Justin Fields of the Pittsburgh Steelers commented on his former team this week, and had to play in Sunday’s game against the Colts behind a banged-up offensive line. And then Fields had a crucial mistake that eventually cost the Steelers a chance to pull off a last-minute victory.

Trailing 27-24 against the Colts, Fields scooped up a first-down misfired snap and the Steelers suffered a 12-yard loss with a little over a minute left in the game. Fields followed up with an incomplete pass, an 11-yard completion to Najee Harris, and a fourth-down incompletion that sealed the outcome.

Fields accepted responsibility for the snap snafu, according to a post on X by Steelers reporter Chris Adamski.

“It was my fault,” Fields said.

Steelers QB Justin Fields can’t pull off comeback

The Steelers (3-1) fought back from a 17-0 deficit but fell just short of extending their six-game regular-season winning streak. It may have been different without the botched snap.

Fields explained the pre-snap situation that led to the mistake.

“We were on the first leg kick, and (center) Zach (Frazier) was IDing stuff. I felt the DBs rotating a change in the back-end picture. So, when he was IDing stuff, telling the o-line where to go, I was trying to get that final picture before the snap came. At the end of the day, it’s from the first leg kick. So after I kick my leg, I gotta be ready for the ball. It’s doesn’t matter when it’s gonna come or not. Yeah, it’s on me.”

Fields ran for two second-half scores and threw for another to cut the deficit to 27-24 with 3:40 left in the game. He finished the game 22 of 34 for 312 yards. Also, Fields ran 10 times for 55 yards. However, he took four sacks and lost a fumble.

The Colts earned the led behind the play of 2023 comeback player of the year Joe Flacco. He finished 19 of 30 for 166 yards against a team he knew played against often during 11 seasons with Baltimore.

What did Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin say?

Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin may have liked for his quarterback to learn something from Flacco, according to athlonsports.com.

“I appreciate (Fields’) fight,” Tomlin said. “But he, and we, were a little bit sloppy at times, too sloppy to comfortably secure victory.”

Of course, hiding behind the scenes is Russell Wilson. Was this the type of performance that might open the window for Wilson to take over at quarterback when he’s fully healthy?

Tomlin received criticism as well, for not calling his final timeout prior to the final fourth-down incomplete pass, according to the Steelers’ YouTube page via steelernation.com.

“You know I just wanted to hold it in my hip pocket,” Tomlim said. “You know sometimes working at a pace is an advantage for an offense. It doesn’t give the defense the opportunity to get specialized people in the game to ponder calls and get imperfect calls. I was comfortable working that pace and I just wanted to keep it in my hip pocket in case we converted and got down the field.”