Through the first seven games of the season, the criticism regarding Pittsburgh Steelers’ third-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada has been rather loud — and in most cases warranted.
The offense has been largely a disaster, there’s very little creativity within the scheme and defenses are rarely stressed or put into conflict in Canada’s scheme.
But Week Eight at Acrisure Stadium against the Jacksonville Jaguars was a bit of a turning point when it came to the criticism for Canada. The plays were there for the Steelers’ offense, especially in the first half. The offense just didn’t execute, period.
That has former NFL defensive end and “Green Light Pod” host Chris Long fed up.
Appearing on the latest episode of his podcast Monday afternoon, Long ripped into the Steelers’ offense for its lack of execution.
“It’s easy to blame Matt Canada. Every week, it’s Matt Canada’s fault. How about fu*king executing, okay?” Long said of the offense, according to video via the podcast’s YouTube page. “Matt Canada schemed that ball up to Diontae Johnson, the first couple plays of the game, right? If he would’ve caught it, it had you in plus territory at the 40, okay?”
“Diontae Johnson slipping out of his route or slipping in the end zone, or Kenny Pickett missing that throw is not on Matt Canada,” Long added. “So, the run game sucks. I’d like to see more [Jaylen] Warren, I’d like to see more. Calvin Austin III, they got him involved at the end of the half. The end of the half field goal stuff, that’s a killer.”
Throughout the season, even with all of the vitriol directed at Canada, the players and coaches have talked about a lack of execution. For the most part, that always sounded like an excuse to not talk about the elephant in the room, that being Canada’s inability to scheme up an NFL offense and call a game at this level.
Sunday though, that was the clearest example that it’s not entirely a Matt Canada problem. It’s a player problem just as much, if not more.
The drop by Johnson on the first play of the game was a killer. It’s a ball that has to be caught, even if it was just a tick high for the smaller Johnson. He catches that, it’s an explosive play that ignites not only the offense, but the home crowd and throws the Jaguars’ defense for a loop.
Instead, it fell incomplete and the offense went three-and-out.
Then there was the misfire from Pickett in the end zone to Johnson, who was schemed open perfectly against man coverage. Pickett was late seeing him and threw behind him, and Johnson slipped and fell trying to readjust to find the ball.
Executing in those instances would go a long, long way, because it wasn’t the play call or the design on those. It comes down to the players, now. They have to do their jobs. Right now, they aren’t.
