Welcome back to your weekly Pittsburgh Steelers mailbag. As always, we’re here for the next hour to answer whatever is on your mind.
To your questions!
BananasFoster: Hello AK- what a miserable game. If they lose to the Brownies (and they very well might), with another stagnant offense, do you expect changes? I know I won’t, but something has to give with this team. And it’s not just this past Sunday, it’s the past 5 years. I really don’t think their organizational philosophy works into today’s NFL. You need to score points, period. And this team does not on a consistent basis. And I firmly believe MT does not want to bring in a coordinator who will upstage him. Sorry I am ranting but I am very very upset with the direction of this team.
Alex: Changes for Week 3? Nothing that people would want in terms of say, Canada being fired. Could there be an expansion/reduction of a player’s role? Sure, depending on who the guy is, who could supplant him, and how Monday night goes.
I don’t view it as Tomlin not wanting to bring in a coordinator to upstage him. I’m not sure what that means or would look like, to be honest. Tomlin’s job is secure. Right or wrong, it is. It’s not like he’d be worried about some hotshot coordinator replacing him as head coach.
Let’s just see how Monday night goes. Tough challenge, no doubt, but if they win, there won’t be any ranting. Give it another week.
Bill Wood: Hi Alex! Do you attribute KP’s extremely bad day to a case of the jitters, or is it, as I have read a few say, that he can’t read coverages yet? I’m going with the former. I remember our own Steelers pass rush of the 90s doing the same thing to grizzled vets like Dan Marino fairly consistently. What say you?
Alex: I really don’t know what it was. He had poor reads but he was missing some layups, too. Maybe just the combination of it being Week One, producing some weird results, and playing a really stellar defense. And when you fall behind, you struggle. Happened against Buffalo and Philadelphia last year. So a combination of things, I’m sure, but it’s hard to pinpoint.
Yinz:
Alex – We’ve seen incompetent offensive game plans, play design, and performance for two seasons and counting.
Looking at Canada’s clips from his interview the “we’re fine, it’s one week” is getting old to me. We’ve heard this before. What are the chances anything significant actually changes? Based on the body of work and the need to change for several years and not seeing action, I fear we are in for much of the same. The offense might look decent against teams we are just better than, but against good teams, we don’t have much of a chance unless we have out-of-this-world defensive performances.
Alex: I know it’s getting old. But what he says really doesn’t matter, does it? It’s all about results. He could hold the best presser ever, say everything you want him to, and if the offense sucks, everyone hates him and he’s out of a job. He could have the worst presser ever but if the offense is a success, he’s just known as the quirky genius. That’s how it goes.
So Canada will be the OC this year. Next year? He won’t return if the struggles continue. God help us if he does.
jger15:
Listening to The Install with Greg Cosell, I thought he made an apt point noting that having a harder front loaded schedule is great for teams in that it provides an immediate look at where its weak points are to address — perhaps the silver lining from the SF game.
In terms of incremental fixes to the offense, outside of changing the personnel and outright firing of Canada, is there any precedent for the team to have a Sullivan/another coach make the play calls?
Alex: It’s hard to know all the team’s inner-workings. So I guess I don’t really have a good answer overall. Canada’s job is to call the plays and I assume that will continue. The other coaches do have input in coming up with the gameplan and overall strategy, though. It’s not just Canada doing that alone.
steeler fever: Do you think the Steelers will bring in a legit DT or WR to make up for the Cam/Diontae injuries? If so who? If not, why?
Alex: Sorry man, almost missed this. No, not out of the gate. They’ll evaluate their internal options first. I doubt they bring in a WR. Johnson will be back soon enough. A d-lineman is more possible if this group falters the next 2-4 weeks. But they liked their depth at both spots this summer so they’ll start with internal replacements.
AtlanticMM: Any word if King will get a helmet this week and if so where he would be working, slot or outside? I assume Pierre or Riley become the healthy scratch.
Alex: Nothing yet. I would expect him to dress sooner than later. Playing in the slot against this run-heavy Browns team makes the most amount of sense right now. My guess is if King dresses, Sullivan would sit. But we’ll see. Partially depends on the overall health of the team, too.
