 1 passers.

But a look at the more advanced statistics suggests it wasn’t for a lack of trying. According to Next Gen Stats, Trubisky’s 8.1 average intended air yards per throw was above league average (ranking 11th among 32 qualified passers) for Week 1. (For context, the Bengals’ Joe Burrow averaged 7.6 intended air yards Sunday, and Ben Roethlisberger averaged 6.7 last season).

“I think we took a good amount of deep balls in the last game,” Trubisky said. “We just gotta hit ’em. And I think if you hit ’em earlier, then that opens up the intermediate and short stuff … and the run game, as well.”

Mitch Trubisky assesses his Steelers debut pic.twitter.com/SC66HTI81l

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) September 14, 2022

Trubisky is right that the problem with the deep ball was moreso the execution than the intent or willingness. Trubisky’s 5.6 average completed air yards was smack in the middle of Week 1’s 32 passers, and the minus-2.5 air-yards differential between the average completed pass and average intended pass was 21st.

An incompletion to George Pickens along the sideline in the third quarter was arguably the most egregious missed throw by Trubisky in his Steelers debut.

Still, that Trubisky was working with a lead almost throughout the entire game (56 minutes, 15 seconds of regulation’s 60 minutes), and a natural and reasonable course of action in such situations is to prioritize minimizing turnovers to taking risks on big plays. On a more macro level, too, the Steelers roster — with the highest-paid defense and lowest-paid offense in the NFL — is constructed such that taking a conservative approach offensively might be wise.

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“With downfield throwing comes the potential of negativity and turning the ball over,” coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday. “Environmentally, in the structure of how (the Bengals) function, we did what we thought was appropriate to win the game last week. It has no bearing on how we’re going to function this week.”

Trubisky sounds like a man who would prefer to take more shots, beginning with Sunday’s home opener against the New England Patriots.

“I was proud of the way we took care of the football (in Cincinnati) — but you gotta have that aggressive mentality to score points,” Trubisky said. “And it’s not just the calls. It’s gotta be everybody on the field. It’s gotta be a player’s mindset.”

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