The first week after the Pittsburgh Steelers fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada, the team had its best offensive outing of the year. They didn’t score many points, which is most important, but they did gain 421 yards of total offense to surpass the 400-yard mark for the first time in years.
Interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner was available to the media for coordinator availability on Thursdays and talked about what all went into the preparation for last week’s game and how it was such a success.
“I’ve got to say, the offensive staff was incredible,” Faulkner said via transcripts provided by the team. “Those guys were awesome. I could say them by name. You know who they are. They were awesome. I’m talking about everybody in that room. Everybody put their hand in the pile. Everybody had something to do with the process of preparation for that game. I’m just really proud of that. That was awesome. It was fun.”
Faulkner had aspirations to become an offensive coordinator someday but did not expect that day to come right now. It seems that he is enjoying the new responsibilities and by all accounts he is doing a great job getting everybody on the same page, including play caller and QB Coach Mike Sullivan.
Faulkner was asked about the division of labor in terms of having a passing game coordinator and a running game coordinator and how that dynamic works in Pittsburgh.
“The way that we go about our business is naturally going to kind of be the case. When you really want to start to get detailed and you’re meeting in small groups, you may have the o-line and tight ends and running backs together and you may have the receivers and quarterbacks together…There’s a coordination effort going fluidly through all positions without the title anyway,” Faulkner said. “So that’s just how it has to kind of happen for the whole group to be on the same page.”
Faulkner, of course, didn’t disclose everything about the division of labor among the coaches but did go into a bit more detail on OL coach Pat Meyer.
“If we’re going to talk run game, I’ve got to send a shout out to Pat Meyer, man,” he said. “Pat Meyer is the real deal, and not only technically, but schematically. He’s awesome. A lot of what you see in that regard is the coaching job that he’s doing with the o-line.”
The offensive line has followed a similar trajectory each of the last two seasons. It starts out rough but comes together as a unit and finishes the season strong. Over the last month, since rookie Broderick Jones became the starting right tackle, the Steelers have gone for over 100 yards rushing in four straight games.
