Steelers notebook: Haley saw positives from Landry Jones

August 12, 2015
By Ray Fittipaldo / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Steelers managed to score three points in their preseason debut against the Minnesota Vikings Sunday night in the Hall of Fame Game. Third-year quarterback Landry Jones played nearly every snap and posted some very ordinary statistics — a 50 percent completion percentage (16 for 32) and only 135 yards through the air.

But don’t count Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley among those who think Jones had a poor outing.

“I thought the first half he did a lot of good things,” Haley said Tuesday after practice. “We obviously left some points out there. We turned the ball over. It’s the stuff I’ve been harping on that got us last year. C. J. Goodwin’s fumble occurred inside the 35. We gave up a minimum of 3 points there. We missed the stutter-and-go there to Sammy [Coates] that has to be a touchdown. We didn’t run a ball in that we probably should have walked in [a Cameron Stingily carry for no gain], and then we dropped three consecutive balls at the end of the half. That’s another 7 points, and we got none. To me, coming out of that first half with 17 points, you’re feeling pretty good about what you did.”

Of all those mistakes Haley mentioned, he only pinned one on Jones — the miss to Coates on the stutter-and- go.

And Jones didn’t exactly have a full complement of the team’s top skilled players at his disposal. Receivers Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton and running back Le’Veon Bell did not play.

If there was one criticism of Jones from Sunday, Haley said it was his inability to keep the offense in a flow when some of the reserves were getting most of the snaps after halftime.

“The second half, more guys filtered in it got a little sloppy, and he let it affect him too much,” Haley said. “I was encouraged by the first half.”

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