The Pittsburgh Steelers rode into the 2023 season on a wave of confidence. They significant improvements in all phases of the game in the second half of the 2022 season, partially because of their new young quarterback Kenny Pickett. As Pickett entered his second season, his first full season as a starter (and after what appeared to be an excellent offseason and preseason), it seemed like they would be a new team. Unfortunately, they looked like they were back at their worst from 2022. They got destroyed by the San Francisco 49ers 30-7 at home in Pittsburgh on Sunday. This has many people back pointing the finger at their favorite target, Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada. But is that blame justified?
-544x306.jpg "Pittsburgh Steelers Matt Canada")
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Pittsburgh Steelers Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada benefited from a late-season offensive turnaround.
During the Week 1 game against the 49ers, the Steelers offense looked anemic. They just could not get anything going, and that caused defensive fatigue since they couldn't seem to get off the field. Pickett was 31/46 for only 232 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
Former NFL Player And Current Analyst Advises The Steelers
Former NFL offensive lineman Brian Baldinger now works for NFL Network as an analyst. He recently appeared on an episode of The Cook and Joe Show on 93.7 The Fan. During the show, he was asked about the Steelers' performance against the 49ers, specifically how he saw Canada's play-calling.
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NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger
The host Joe Starkey mentioned during his postgame press conference that he felt the offensive line was solid at pass protection. While he did express his frustration with the overall lack of execution. Starkey noted that Pro Football Focus heavily disagreed with that statement and named Dan Moore Jr. the lowest-rated tackle in the league with a career-worst nine pressures. PFF scored his pass-blocking 22.8 and his overall grade was 33.7. Baldinger said he felt that Tomlin was way off with the statement about the offensive line.
"They had six straight three and outs, so they weren't on the field long enough to ever sustain any offense. When your quarterback gets sacked five times and he's hit nine times, and he was chased like he was chased, and didn't trust his protection to a certain point. Mike shouldn't be happy with the overall performance, they couldn't run the ball and the quarterback missed throws."
He goes on to point out that the Steelers offense averaged less than 4 yards a play and that shortage falls on the quarterback. He said they were not good on third downs and if you can't complete any third down throws, then you can't win a game. He also noted that Pickett wasn't as crisp and accurate as he was preseason. He was missing receivers and under or over-throwing the ball more than is acceptable.
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Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett is the centerpiece for their 2023 campaign.
Ron Cook added that the Steelers offense, in the 36 games under Canada, is the only team in the league that has not eclipsed the 400-yard mark even once. They also only scored more than 20 points in regulation a meager seven times, which means every other game they scored less than 20 points. He asked Baldinger from his perspective what decision do the Steelers need to make here or should they have already made one? Cook concluded by asking Baldinger if Canada is even a competent NFL offensive coordinator.
"I wanted to really see what I thought was going to be an improved roster for Matt. You got Ben [Roethlisberger] at the end of his career, you got a rookie, you got a stopgap quarterback in [Mitch] Trubisky. I could make all the excuses for any coordinator when you're going through all of that, including an offensive line that wasn't very good. What offense should you run when you have these deficiencies? I defended that," stated Baldinger.
However, he said that in Week 1, they did not look like an improved roster. The apparent upgrades were not showing. Baldinger said everyone keeps saying that lots of teams played poorly in Week 1, but who cares about other teams? We are concerned with what the Steelers are doing and based on that one performance, it isn't good. Despite all of the poor gameplay, he does feel there was enough blame to go around and that Canada should get a shot in Week 2. But he had a suggestion for the organization if they still look to be lacking.
"He's under the microscope. If things don't improve Monday night against Cleveland, then you got to put him on the hot seat. You just do. That's just how it works. Somebody's got to be a fall guy when things aren't working and things weren't working Week 1," advised Baldinger.
Do you agree with Baldinger that Week 2 is kind of a "put up or shut up" week for Canada? Click to comment below.
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