Five plays. 60 yards. Two minutes and 13 seconds.

After failing to produce any points through the first two preseason games, that’s all it took for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first-team offense to march down the field and into the end zone during Saturday’s 24-17 loss to the Lions in Detroit.

Yes, it’s just a preseason game. Yes, the Lions held out almost all of their defensive starters. Still, the quick strike, capped by a 31-yard scamper by Cordarrelle Patterson, should alleviate at least some of the angst surrounding the offense.

More importantly, those two minutes and 13 seconds might have indicated which quarterback will start for the Steelers in Week 1 in Atlanta.

In theory, the third and final preseason game provided Russell Wilson and Justin Fields with opportunities to make their closing arguments in this so-called quarterback competition. Wilson completed both of his passes, including a 32-yard completion to George Pickens on third-and-11 that set up Patterson’s touchdown.

“We knew that we were able to do that,” Wilson said after the game. “We’ve had a really great training camp and OTAs and all of that. We finally put it on the field under the lights.”

Meanwhile, in his three series of work, Fields led a touchdown drive of his own, completed 3 of 4 passes for 40 yards and added 4 rushing yards on a pair of carries.

But forget how they played, because how much they played says much more about the state of this competition.

That two-minute and 13-second drive? Yeah, that was it for Wilson.

Coach Mike Tomlin said leading up to the game that he planned to play the starters only long enough to knock off the rust, adding he would quickly move on to backups competing for roster spots. The fact that Tomlin chose to pull Wilson after a single series would seem to indicate he had seen enough — and that Wilson is his quarterback.

“We just needed results that are indicative of how we’ve worked. They were able to put together a scoring drive, and really just provided an opportunity to get Justin in there sooner,” Tomlin said after the game. “So that’s why we did it.”

Tomlin added he would not name a starter until after the upcoming week of practice.

In many ways, Wilson starting Week 1 was the inevitable conclusion when the Steelers re-made their QB room this offseason. Although Tomlin has maintained throughout camp that this is a true competition, some of that might simply be his nature. He loves competition and intentionally creates scenarios to test players physically and mentally, whether matching a linebacker against a particular back in drills or how he has framed his quarterback dynamic. It would be un-Tomlin-like to, in his words, “anoint” someone.

However, from the moment Wilson signed with the Steelers, he always had the inside track. Consider that the way the team phrased the QB dynamic after Wilson signed led Kenny Pickett to ask for a trade. Consider that Wilson took the overwhelming majority of first-team reps in OTAs and again in training camp once he recovered from his calf injury. Consider that the Steelers have talked at length about the leadership Wilson provides. They’ve discussed how Fields can benefit from learning from Wilson. They gave Wilson “pole position.” And even after he missed a significant chunk of training camp, Wilson was still listed as QB1 on the depth chart, a position he’s maintained throughout.

Even if they were open to Fields surprising them, would they be saying or doing these things if they didn’t expect Wilson to be the starter?

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