The Pittsburgh Steelers have been guided by one overarching philosophy for over a century: stay the course. Until that course runs you off a cliff, see it through, because as often as not, it’s going to get better once you work through it all.
Sometimes you win that battle, sometimes you lose. Head coach Mike Tomlin finally acknowledged one recent key loss when he fired former offensive coordinator Matt Canada last week. Five days later, the Steelers put up 400-plus yards of offense for the first time in three years.
But one thing they didn’t do was put up the points that correspond with that production. They still won, but by just six, ending with a 16-10 margin. The qualifier in that statistic is the would-be touchdown by WR Diontae Johnson earlier in the game that was ruled incomplete by an official, but the points on the board at the end of the day are the points on the board. So how do they get that?
“More of the same”, Tomlin told reporters yesterday during his weekly press conference, via the team’s website, when essentially asked that precise question. “More work, more execution. We’ve got a week to do something about it. I’m excited about getting the group in tomorrow and working”.
Given how the past two-and-a-half years have gone on the offensive side of the ball, “more of the same” might sound like a threat to Steelers fans. But, of course, what is the same has changed in the past week. What hasn’t changed is the overarching philosophy: stay the course.
Canada isn’t here anymore, but Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan are still coaching up roughly the same playbook with perhaps the most minor of alterations. It’s all about how you put it together during the week and how you deploy it on Sundays. Tomlin said “more of the same” twice during his press conference about how the offense continues to improve. More work, more execution. More, but better.
And he did allow himself one excuse, so to speak, for the offense. That was field position. Four times during the game the Steelers started inside the 25 while giving the Cincinnati Bengals multiple short fields to work with. “I talked about the field positioning component last week being a factor and that had nothing to do with the offense”, he said, somewhat testily.
Even though all of the personnel is the same, there are many ways in which this is a new offense. For one thing, it looks like one. At least, it’s been a while since we’ve seen the passing game operate like this, even if there are still some things to iron out.
Can they finally put the finishing touches on what they have to work with and field a competitive offense every week? That goes beyond coaching. The players still have to get on the same page at times, which has been an issue in recent weeks.
