The Pittsburgh Steelers have spent most of the 2023 season struggling to get their offense on track despite boasting a slew of talent. After making a historic move by firing Matt Canada in-season, the offensive production finally seemed to be moving forward, but one mildly successful outing in Week 12 hardly makes for a consistent NFL team. As Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Ray Fittipaldo sees it, the 2023 Steelers aren't just hard to watch; they are incapable of running a competent NFL offense.
Matt Freed / Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett has shown a second just-okay season and the questions about him are still unanswered
Steelers Offense Is Fundamentally Bad
For a head coach who uses phrases like 'the standard is the standard', the 2023 campaign has hardly lived up to Mike Tomlin's expectations. The belief in Pittsburgh during the Tomlin era has been that even if things seemed out of control from the outside, within the locker room, they were functioning. The more of this 2023 team everyone all sees, the harder it is to believe.
Fittipaldo was on The Cook & Joe Show on 93.7 The Fan on Friday, and the awful play that Pittsburgh fans had to watch against the New England Patriots in Week 14 was still fresh on his mind. The Steelers beat writer was talking about two plays in the fourth quarter that the Steelers ran against the Patriots and how ineffective they were on a foundational level. It isn't just that the Steelers are struggling; from what Fittipaldo has observed, this is a core problem.
"Run a pick play that 95% of the teams in the NFL have in their playbook to get somebody open, you know? You have to be able to execute simple NFL plays, and they're just not able to do that."
What Fittipaldo was referring to was when the Steelers had a 3rd and 2 at their own 49-yard line with 2:05 left in the game, and despite having one of the more reliable kickers in the league, Chris Boswell, waiting on the sidelines, Pittsburgh's play selection was baffling. The majority of the teams in the NFL would have found some way to at least make a decent attempt at a first down, knowing that you were only three points down in a game you needed to win. Instead, Mitch Trubisky threw two long passes, one to George Pickens and the other to Diontae Johnson, and both fell incomplete.
After expecting uninspired play-calling from Canada, seeing the tone-deaf response to a high-pressure situation at the end of the game was surprising and disappointing. Unfortunately, things don't seem to be looking up for the 2023 Steelers as the season enters the final stretch.
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Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin has a storied career but his stubborn qualities may have held him back
Steelers Still Have Time, But Can They Truly Change?
It's one thing for a team to battle back from adversity to grasp a winning record in the final week, ensuring a moral victory to an otherwise lost season. The Steelers are not any other team, though, and the expectation coming into 2023 was to put the non-losing years behind them and finally feel again what a playoff win is like.
A stunning 2023 preseason set Steelers fans up for a nasty fall, as the regular season results were anything but the near-perfect showing that Kenny Pickett and the offense gave the exhibition crowds. At 7-6, the Steelers are in a position to fight for a postseason spot, but for some reason, it feels like a distant dream rather than a realistic goal. Under Tomlin, there have been successes, but lately, it has felt like every season comes down to keeping that non-losing factoid alive and well.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's final season was bittersweet but full of appreciation
After playoff losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns that their entire fan base would all like to forget, the prospect of limping into the postseason with an injured Pickett, a subpar offensive line, no middle linebackers, and a head coach who is nearing the end of this era isn't an attractive notion. There is too much pride for the Steelers to be content with a drubbing on national television to conclude their seasons, but at this point in 2023, can they really strive for anything above that?
Tomlin can possibly find some way to reenergize this squad and have a fiery finish to the year, but that would require a massive turnaround in attitude and production within the team. Even the wins have felt heavy in 2023, and with Weeks 13 and 14 effectively wiping away the joy from Week 12, the expectations have to be adjusted. Maybe what is needed is for this to be like Ben Roethlisberger's final season, and instead of expecting too much, everyone should enjoy the legend while we have him. It's not another trophy, but it's something.
Are the Steelers capable of winning a playoff game in 2023?
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