Remember all the optimism and excitement surrounding the Steelers’ offense after a preseason in which they looked explosive and efficient both through the air and on the ground? Well, that optimism has quickly taken a nosedive after the 30-7 shellacking Pittsburgh took at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers Sunday afternoon, dropping them to 0-1 to start the 2023 campaign. The offense looked lost as the Steelers didn’t establish a presence in the running game and QB Kenny Pickett looked lost for most of the game, missing receivers while forcing passes into tight coverage.
Many media personalities have given their thoughts following the blowout, including Pat McAfee Monday on The Pat McAfee Show. McAfee mentioned that San Francisco looked like a world beater on the road while Pittsburgh looked like the same offense that started the 2022 season, a shell of what we saw just a couple of weeks ago.
“Missing open passes… Najee Harris looks like he’s running in muck,” McAfee said via video from his Twitter page. “I mean, there’s a situation that’s happening in Pittsburgh where it’s like, was everything that we saw in the preseason and in training camp… was it all a lie? Matt Canada is the offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I know that he’s taking on the Niners. He was supposed to be better this year because last year he had his hands tied because of a rookie quarterback. Didn’t want to do too much. They look like the same old Steelers.”
There was hardly anything positive offensively to take away from the loss Sunday for Pittsburgh. They did manage to get an explosive run with Harris and completed the two-minute drill right before the half to get on the board with a touchdown, but the bad definitely outweighed the good in this one. It’s a fair remark for McAfee to ask if we were lied to about what this offense would look like after seeing so much promise during the preseason, only for the unit to fall flat on its face when the games started to count.
No one wants this offense to look like “the same old Steelers,” who put up 30 points just one time last season. Ultimately, a large part of the problem was the execution by the players as Pickett did not play like we have seen him play. However, OC Matt Canada can’t be absolved of blame as the offense almost completely abandoned the running game early on in the contest and had some questionable concepts called when Pittsburgh got into scoring range.
We know this offense can be successful. We saw the starters do it against a good defense in Buffalo this preseason. However, the unit needs to get things straightened out both individually as well as a collective, having each player execute better on their specific assignment to have the whole unit run more efficiently. Canada also needs to up his game, calling a cleaner game with concepts to beat the opposing defense’s looks and plays that have advantages in certain situations on the field. The Steelers will get their shot to redeem themselves next Monday in primetime as they face the Cleveland Browns in their first AFC North battle.
