NFL Preseason Week 1 Game Recap: Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 17

2R3F04N Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett throws a pass during the NFL football team's OTA's in Pittsburgh Tuesday, May 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Baker Mayfield led a touchdown drive in his Tampa Bay Buccaneers debut, but Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph combined to lead the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 27-17 win in the preseason Week 1 contest.


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Offensive spotlight: The Steelers ran it back with their 2022 trio of quarterbacks, handing Kenny Pickett (seven dropbacks), Mitch Trubisky (four) and Mason Rudolph (15) snaps — in addition to rookie Tanner Morgan (nine) — in this Week 1 affair. And Pickett proved to be the most effective, similar to last year.

The second-year signal-caller completed six of his seven attempts for 70 yards and a score to earn an 85.0-plus passing grade on first review. Rudolph made two big-time throws on his larger workload.

Defensive spotlight: All of the hype surrounding Nick Herbig is warranted, at least for now. The rookie played only eight pass-rushing snaps and still managed two sacks. Pending final reviews, he was the highest-graded defender in this game.

Rookie spotlight: Buccaneers second-round pick Cody Mauch logged 41 snaps but struggled overall. He let up two pressures, including one sack, and didn't fare well as a run blocker after the initial review of the game.

Offensive line spotlight: While the Buccaneers' line surrendered four sacks compared to the Steelers' one, the unit allowed only eight pressures overall, pending review. Pittsburgh's line surrendered nine pressures on 27 pass-blocking snaps as a group.


Box Score

Passing
Pittsburgh Steelers
Player Fantasy Comp/Att Yds YPA TD Int
Mason Rudolph 10.78 7 / 12 132 11 1 0
Kenny Pickett 6.8 6 / 7 70 10 1 0
Tanner Morgan 0.34 5 / 8 36 4.5 0 1
Mitch Trubisky -0.6 1 / 4 10 2.5 0 1
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Player Fantasy Comp/Att Yds YPA TD Int
John Wolford 8.64 10 / 17 111 6.5 1 0
Baker Mayfield 6.52 8 / 9 63 7 1 0
Kyle Trask 2.96 6 / 10 99 9.9 0 1
Rushing
Pittsburgh Steelers
Player Fantasy Car Yds YPC TD Long
Calvin Austin III 17.6 2 23 11.5 0 17
Mason Rudolph 10.78 2 15 7.5 0 15
Anthony McFarland Jr. 9.3 3 18 6 1 14
Connor Heyward 5.9 1 5 5 0 5
Darius Hagans 2.6 5 15 3 0 5
Greg Bell 1.9 7 8 1.1 0 6
Jaylen Warren 1.3 3 13 4.3 0 10
Jordan Byrd 1.2 1 -4 -4 0 -4
Tanner Morgan 0.34 2 -1 -0.5 0 0
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Player Fantasy Car Yds YPC TD Long
John Wolford 8.64 1 2 2 0 2
Kaylon Geiger 8.2 1 2 2 0 2
Taye Barber 4 1 13 13 0 13
Deven Thompkins 3.7 1 8 8 0 8
Chase Edmonds 3.2 6 18 3 0 8
Sean Tucker 2.3 6 10 1.7 0 5
Ronnie Brown 2.1 1 1 1 0 1
Patrick Laird 0.8 2 8 4 0 4
Ke'Shawn Vaughn 0.4 7 4 0.6 0 4
Receiving
Pittsburgh Steelers
Player Fantasy Tgt Rec Yds YPT TD
Calvin Austin III 17.6 4 2 73 18.2 1
George Pickens 10.3 1 1 33 33 1
Anthony McFarland Jr. 9.3 1 1 5 5 0
Diontae Johnson 6.2 3 3 32 10.7 0
Connor Heyward 5.9 2 2 34 17 0
Hakeem Butler 2.7 2 1 17 8.5 0
Darius Hagans 2.6 1 1 1 1 0
Gunner Olszewski 2.4 2 1 14 7 0
Rodney Williams 2.1 2 1 11 5.5 0
Greg Bell 1.9 1 1 1 1 0
Darnell Washington 1.9 1 1 9 9 0
Cody White 1.7 3 1 7 2.3 0
Pat Freiermuth 1.6 1 1 6 6 0
Jaylen Warren 1.3 1 0 0 0 0
Jordan Byrd 1.2 1 1 6 6 0
Najee Harris 0.9 1 1 -1 -1 0
Zach Gentry 0 1 0 0 0 0
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Player Fantasy Tgt Rec Yds YPT TD
Trey Palmer 13.3 4 4 33 8.2 1
David Moore 9.6 4 3 66 16.5 0
Kaylon Geiger 8.2 5 4 50 10 0
Payne Durham 7.3 2 1 3 1.5 1
Taye Barber 4 5 1 17 3.4 0
Ryan Miller 4 2 2 20 10 0
Deven Thompkins 3.7 2 2 9 4.5 0
Chase Edmonds 3.2 1 1 4 4 0
David Wells 3.2 1 1 22 22 0
Tanner Taula 3 1 1 20 20 0
Sean Tucker 2.3 1 1 3 3 0
Ronnie Brown 2.1 1 1 10 10 0
Kade Warner 2 2 1 10 5 0
Dominique Dafney 1.6 2 1 6 3 0
Patrick Laird 0.8 1 0 0 0 0
Ko Kieft 0 1 0 0 0 0

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