The Steelers continued on their path of simulating a regular season week with their practice at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, taking the next step which included special teams work.
Coach Mike Tomlin liked what was accomplished as the team pushes forward to Saturday's preseason finale against the Detroit Lions.
"We had a good, simulated, regular in-season Thursday," said Tomlin. "In the morning, we talked about some things that will be critical in the special teams game. We continued with our individual skill development and pushing to some situational ball and just trying to familiarize ourselves with areas of the field, personnel usage, personality – ours and theirs – in those moments.
"It's just been a good week. It's just good to take this group through the totality of a six-day process of preparation to play. So, tomorrow we'll lean in heavier on some situational ball and two-minute, and things of that nature, putting the finishing touches on our physical preparation.
"But, obviously, we'll keep preparing mentally as we push forward toward Saturday."
Nothing has changed since Tuesday when Tomlin said he would share details about the quarterback rotation, something he was asked about again and reiterated his thoughts.
"I'm not there yet," said Tomlin. "We generally do that in the 11th hour in the preseason. There's no need to put the cart before the horse. These individual days themselves are so important with what happens out here in terms of being our guide, in terms of how we divvy up reps, so we're not there yet."
Tomlin has made it no secret he would like to see a better outcome on offense on possession downs, but made it clear it's not about showing more in a preseason game but simply executing what they have in the game plan.
"It's not about the volume of schematics, it's about the quality of execution and our understanding of what we're seeing, and us playing full speed in those moments," said Tomlin. "It's less about what we show from a schematics standpoint, and just us getting individually and collectively familiar with the moments, and winning in those moments."
