Fast starts have not been the calling card for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense under Matt Canada.
Good Morning Football co-host Kyle Brandt wants to see that change, especially from second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Coming off of the Week Six bye week, the Steelers are well-rested, recharged and believe they have corrected some mistakes offensively moving forward. That could make the Steelers a more complete team paired with a great defense.
What Brandt doesn’t want to see is the Steelers’ offense wait around until late in the game to get going and rely on late-game heroics to come back.
“Kenny Pickett, let’s get cooking early, baby! I think we just need to tell Kenny Pickett that it’s an 8 a.m. kickoff,” Brandt said regarding Pickett, choosing him as the quarterback he wants to see step up in Week Seven, according to video via NFL.com. “Just tell him that the night before, ‘Kenny, they’re doing something crazy. We’re going to play an 8 a.m. game, so just start physiologically getting ready so you can be ready at 8 a.m. so you can perform earlier, faster.’
“Please be the savior we want you to be! I want two good drives out of you, Kenny. Two good touchdown drives. That’s all I need.”
Two good touchdown drives don’t sound like all that much, yet for the Steelers offense it truly is.
The Steelers tend to start out very, very slowly offensively and then rely on Pickett making some big-time plays late in games to pick up wins. In his first 17 career starts, Pickett has five career game-winning drives/fourth-quarter comebacks. That’s not sustainable.
According to research compiled by Steelers Depot’s own Joe Cammarota, Pickett is substantially better late in games from a production standpoint compared to early in games. That seems a bit backwards, considering tight games become more difficult late as teams aren’t trying to make those game-changing mistakes.
In his first 17 career starts, according to the numbers compiled by Cammarota, Pickett has a quarterback rating of 77.3, a completion rate of 62% and averages 6.3 yards per attempt.
Those all seem relatively solid for a young quarterback. But when narrowing down his numbers to when he is trailing in the fourth quarter, Pickett’s completion percentage increases to an impressive 70.6% while also averaging 9.0 yards per attempt, and his quarterback rating is 93.7.
The Steelers need to figure out how to take what Pickett does well late in games and get him to do it throughout the course of games. Whether that’s a mental switch that needs flipped, or the playbook opened up a bit, whatever it may be, the Steelers need to figure it out.
Getting Pickett in a rhythm early is important as it opens up the offense for a number of things, from the run game to play-action passing and more. In today’s NFL, you throw to set up the run. Pickett has to start cooking early in games.
Brandt wants to see it. All of Steeler Nation wants to see it, too. That can start on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams on the road, especially with key offensive pieces like Diontae Johnson and Pat Freiermuth potentially making their return.
