While there were prudent reservations about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ likelihood of taking down the San Francisco 49ers yesterday, one thing that I don’t think many fans were expecting to see was just how poorly QB Kenny Pickett played for so much of the afternoon.
Although he finished with a pretty high completion percentage of 67.4, that doesn’t give a clear picture of his day. The second-year quarterback really had issues getting the ball where he wanted it to go—sometimes even when it connected. He nearly missed RB Anthony McFarland Jr. on a crucial fourth-down conversion, his target bailing him out.
For some, however, everything falls upon the shoulders of the play-caller, in this case Matt Canada, now in his third season on the job in Pittsburgh. While nobody is blameless in this 30-7 loss, former Steeler and current NFL analyst Chris Hoke shared his thoughts on where to point the longest finger in this one.
“Guys are open and Kenny Pickett’s missing guys. How is that Matt Canada’s fault?”, he said on the KDKA post-game show yesterday. “Canada calls the play, you have a wide-open Pat Freiermuth. You have a quick slant where you have Diontae Johnson wide open over the middle and Kenny throws it behind him. Play after play Kenny sailed balls, Kenny missed guys. That Matt Canada’s fault?”.
Hoke was referencing some of Pickett’s biggest miscues during the game, or at least some of the biggest moments in which he did not hit his target. The miss to Johnson was particularly egregious because if he had simply made the relatively easy throw, it would have been a walk-in touchdown on a slant.
This was just one of several bad throws from Pickett on the day that seemed well out of character based on how he performed during the preseason. While exhibition games have to be judged entirely separately, the fact of the matter is that he was throwing a much better, higher-quality ball in August, with more accuracy. He would have easily made this throw then and there is no justification for him missing it now.
And it’s very obviously not on Canada, at least on this particularly play, because it should have been a touchdown. Based on the first game of the season, there is clearly still a lot of growing up to do from both the quarterback and play-calling positions before this offense can even begin to entertain notions of reaching its potential.
Next up is a Cleveland Browns defense that was so effective yesterday against the Cincinnati Bengals that head coach Zac Taylor decided to pull QB Joe Burrow out of the game while there were still several minutes left to play.
The 49ers were a big test for the young quarterback, make no mistake about that, but he is going to need to be able to contend with them. And he could have if he had simply made the throws that were there for him to make. The throws that he was making a few weeks ago. The throws he needs to make a week from today against Cleveland.
