Just 35 minutes from where he grew up in Kennesaw, Georgia, and 45 minutes from where he played his high school football at Harrison High School, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Justin Fields got his first start with the team and his first win as a member of the Steelers. He learned during warmups that he would be their starting quarterback for certain. Before that, there were plenty of questions for Fields, but he was ready.

Russell Wilson came in after warming up and told me that I was up. Like we said, kind of all week, he was questionable, just trying to get his calf right and try to get going. But it was really right before the game, Fields said. With his family and former teammates in attendance, it was the perfect setting for Fields to engineer a homecoming victory. Going through a wave of emotions, Fields reveled just how perfect the entire setting and outcome was for him in a start he did not know he would have just hours ago.

Yeah, firstly it’s great. I have a bunch of family here, family and friends, old high school teammates. So just the setting, I really couldn’t ask for it a better way. God sure does work in mysterious ways, Fields said.The Steelers and Fields got off to a slow start. Fields fumbled one snap and almost fumbled another. He missed Van Jefferson wide-open. Those were plays that he badly wanted back. He vowed to ensure that those slow starts would never happen again as long as he was the starting quarterback.

Yeah, we definitely got off to a slow start, especially the first play, then I missed the throw to WR Van Jefferson. But after the first drive, I feel like we settled in a little bit, and especially as the game went along, definitely settled in. I don’t have a reason, but just know that won’t happen again.Now, Fields will go back to Pittsburgh and work without knowing if he will start against the Denver Broncos in Week 2. Wilson will try to get back for that game after missing Sunday’s game with a calf issue. That will be Wilson’s return to Denver after they released him this offseason, bringing about a wave of emotions.