It seems we’ve heard as much about what the fans were saying this week as we have about what the Pittsburgh Steelers’ players and coaches are saying—with plenty of overlap. Virtually half the locker room has been asked about the “Fire Canada” chant that broke out during Monday night’s game. TE Pat Freiermuth, I think, had the best response to it.
“It’s got to get us going”, he said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “Obviously it’s never fun, but we’ve got to learn from that, and obviously it’s more of a motivation to let’s get this thing going. We love the fans here, and obviously they expect good football, so I’ll be trying to continue to get good football and wins for them”.
To briefly contextualize, the reference is to Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada, who is in his third season on the job and his fourth with the team, beginning as quarterbacks coach. He has had a different starting quarterback each of the past three opening weeks, first Ben Roethlisberger, then Mitch Trubisky, and finally Kenny Pickett.
This was supposed to be the year, in theory, that he would truly sink or swim on his own merits. He finally has a stable quarterback situation, knowing who his starter is and somebody who is going to allow him to run his own show.
Well, so far the offense has scored four times in two games, including just two touchdowns. The Steelers rank 32nd in plays run per drive, 32nd in drive length (duration), 32nd in points per drive, and 31st in yards per drive. It could hardly be worse. And that’s not because they’ve had incredible starting field position.
Does it all fall on Canada’s shoulders? Absolutely not. There has been some woeful play contributing to the cause as well, including from Pickett, who has made some of the worst throws and decisions of his career over the past 120 minutes of game action.
The offensive line, rather than taking a step forward, has taken a step or two back. Isaac Seumalo looked more comfortable this past week, granted, but still did not play well. I would not say that any one individual lineman has yet had a “good” game through two weeks.
On the whole, the wide receiver position has probably been the strongest so far, with George Pickens coming off possibly the best game of his young career so far. Calvin Austin III has also begun to flash, even showing the breadth of his want-to, extending to run blocking. Not bad for a guy who weighs less than I do.
But let’s get back to the point. None of these guys have probably ever been a part of what they experienced on Monday night, whether they realized what was happening at the time or not. If you’re an offensive starter and you hear the crowd clamoring for your coordinator’s head, you had better take that personally, even if it’s not your head they’re after.
The players are a reflection of their coordinator, for better or worse. No matter what the play is, the players by and large determine whether or not it’s successful by the way they execute it. If this doesn’t get that group going, at least emotionally, with a sense of urgency, I don’t think anything is going to.
