Will Howard was hoping to secure his status as the No. 2 quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers this Friday, but his performance against the New York Jets left a lot to be desired.
Howard completed 10 of 15 pass attempts for 74 yards with two interceptions. He had to make a diving tackle on Jets safety Andre Cisco to prevent his first interception from becoming a pick-six. His second turnover was hauled in by cornerback Samuel Womack.
“Both of them were unfortunate,” Howard said in regards to his interceptions. “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.”
Even though Howard struggled against the Jets, his spot on Pittsburgh’s 53-man roster is safe.
According to Gerry Dulac of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Steelers plan on keeping Howard for the upcoming season. They also plan on keeping rookie quarterback Drew Allar.
Barry Reeger-Imagn Images.
Drew Allar wasn’t much better against the Jets either.
Allar had an exceptional preseason debut against the Green Bay Packers, throwing for 153 yards while racking up three total touchdowns.
Unfortunately for Allar, his second outing wasn’t nearly as good. For starters, he only completed 11 of 23 attempts for 110 yards. He was also sacked three times by the Jets’ defense.
“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.”
It’ll be interesting to see how Allar and Howard perform in Pittsburgh’s preseason finale.
