Mariota completed five of eight passes for 43 yards and one interception during Saturday's preseason game against the Steelers. He also rushed once for one yard.
Mariota rattled off three straight completions to start the game but ultimately missed a wide open Corey Davis on third-and-long to end what started off as a promising drive. The quarterback then struggled to get anything going during the rest of his action before being pulled in the second quarter without having led his team on a single scoring drive. It hasn't been a very promising preseason for the fourth-year signal caller, who's coming off a 2017 season in which he threw more picks than touchdowns, but Mariota could very well still be in the process of mastering new offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur's system, leaving plenty of optimism for the Oregon product to improve as the year unfolds.