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PITTSBURGH — Eight days after helping the offense light up the scoreboard with 28 points, young Steelers quarterbacks Will Howard and Drew Allar combined to throw two interceptions, take four sacks and score zero points in a 17-0 preseason loss to the New York Jets on Friday night.
"If I'm looking for one clean way to explain the production of going down from eight days ago today, the details and the execution wasn't as high," coach Mike McCarthy said.
The sub-par performance from the young quarterbacks comes as McCarthy continues to evaluate and shape his depth chart behind 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers. Veteran backup Mason Rudolph started the first preseason game, but McCarthy elected to exclusively play Howard and Allar against the Jets because the coach said he saw what he “needed to see” from Rudolph against the Green Bay Packers.
Howard, making his first career start Friday, eventually settled in after sputtering out of the gate, but his most promising drives each ended with interceptions as he targeted wide receiver Roman Wilson.
"I felt really comfortable in the pocket," said Howard, who completed 10 of 15 attempts for 74 yards. "I felt like I was going through my progressions well, especially early first and second down and felt good about how I played, but those two turnovers will really, really make it sour."
After a three-and-out and another brief series that ended in a sack, Howard's next two series showed promise. On the first, he hit a 16-yard completion to Ben Skowronek on third down, and the Steelers offense got down to the Jets 14-yard line. But as Howard, who was playing without starting receivers DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr., attempted to connect with Wilson on a crosser, lurking safety Andre Cisco jumped the route and easily picked the pass. Howard then made a diving tackle to save the interception from turning into a pick-6.
On the next series, Howard had a first-down throw to rookie fullback Riley Nowakowski and another to tight end Robert Tonyan and got the offense to New York’s 37-yard line. This time, the pass to Wilson was a bit behind the receiver, and cornerback Samuel Womack snagged the pass before it could reach Wilson.
"Both of them were unfortunate," Howard said. "Just can't happen. Running a shallow cross and kind of drift a little bit and the safety jumped it. Just got to see in front of that. There's other little things on the play. … And that second one just got undercut and just got to put it out in front of him."
Asked if Wilson was in the right spot on Howard's throws, McCarthy said the plays weren't "clean."
"There's always plays that are cleaner than others and those two plays were not clean," he added.
Allar replaced Howard to start the second half, and while he didn't turn the ball over, Allar and his unit still struggled to move the ball as they were plagued by dropped passes and penalties. The third-round pick also took three sacks and finished the night completing 11 of 23 attempts for 110 yards.
"I just need to do a better job, especially early in drives, taking what's given," Allar said. "I felt like I passed up a couple opportunities early in drives that either set us back with an incompletion or a sack that if I just take what's there, even if it's catch tackle, we're not in a backed up situation. I felt like that's where I could help the offense more."
Allar, who accounted for three touchdowns in his preseason debut last week, said he felt his operation was "cleaner" from that game to his second.
"I think that's a little bit just getting more experience and more reps in a game-like environment," Allar said. "Practice we have to play clocks, but obviously you're not going to get penalized in practice. So having that stress element in a game, O-line did a great job of communicating upfront with me. They did a great job of getting in and out of the huddle as well."
Like Allar, McCarthy said he believed his team took a step forward Friday night, even if it wasn't reflected in the score. Howard, though, was harsher in his self-evaluation.
"There are positives, but a lot of negatives as well," Howard said. "We can't let this trip us up going forward. We have to continue to make strides. And we didn't really make any strides tonight.
"That's a shame because every opportunity out here — you want to be growing and you want to be taking steps forward. I always go back to that quote where it's either you're taking a step forward or you're taking a step back. And we definitely did not take a step forward tonight. We got to clean that up."
