Despite impressive debut, Matt Canada’s Steelers offense gets roasted

Former NFL quarterback J.T. O’Sullivan rips Matt Canada’s “revamped” Pittsburgh Steelers offense to shreds after its successful, but underwhelming preseason debut.

Old habits die hard for much-maligned Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

Despite beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27-17 in their first preseason game of the summer, former NFL quarterback J.T. O’ Sullivan was not impressed by Canada’s play-calling at all. All offseason long, we have heard how creative and explosive the Steelers’ offense will be this season. It may have been the first preseason game, but it was more of the same dinks and dunks.

Rather than trying something new, Canada went back to his old ways of calling short-game passing concepts like Hank and Spacing to get easy completions, as opposed to letting it rip a bit.

O’Sullivan totally harpooned the play-calling he saw out of Canada from this preseason game.

"“So, Hank and Spacing to get us going? That’s what we’re doing, Steelers? I personally would struggle in an environment like this. Now, I’m sure Mike Tomlin and Matt Canada could care less what I would do. But even as a fan of football, let me just say, there is so much better stuff than that … those two concepts shouldn’t even be in playbooks anymore. There’s just so much better stuff, yet we still see it every year, but for this team, this organization, I think they do it more than others. It is two middle fingers to the drop-back passing evolution to what football is and what it should be now. It’s comedy and pain at the same time.”"

Here is his analysis of Kenny Pickett’s first preseason game of the summer on The QB School.

It is so beyond critical for Pickett to make the jump in his second NFL season out of nearby Pitt.

Matt Canada’s Pittsburgh Steelers looks like more of the same in preseason

Given how top-heavy the AFC is, the Steelers have no choice but to roll the dice offensively if they want to keep pace with the likes of the Buffalo Bills, the Cincinnati Bengals and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs atop of it. Defense may be a year-to-year proposition, but no football culture sustains excellence on that side of the football quite like the Steelers do.

However, O’Sullivan definitely has a point in his criticism of the Steelers offense. With Mike Tomlin being a defensive-minded head coach, having a strong offensive identity oftentimes escapes this AFC North franchise. Ben Roethlisberger and Bruce Arians at their peak covered a lot of that up, but with neither of them in the building anymore, this is the Steelers offense as we know it now.

Ultimately, this team will sink or swim based on the rapport Pickett has with Canada. If giving Pickett easy completions breeds confidence in him later on down the road, then Canada could look like a genius. Conversely, if the Steelers go 9-8 and miss the AFC playoffs again, someone will be labeled a scapegoat. It will not be Tomlin because he’s untouchable, so Canada will be out of there.

Let’s hope that the Steelers offense looks a bit more complex in their second preseason game.