Remember when Chicken Little screams from the top of the bell tower that the sky is falling? It’s the movie’s opening act with no development of the story’s plot and no context on what’s to come.
That’s what’s happening with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
A week after being the sleeper darlings of the National Football League, the team is officially on pressure watch, according to Pro Football Focus’ Sam Monson.
“I think there’s a lot of pressure on this Steelers offense to say, ‘We looked good in preseason. Everyone thinks our offensive coordinator is terrible. We need to fix this now going up against a very good defense.’ There’s a lot of pressure on them going into this weekend,” said Monson of Pittsburgh’s offense.
There’s no putting shine on the Steelers’ offensive performance against the San Francisco 49ers. The team was abysmal, featuring head-scratching play calls from Matt Canada and uncharacteristic misses from PFF’s top-graded preseason quarterback Kenny Pickett.
However, Week One of the NFL season often lies. Remember, last season the Chicago Bears upset the very same 49ers team that came one win, and two quarterback injuries from a Super Bowl appearance. Meanwhile, the Bears sputtered to a 3-14 season.
There were several duds across the league posted by young quarterbacks who faced lesser competition than what looks to be a top defense in the league. The Browns defense, fresh off of a thumping of the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday, may pose a similar challenge for the Steelers.
In short, judgment can’t be passed this early, especially for a team that dug itself out of a 1-6 stretch to become a playoff hopeful last season.
Nonetheless, it’s undeniable that Canada’s offense still lacks creativity as it has during his tenure with the Steelers. Under his guidance, the group has failed to score over 20 points in 23 of 36 games. Even more jarring is that the team has not tallied over 400 yards of offense during that stretch. Since 2021, there have been 269 times where a team has topped that number, none by the Steelers.
“Nobody has been excited about Matt Canada,” said PFF’s Steve Palazzolo in the same video, “Matt Canada does not put them in great situations to succeed.”
While the sky might not be falling just yet for Canada and his offense, he may want to take a note from Chicken Little and begin repairing his reputation or it won’t be long until he finds himself out of Pittsburgh.
