It’s no secret that the offensive scheme and the overall execution in the Steel City from the Pittsburgh Steelers has been largely a disaster.
But the showings in a four-day stretch against the 2-10 Arizona Cardinals and the 2-10 New England Patriots has many in the media riled up once again when it comes to the Steelers’ offense being, well offensive.
For NBC Sports’ Chris Simms, the Steelers’ scheme drew his ire Wednesday on the latest episode of his podcast Chris Simms Unbuttoned.
Simms stated that the Steelers’ offensive scheme — which remains the same it was under former offensive coordinator Matt Canada — is the worst in football, period. He also had some choice words for the route concepts and designs in Pittsburgh, too.
“It is the worst. The worst. …It’s just that I don’t really know what the Steelers’ offense is trying to accomplish more times than not. Talk about identity, right? I don’t know what it is. I don’t ever see tying plays together,” Simms said, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “I don’t ever see, ‘oh, they’re doing this to set up this later on in the football game.’ The pass concepts couldn’t be more f**king basic and bland. The run game ain’t all that creative either.
“The o-line is solid. I think it’s going in the right direction, but not so great that it can just road grade you and dominate that way.”
There’s nothing pretty about the Steelers offensively at this point. Though the run game has improved over the last two months, moving into the top 15 in the NFL at 112.8 yards per game on the ground, the offense still isn’t scoring many points and is making life rather difficult when it comes to winning games.
It doesn’t matter who is under center, either.
Last week, Simms believed that veteran backup Mitch Trubisky might bring more of a playmaking aspect to the table for the Steelers in place of the injured Kenny Pickett. He didn’t against the Patriots. He might moving forward but in his first start this season against the Patriots there was no playmaking aspect he brought, outside of a 15-yard scramble on the first play from scrimmage.
He takes too many risks with the football, too, and when the scheme is very bland and the route concepts rather basic for this level of the game, that’s going to lead to turnovers, which happened last Thursday night.
The offensive issues weren’t just going to disappear with Canada fired. Interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner and interim play caller Mike Sullivan are in a tough spot. There aren’t many changes or additions to the playbook that they can make at this point in the season. The offensive system is what it is at this point, so Faulkner and Sullivan have to make do the best they can.
It worked for one week in a win over the Bengals. The last few weeks though, it’s been rather ugly. It might be that way the rest of the season, too, as the schedule gets even harder.
