After what seemed like a really impressive preseason by the Pittsburgh Steelers, they couldn’t carry that momentum into the regular season, with the offense falling flat in a 30-7 loss against the San Francisco 49ers. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada said that he was surprised by the performance of everyone on the offense, including QB Kenny Pickett.
“I was surprised at the performance for everyone. I’m not gonna single out Kenny,” Canada said via Amanda Godsey on YouTube.. “We didn’t expect it. All you guys had to do is see what’s on tape. We didn’t perform well and it’s very disappointing. We didn’t play like we’ve played or practice. I don’t have the answer why, we’re certainly working on it.”
The Steelers got down early, which prevented them from establishing their run game, as they ran the ball just 10 times against San Francisco. As a whole, the offense was a disappointment with Pickett struggling with his accuracy and the team struggling to generate explosive plays, which was an emphasis for the team going into this season.
Canada’s partially to blame too, as his play-calling was a lot of the same we saw last season. The team didn’t run really any slant routes, totaling just three on the afternoon, and the routes they did run just simply weren’t working against the San Francisco defense.
The onus is going to be on everyone to pick it up with the Cleveland Browns on deck on Monday night. Canada absolutely has to call a better game, and the execution has to be a lot better on the field.
With WR Diontae Johnson sidelined due to injury, the Steelers are going to rely more on WRs George Pickens and Calvin Austin III, two guys Pickett could really build a connection with going forward. All three of those guys are in their second year, and building a connection early this season is going to help the offense throughout the year and going forward, as well.
Canada hasn’t shown any improvement in his play-calling since being hired as offensive coordinator ahead of the 2021 season, so he’s the biggest concern going forward. We’ve seen that Pickett can make plays and lead the team to wins. If his offensive coordinator, who doesn’t have the answer to what went wrong, can’t help him, it’s going to be an uphill climb for the Steelers this season.
I’m holding out hope that Canada will be better and as a whole players will be put in a better position to succeed. That’s going to obviously improve the offense. Monday is the Steelers’ first opportunity to show that they can be better than they were on Sunday and for large portions of last year.
Watch the full press conference below:
