The world might owe Matt Canada an apology -- at least the Steelers-centric part of the world, anyway.
Written off after last season's dismal performance of the offense, Canada came out swinging in the preseason opener Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium, a 32-25 win over the Seahawks.
There was a passing game, regardless of who was playing quarterback and wide receiver. There was a running game, regardless of who was at running back or on the offensive line. Things actually looked, well, good.
It's tough to judge sometimes watching training camp practices. After all, any good play by the offense in a training camp setting means the defense might have had a bad play. Or vice versa. And there's always the question of whether some guys are winning in certain situations because they have a good matchup -- or at least one in which they've become comfortable with. After all, when you've worked against someone for weeks on end, you get an idea of how to beat the guy opposite of you.
Saturday was a real test.
Now, let's be clear, the Seahawks are not supposed to be good this season. And much like the Steelers, they didn't play several defensive starters. In fact, they opened the game with six defensive starters -- mostly in the secondary -- on the bench.
But they had five starters in their front-7 on the field in the first quarter of this game. And the Steelers put up 14 points in that first quarter. Remember, they scored just 37 points in the opening quarter of games all of last season.
Sure, it was the preseason. Sure, it won't matter until they do it in a regular-season game. But the Steelers didn't score more than seven points in the first quarter of a game all of last season. They finished the first half of this game with 17 points. They did that once last season, scoring 17 points in a win over the Broncos.
So, we can only work off of what we're now seeing. And what we saw Saturday night was a continuation of what we've seen at training camp at Saint Vincent College, particularly in the past two weeks after a slow start by the offense.
We saw plenty of pre-snap motion. We saw quarterback movement in the pocket. We saw the Steelers using more of the field, not just throwing short passes and hoping receivers could break a tackle and turn it into something.
For example, how many times last season did we see a pass like this:
That's Mitch Trubisky getting a clean pocket on third-and-6 and hitting Gunner Olszewski over the middle for what turned out to be a 25-yard pass play. The throw was past the sticks and allowed Olszewski to create something after the catch.
All due respect to Ben Roethlisberger, the middle of the field -- particularly outside of 10 yards downfield -- just wasn't used much the past couple of seasons.
It didn't hurt that the Steelers had a running game, too. The line was getting off the ball and moving people around. Again, Seattle might not have been playing its starters on the back end of the defense, but it was playing its starting defensive line.
And they were getting moved off the ball.
"That's something we tried to put emphasis on, just having an efficient run game," left tackle Dan Moore told me. "It was everybody being on the same page, offensive line, receivers, running backs. It showed."
It did. And that running game, which produced 90 yards on 13 carries in the first half and 185 yards on 27 carries overall, came in a variety of ways.
There were the typical straight-ahead power runs. There were pitches to the backs. There was a 38-yard run by Steven Sims on a jet sweep. The quarterbacks even contributed 20 yards with their legs.
This was the offense Canada wanted to run a year ago but was incapable of doing with Roethlisberger, who was once capable of doing those things but wasn't in Year 18 of his Hall of Fame career.
It should make the Steelers much more difficult to defend in 2022.
"We're trying to get the ball on the perimeter. We're showing guys a lot of different things with the pre-snap (movement) and motion. That's kind of our game," Moore told me. "We really only got a taste of it tonight."
All that movement is designed to help the running game as much as anything.
"100 percent," Moore said. "It puts linebackers in position for us better, gives us better angles in the run game and once you show them something a few times, then you hand off that jet (sweep) and it's over."
And when the Steelers actually have Najee Harris, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and Pat Freiermuth -- who all sat out this game -- on the field as a threat?
"It's going to be electric," Moore said.
Again, it was just one preseason game, but for the critics of Canada -- and I was among them -- it was most certainly a big step in the right direction.
• Speaking of electric, George Pickens.
It's becoming a running joke at training camp that reporters have used every superlative in the book to describe the rookie second-round draft pick.
Fans who have not been to training camp got a good look why Saturday night.
Pickens finished with three catches for 43 yards, including catching this 26-yard touchdown pass from Mason Rudolph in the first quarter.
It was a good throw from Rudolph right to the back pylon. It was a good catch on the other end by Pickens.
