The offense only managed 10 points in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 24-10 loss to the lowly Arizona Cardinals, and seven of those points came on a garbage-time touchdown and extra point. The offense was a mess, like it’s been for much of the season. Because of that, Ryan Clark is absolving offensive coordinator Matt Canada of blame.
“Welp!! Matt Canada. You’re off the hook. My bad,” Clark tweeted during Pittsburgh’s loss today.
The Steelers offense did have to deal with the loss of QB Kenny Pickett in the second quarter, but the team wasn’t doing a whole lot well offensively before Pickett went down. While they were on the verge of a scoring drive, they couldn’t punch it in on 4th and goal from the 1 the play after Pickett left, so it’s not as if his presence there could’ve changed much. It was just an ugly day from an execution standpoint, with multiple bad snaps from C Mason Cole costing the Steelers.
Clark had been pointed in his criticism for Canada, calling it “addition by subtraction” after the Steelers fired him ahead of their Week 12 matchup. But the offense didn’t look all that different today than it did when Canada was running the show. The Steelers did outgain Arizona, and outgaining their opponents was something that didn’t happen with Canada at the helm, but Pittsburgh benefitted from a 75-yard drive with the game essentially already decided.
All around, it was just a bad game by the Steelers. The offense wasn’t good, the defense wasn’t good, special teams weren’t good. They just got completely outclassed by the Cardinals, and that can’t happen. It starts at the top with head coach Mike Tomlin when these games occur, because the Steelers are too talented to look as poor as they did against a team that’s struggled as much as Arizona has this season.
The offense just has to execute better and can’t have the number of mistakes the unit had today. The Steelers had too many instances of illegal-formation penalties, guys not being ready to get on the field, and just other issues pre-snap. That stuff is on the coaching staff, and it’s probably why Clark is now letting Canada off the hook.
Top to bottom, things were bad for the Steelers today, and they need to figure it out ahead of their matchup on Thursday with the New England Patriots. They can’t afford to look as bad as they did today this season, or ever again.
