Steelers' Kenny Pickett Insinuates Matt Canada-led Offense Seriously Failed In Game-Planning For Strong Browns' Defense

The Pittsburgh Steelers left Week 11 with an embarrassing loss to a Cleveland Browns team led by Dorian Thompson-Robinson. After a game like that, almost everyone is to blame, as the contest was a collective team failure from start to finish. Matt Canada and Kenny Pickett will be in the middle of the blame game for the week. In his postgame press conference, Pickett took accountability for his poor play, and detailed exactly why the Steelers failed to move the ball throughout the game. 

Steelers Were Fooled All Game Long

Pickett broke down a few problems, with the main ones being miscommunications with Diontae Johnson throughout the game, which led to some poorly thrown balls where no Steeler was even close to where the ball landed. In the end, it came down to something the Steelers refuse to do: adjusting.

"The plan was they play a lot of man-to-man; they didn't play a lot of man-to-man today. They threw a lot of zone looks at us, different zone looks. We were expecting them to come in and play man. We'll be able to adjust better."

Jim Schwartz has been known to be a great defensive coordinator, and he has managed to turn a talented Browns' defense around in 2023. That defense has been top five in nearly every category all season long. Pickett and Mike Tomlin kept giving them credit all game long as well. Schwartz definitely had a great day running his defense, but he exposed a key flaw in the way the Steelers run things. 

The Browns ran zone defense all game to try and confuse Pickett, and it worked. As opposed to adjusting accordingly, the Steelers did not change a thing. The zone defense was clearly throwing Pickett and Johnson off on their option routes, yet they kept going to that, leading to terrible play after terrible play. Their gameplan did not change at all, and it led to their downfall. 

Steelers Show Their Refusal To Change

Not only did they fail to adjust for the Browns' sudden change, but they failed to ride the hot hand. Jaylen Warren has been a human bowling ball, and he had the Steelers' lone touchdown on a 74-yard run. Warren had over 140 yards on 12 touches, yet they kept ignoring him in favor of a game plan that even the common fan could decipher and figure out. 

This isn't even the first time that Pickett has complained about the gameplan after a loss, as the Week 1 nightmare left Pickett confused on why they refused to run the ball throughout the game. While Pickett has not been nearly as good as Steeler Nation has hoped, there has to be questions on how much of a negative effect Canada has had on his development. It's not a good sign when your quarterback and captain keep subtly complaining about the coaching despite having a winning record. 

Despite the Steelers being 6-4, this has been a problem since long before this game. The Steelers have been skating by with a terrible offense all season long, with Pickett dropping dimes to end nearly every win. Offense before the second half has been rare for the Steelers, and the lack of adjustments have finally caught up to the organization. Until they finally make the decisions that they don't want to make, the Steelers offense will continue to sputter. They will continue to rely on Pickett having elite 4th-quarter drives and the defense bailing them out. 

What do you think about Pickett's post-game comments, his struggles, and the Browns' defense exposing as many organizational flaws as possible? Let us know in the comments.

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