Under fire once again for another inept offensive showing in Week Two on Monday Night Football against the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada needed to change things up — and in a hurry — to start building some confidence back up for not only a loaded offense filled with good playmakers but his young quarterback in Kenny Pickett as well.
Canada, surprisingly, did the right thing in Week Three on the road against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday Night Football. The much-maligned third-year offensive coordinator stuck to the ground game, establishing the run for the Steelers. He then built off that with the use of play-action with Pickett, and even added some designed rollouts to get Pickett on the move and into his comfort zone.
Those designs by Canada led to one of the better offensive performances from the Black and Gold in his tenure as the Steelers rolled up 333 total yards and 23 points, hanging on late for a 23-18 win over the Raiders.
Canada’s game plan on Sunday night has former NFL head coach and offensive coordinator Jay Gruden rather pleased. In a post-game reaction video for the 33rd Team, Gruden praised Canada for doing things to help his young quarterback with designed rollouts and quick hitters in space, leading to a big win on the road.
“Kenny Pickett did a good job of keeping drives going. They got some drives going because they converted some third downs; that was the big thing. In the games past, they had so many three and outs that they couldn’t get to some of their plays in the playbook,” Gruden said for the 33rd Team on Twitter. “Fortunately for them this week, they were able to convert some third downs and were able to utilize some out-of-the-pocket, some bootlegs — the great bootleg to [Pat] Freiermuth for a touchdown, some rollouts — some planned rollouts — for Allen Robinson on some key third down and shorts, so they were able to do that.
“Also, they got Najee [Harris] and [Jaylen] Warren going in the running game. It was over 100 yards rushing, probably, and that’s huge for a young quarterback. If you can run the ball, do some play-actions, some outside the pocket and make some easy completions on some throws, good things will happen. …Good things for the offense of the Steelers. I think [Canada] did a great job of mixing it up with the run, play-action pass, rollouts, bootlegs and that’s what you have to do with the great defense they have. Maintain some drives, keep them fresh and put some points on the board. They’ll win some games.”
It wasn’t very encouraging early on against the Raiders as it looked like more of the same from Pittsburgh offensively on the first few drives of the game.
Two quick three-and-outs that gained a total of 13 yards and saw Pickett look rather gun-shy and unsure of himself in the pocket led to some real concerns.
Then, on the third play of the ensuing drive, Pickett fired a frozen rope to wide receiver Calvin Austin III down the middle of the field for a 72-yard touchdown, sparking the offense.
After that, the Steelers had some rhythm as Pickett was rolled out and bootlegged to get him on the edge and let him create on the move. The Steelers ran the football with a purpose on Sunday night as well, and ultimately it was enough to generate a strong offensive showing, leading to a win.
There’s still a lot of work to be done though as Pittsburgh ran 13 plays and gained just 20 yards after an impressive six-play, 81-yard touchdown drive to make it a 23-7 lead. On that drive, Pittsburgh showed everything. A bootleg touchdown on great design to Freiermuth, a throw to the middle of the field off play-action to George Pickens, utilizing the middle of the field with Freiermuth past the chains, and running power behind left tackle.
The rushing attack got going as well, generating 105 yards on the ground on 31 carries. The yards per carry isn’t pretty at just 3.4 against the Raiders, but the run game was consistent and successful as Harris rushed for 65 yards on 19 carries and Warren added 29 yards on eight carries.
When Pittsburgh moved away from the zone-run plays, the run game looked even better. Pittsburgh learned quite a bit about itself offensively Sunday night. Now it’s about building on those lessons learned.
The pieces are in place offensively. Really, it comes down to the game plan and the execution of that game plan. On Sunday night, the Steelers had a strong game plan and the players executed. More of that, please.
