In a sport branded as the ultimate team game, nobody fails independently any more than anybody succeeds independently. The failure of the Matt Canada offense was a collective failure, and while the offensive coordinator may be gone, the remainder of the coaches takes that failure onto themselves as co-authors.
Such is the case for running backs coach Eddie Faulkner, who is the acting Pittsburgh Steelers’ interim offensive coordinator. While he understands the gravity of the moment and what it could mean professionally for him, he also recognizes how it got to this point.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet”, he told reporters yesterday, via transcript provided by the team, because “when you sit back and see all that goes on and all that’s being said about him in the offense – and I’m speaking for the offense, the staff – we all felt that and we’re all part of that. Nobody is absolving themselves from anything that has happened in that regard. We feel like we let him down”.
While the bigger issues in the offense in recent weeks have been firmly rooted in the passing game, Faulkner’s running game was just as big of a problem for most of the season. Right now, RBs Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris are the catalysts for the unit, but now he’s responsible for not only keeping that going but getting the passing game corrected as well.
The same conversations over culpability are taking place in the locker room. The players hold themselves accountable for their failure to execute the offense, even if it had its clear shortcomings. They know that had they done their own jobs better, the in-season firing likely does not happen, even if an eventually change felt inevitable.
There is much unlearning to be done, however, about how a coaching staff functions. Much like the erosion of the auteur theory, we ought to understand that an offensive coordinator, like a director, is not the sole driving, creative force behind his charge.
Faulkner is responsible for the running backs, and works with Pat Meyer, who is in charge of the offensive line, on the run game. Mike Sullivan, who will take over play-calling duties, has QB Kenny Pickett under his jurisdiction.
All of them have spent the entire year discussing and planning this offense together. They all share some level of responsibility for what the finished product has looked like—as do the players. The director may get his name on the poster, but the work of so many others went into the film before it rolled out into theaters.
As one of the producers on the project, Faulkner understands that he and the other assistant coaches had a hand in making the mess he’s now tasked with cleaning up. Perhaps he has some ideas he is now more empowered to employ about how to do things differently, but I believe him when he says that nobody in that building is absolving themselves of blame, and certainly not pretending that Canada’s firing is going to fix anything by itself.
