Steelers OC Arthur Smith explains why Justin Fields ignored middle of the field vs Falcons

The passing chart for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields looked odd but all-too-familiar last week. Fields threw to both boundaries but it looked like there was a force field between the hash marks and the football couldn’t get through it.

Fields finished with 156 passing yards. All of those yards came outside the hashes and more shallow throws.

But it turns out it was just offensive coordinator Arthur Smith who was scared of Falcons safety Jessie Bates. Smith addressed the media on Thursday and he instructed Fields not to test the middle of the field because of Bates. Smith even referred to Bates as Atlanta’s “Jason Bourne” whatever that means.

Bates finished with six tackles and no other stats of interest. So perhaps Smith’s strategy paid off. Nevertheless, this week against the Broncos, I’m not sure they have a player in the middle of the field to warrant such a drastic change in strategy.

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