After defeating the Indianapolis Colts, 27-20 in Week 9, the Pittsburgh Steelers are now at 5-3. While trying to hurdle a defender, Wide receiver Roman Wilson fumbled the ball. This led to rumours of the Steelers benching Wilson, which has now been cleared by the Steelers’ offensive coordinator, Arthur Smith. 

According to Steelers beat reporter Nick Farabaugh, the Steelers will not bench Wilson over a fumble, and they still believe he is a talented player.

The Steelers have already shown their vote of confidence in Wilson by not trading for a wide receiver and now that Smith has shown his vote of confidence through a direct statement, the team is expecting Wilson to become a focal point of the offense. But after the fumble, he will be under scrutiny in the upcoming games.

The fumble came with just four minutes remaining in the game on 2nd-and-3 at the Colts’ 37-yard line. Wilson caught a quick screen pass at off-coverage and picked up the first down. But instead of simply going down, Wilson hurdled for a couple of meaningless yards and fumbled at the apex. It was an attempt to gain meaningless yards because at that stage of the game, the Steelers had nothing else to do except run the clock out on their fifth win of the season.

Colt’s safety Cam Bynum recovered the ball, which breathed new life into the game, which otherwise would have been a dead game for the Colts. The smart dislodging from the Colts could have given them a chance to bring the score closer. Luckily for Wilson, the Steelers held onto the lead and ended the game at 27-20. Also, Joey Porter Jr. got the ball back after three plays and marked his first interception.

Still, after what could have been a costly fumble, the team is going to stick to Wilson, who, apart from the fumble, has also made positive plays in the last couple of weeks. He had a clutch first down in the losing game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He also had splash plays in the losing game against the Green Bay Packers, along with a 45-yard catch on third down, and in the same game, he had the first touchdown of his NFL career.

In the current season, Wilson has 9 catches for 114 yards and a single touchdown. And in the last game against the Colts, Wilson had 1 catch for 4 yards on 2 targets and lost a fumble. The fumble, which is not a major issue for OC Smith, elicited a reaction from head coach Mike Tomlin that combines concern with a compliment.

Mike Tomlin had a mixed reaction to Wilson’s fumble

Steelers HC Mike Tomlin, who has led the Steelers to the first position in the AFC North ranking at 5-3, also reacted to Wilson’s play in the last game. Although his reaction wasn’t anything similar to Arthur’s, it had a blend of both frustration and understanding.

While applauding Wilson’s constant improvement, he also called the fumble a boneheaded play.

“I think it’s been a steady improvement in terms of their quality of play — particularly Roman of late,” Tomlin said during the weekly press conference on Tuesday. “Other than that, boneheaded, lack of ball security late in the football game.”

Although both Tomlin and Smith have shown their vote of confidence in Wilson as of now, Wilson shouldn’t take this vote of approval for granted. He needs to be careful in the future, as anything is possible. But as of now, the Steelers aren’t in the mood to bench Wilson, and he will continue to get action in the upcoming weeks.