There’s nothing that Colin Cowherd loves more than waxing about the perils of having a defensive coach in the NFL. He’s talked before about how he doesn’t think Mike Tomlin can maximize what the Steelers can get out of Kenny Pickett, and so Sunday’s 30-7 beatdown of Pittsburgh at the hands of offensive-minded coach Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers was a dream scenario for Cowherd. On The Colin Cowherd Podcast, the analyst talked about how Tomlin is holding Pittsburgh back, whereas Shanahan can get the most out of his quarterback in Brock Purdy.
“Mike Tomlin, how many years is it where the Steelers put out an embarrassing effort and get not only vanquished, get rolled against the Niners?” Cowherd said. “Kenny Pickett appeared to regress, more frenetic, I thought at times he was lost, panicked and hurried with a defensive coach,” he added.
Cowherd said he thought that Pickett looked like he needed help, and not just from his cadre of weapons on offense.
“Kenny Pickett looked like a kid who needed help. And you can’t tell me it’s a lack of weapons for Pittsburgh. This roster for the Steelers is stacked. They looked ill-prepared,” he said.
When a team gets beaten as badly as Pittsburgh did on Sunday, the coaching staff is largely to blame. Yes, the players didn’t get it done, and the execution was poor. But they weren’t ready to play. From the very first snap, they were outmatched by San Francisco. On paper, the 49ers roster is better, but it’s not 23 points better. The Steelers came out flat and never really recovered.
I’m generally not a fan of Cowherd’s point about offensive coaches versus defensive coaches, but it does seem like it’s proving to be more and more prevalent in recent years. The last four teams standing last season in the 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles, Cincinnati Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs are all led by offensive head coaches. But Bill Belichick is a defensive head coach, and he was able to get a whole lot out of Tom Brady. Peyton Manning won multiple Super Bowls with defensive head coaches. The league has changed, but not drastically enough where a defensive-minded head coach is a massive disadvantage.
What might be an obstacle for Pittsburgh is its offensive play-caller, though. Matt Canada called the game like he did in 2022, which was, in a word, poorly. The play calling wasn’t great, and on top of that, Pickett was inaccurate and forced some throws. But there also just wasn’t a lot there, and that falls on the play calling.
From top to bottom, Sunday was a disaster for the Steelers. They just looked bad. Now, the focus is on working on what went wrong. and getting back on track. Hopefully, by the end of the season, Tomlin can prove Cowherd wrong about the team’s inability to help Pickett.
Watch the full podcast below:
