During Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin’s press conference on Tuesday, he talked about the need for the team’s offense to get its mojo back. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada was asked today how they can do that, and he didn’t seem to have any answers.
“I don’t know. If you have the answer, you can let me know or tell somebody else. When you’re playing good on offense or anything in life that is good, you stack it,” Canada said via Joe Rutter of TribLive.
That answer doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in Canada or the offense’s ability to turn things around. Obviously, he’s not intentionally trying to fail, so it’s just as frustrating for him as it is for the fan base and the players when the offense sputters, especially to the degree that it has through the first two games of the season. But to simply not have an answer about any sort of improvement the group can make to get back on track just isn’t a good look.
It’s also completely unfair to pin all of the offense’s failures on Canada. The execution hasn’t been there, with QB Kenny Pickett struggling and the offensive line failing to open up enough holes in the run game. It’s a collective issue, and better execution is going to help the offense be better, even if nothing changes when it comes to play calling. But the play calling has been suspect too, and the offense doesn’t look anything like the one we saw in the preseason that provided oh so much promise heading into the regular season.
There’s also the fact that Canada isn’t going to delve into game-planning specifics in the press conference, but the fact he flat out says “I don’t know” when basically asked how to get the offense back on track is pretty ridiculous. His job is to know how to run the offense and put the Steelers in the best position possible to score points and win games. It’s been an underperforming group every year he’s been here, and while you could at least come up with excuses the last two years given the offensive personnel he had, there’s talent for this group to be good this year.
Canada better figure out how to get the mojo back quickly, because the offense can’t keep playing like it has so far. One offensive touchdown a game is not a recipe for success, no matter if you’re coaching in the NFL, XFL, CFL or Pop Warner. The offense has to show some sort of tangible growth on Sunday Night against the Las Vegas Raiders, and it’s going to be on Canada to scheme up some ways to make that happen.
