The Pittsburgh Steelers promoted Matt Canada to be the team's offensive coordinator after the 2020 season. He was expected to bring in a dynamic offensive scheme with plenty of motion and aggressive play-calling. Fans of the organization have been very underwhelmed by the performance of the offense since Canada took the lead. The frustration continued after the 23-20 win against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 of the 2022 regular season. The offense was only responsible for 16 points and had just 267 yards of total offense. The biggest concern was the rushing attack as the team's running backs only carried the ball 13 times for 29 yards.
Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator, Matt Canada | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Canada spoke to local reporters on Thursday afternoon before practice and when asked about the run game, actually came out and said that he likes some of the two-yard gains they got last Sunday against the Bengals:
"Obviously, we like some of those two-yard gains, three and four-yard gains," Canada said when asked about improving the run game.
He also said that in order to get better at running the football, he needs to call designed run plays more often.
He was complimentary of the offense and his system, stating that the group executed the game plan against Cincinnati, constantly giving the offense a chance when it was third down, but the biggest issue was that they only converted 27% of the time:
"Whatever you want to say, we got it to third and manageable which we wanted to do and we didn't have enough of a high percentage there."
He brought up the Steelers run game once more, admitting that it needs to happen more often:
"Obviously, we need to run it more, run it better, make two yards, four yards and four yards, six yards, but bottom line is we need to have more opportunities."
Pittsburgh Steelers running back, Najee Harris (#22) looks on during training camp at Saint Vincent College in July 2022. | Twitter: @JSKO_PHOTO
He took some blame for the poor performance on offense, but said everyone involved needs to be more effective:
"We got to continue to get better, I have to get better, but I think we will continue to have those chances and if we hit those [third down conversions], it's a different feel, different day. We have to execute those plays so I'm not hiding from that, but we have to just be better."
Canada has rarely utilized the middle of the field since he became the offensive coordinator and when he was asked on Thursday about staying near the sidelines in the passing game, he ignored the question and talked about third down success rate:
"I appreciate your question, but ultimately that's where we're at and where we need to be better" (in regards to third down success).
Steelers OC Matt Canada takes a question about why the offense didn’t use the middle of the field in the season opener as an opportunity to say the offense stunk on 3rd downs pic.twitter.com/7Y1dqnkpC1
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) September 15, 2022
Canada is definitely on the hot seat and it will continue to get warmer if the offense does not perform well. They won't be a bunch to score 30 points a game, but with the strong defense to back them up, short third down conversions and not being satisfied with "two-yard runs" aren't hard things to ask for. It is rather concerning if Canada is up in the press box, giving high fives because of a short run on first down.
What are your thoughts on Canada's interesting comments on Thursday about the Steelers offense? Let us know in the comments below!
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