One thing that I’ve personally found odd this week has been the uproar that has apparently emerged among Pittsburgh Steelers fans about something offensive coordinator Matt Canada said before Sunday’s loss to the Houston Texans.
According to Spero Dedes, one of the broadcasters for the game, Canada told him the night before that “they’re not quite built to come back from big leads”, making it that much more critical for them to start well. All that was is a statement of fact, quite frankly, and while this was technically said “on record”, it’s not like he said it right into a camera.
This revelation apparently did the rounds within Steelers internet circles, which is not exactly my realm, but I trust that it grew legs, because it’s easy to find everywhere through a simple search. So it’s no surprise QB Kenny Pickett was asked about it by one of the local reporters yesterday.
“We’ve got to be designed to put points up and win game, that’s what I care about”, he said, via the team’s website, when asked how he reacts to hearing his offensive coordinator make that statement. “I don’t care if we’re behind or ahead of whatever the situation may be. It’s our job to put more points on the board than the other team does, so that’s what our goal and our desire needs to be”.
He was asked as a follow-up if he feels that he and his offense would be capable of coming back in a game in which they are down by a couple touchdowns. “Of course”, he said. “I think any game we’re in, we have a chance to win, no matter what”.
I mean, what else is he going to say? If your quarterback is telling people that they better keep the game close because they just don’t have it in them to overcome a significant deficit, that’s a pretty bad sign. After all, he plays a big role in whether or not they’re capable of doing that.
Then again, it’s probably not the best sign for the offensive coordinator to be saying that they’re not built to come from behind, either, assuming that Canada was paraphrased accurately. Even if it is the obvious truth of the matter.
And he wasn’t alone. Head coach Mike Tomlin said in early August of Pickett that they weren’t expecting him to outduel the quarterbacks of the AFC North—although right now, it’s looking like he has a better chance of going that against some of them than might have been thought at the time of Tomlin’s statement.
Tomlin said, specifically, that the Steelers are “in a different place” than those other teams because they have “a young quarterback who’s emerging”. So he was basically saying that the team is going to have to pick him up and not let the Joe Burrows of the division take over the game, because they can’t count on Pickett to do it, since he hasn’t proven yet that he can.
And he hasn’t proven that he can. He just had his first NFL game with multiple touchdown passes just two weeks ago. His touchdown percentage is among the worst in modern NFL history. He’s currently in the company of Ryan Leaf and Chris Weinke in that category, by the way. I’m not sure how many 14-point deficits they overcame in their careers.
