The offense for the Pittsburgh Steelers has been rather dreadful through the first four weeks of the season. Of the first few performances of the year, none was worse than the showing the Steelers had on Sunday inside NRG Stadium against the Houston Texans.
In Week Four, the Steelers generated just 225 yards of total offense — they had 53 yards at halftime — were “slow” to warm up to the physical component of the game and generally couldn’t generate much of anything offensively. That had head coach Mike Tomlin rather upset following the 30-6 blowout loss on the road, stating that “Hell yeah we gotta make some changes” regarding the offense.
Turns out, those changes have to do with the physical preparation and mentality for the Steelers, rather than changes to the offensive coaching staff, specifically offensive coordinator Matt Canada.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday during his weekly press conference, Tomlin stated that the offensive coaching is “not good enough” for the Steelers right now, but followed up shortly after stating that he has no thoughts of making changes “at this juncture.”
“Man, not good enough. Not good enough. Whenever we don’t play well, forget win or lose, whenever we don’t play well, as a coach you start there,” Tomlin said to reporters Tuesday, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. That’s where we always start, and particular in the early portions of the season. …There’s a get-better component of this process, particularly in the early portions of the year, and it has a lot to do with coach decision making.
“… I’m always looking at things like [coaching], but as far as the result of our last game, certainly.”
The offensive coaching, decision making, and quite honestly, the preparation leading up to the Week Four match with the Texans was not good enough in any way, shape or form. Of course, we are not there inside the meeting rooms during preparation, but right away on Sunday you could tell that the Steelers were ill-equipped to deal with Houston’s defense.
Second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett threw an interception on the first drive of the game that the Texans and former Steelers cornerback Steven Nelson said they knew was coming based on the formation, and the Steelers had no real answers for the Texans’ physicality.
Tomlin promised changes offensively, which led to many being hopeful that a change with the play caller would occur. That’s not happening. Instead, the Steelers are looking at how they prepare on the practice field and in the meeting rooms, putting the pads on this week to be more physical against the Ravens.
Will that physical element help the Steelers offense look like a modern NFL attack, one that can consistently move the football? Time will tell. They ran the football well on Sunday against the Texans but then largely abandoned it after some negative plays leading up to the mind-numbing 4th-and-1 call that had center Mason Cole rather furious after the play and after the game.
Nothing has been good enough for the Steelers regarding the offensive side of the football, from the coaching to the execution, period. We’ll see if that changes in Week Five against the Baltimore Ravens.