For him, it was just another ho-hum play. He didn't need to jump, contort his body or do any of the other amazing things we've seen at Saint Vincent College. All he did was create some subtle separation between himself and the defensive back -- fellow rookie Coby Bryant -- and find a way to drag both feet in the back corner of the end zone.
"Just off the adjustment of my body. I saw how I landed, and I figured that my feet went dead, and I made the catch," Pickens said.
Piece of cake.
"This is what I expect," Pickens said. "That’s what I was telling people at the (NFL Scouting) Combine, the type of player I am. The type of dude I am. Instead of going off analytics, I wanted to show people that I could really play."
• Anthony Miller, who has looked good in camp, had his right arm immobilized Saturday in a sling. Rookie Calvin Austin is dealing with a foot injury. Both injuries are new and weren't apparent when the team last practiced on Thursday.
And as mentioned, Johnson and Claypool didn't play in this game.
But the Steelers wide receivers made plays.
Olszewski was an afterthought in the Patriots passing attack, which really didn't use him much as a receiver despite being deficient at the position the past few years. In 37 career games with New England, he had nine catches.
Because of the guys being held out of this game, Olszewski started at wide receiver with Pickens and Sims.
Olszewski finished with three catches for a team-high 47 yards and a score, a 24-yard pass from Trubisky on which he was wide open, or, as he told me after the game "butt-(expletive) naked."
This is a deep and talented receiving group. But if injuries to Miller and Austin are serious -- we'll see -- it could open up some spots in that group.
And Sims, Miles Boykin and Tyler Vaughns did themselves some favors.
• All three quarterbacks acquitted themselves well in this game. They delivered the ball mostly on time. They moved well in the pocket.
Essentially, much like everything else, it's been a continuation of what we've seen at training camp.
Trubisky and Pickett are certainly more mobile than Rudolph, but all three are NFL quarterbacks.
Rudolph did have a pass that should have been intercepted in the second quarter in what was a bad decision as he forced a pass to Connor Heyward. But it wasn't.
And while Pickett didn't make any mistakes, he also was largely pretty cautious. Before his game-winning 24-yard touchdown pass to Vaughns -- a play on which Vaughns took a short out and turned it upfield to outrace the defense to the end zone -- Pickett had 12 completions for 71 yards, an average of 5.9 yards per completion.
Again, Pickett moved the team. And I'm not trying to throw a wet blanket on his night. He was 13 of 15 for 95 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It was a good start.
But I don't think it was enough to change the pecking order in the quarterback room. It's still Trubisky, Rudolph and Pickett there in my eyes.
• Benny Snell sat this one out with a knee injury suffered at Wednesday's practice.
So, essentially, the Steelers were working with their third, fourth and fifth running backs -- at least on the depth chart -- in Anthony McFarland, Jaylen Warren, Master Teague and Mataeo Durant.
McFarland looks like he finally gets what he needs to be successful in the NFL. He's more decisive in his running, getting upfield quickly. And Warren and Teague are no-nonsense runners, as well.
The group should make those who felt this team needs to upgrade the backup running back position feel a little more at ease.
• The Steelers sat Cam Heyward, Tyson Alualu and Larry Ogunjobi, but Mike Tomlin wasn't happy about his team's run defense.
The Steelers allowed 26 carries for 159 yards.
"The standard is the standard and we were below the line," Tomlin said. "We've got to get better there."
Having T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith in there wouldn't hurt, either.
Really, the only front-seven players who appeared in this game were Myles Jack and Devin Bush.
We'll see how things look next week when those guys play at Jacksonville in preseason game No. 2.
• Connor Heyward is going to be a matchup issue for opposing teams. And the quarterbacks -- all the quarterbacks -- seem to like him.
But the biggest thing he did in this game was make two special-teams tackles. And this was in a game in which he had two receptions for 24 yards and also caught a two-point conversion.
Boykin also had two tackles on special teams, which bodes well for him.
If you're not a starter, you'd better make plays on special teams.
"It was good to see him making some coverage unit plays," Tomlin conceded regarding Heyward. "You've always got questions about the white shirts. That's what we refer to offensive football players as in the special-teams game, and I think he had a couple of kickoff tackles which is good for him and for us."
• Mark Robinson had some tough moments, but the rookie linebacker also had a really big one late in the game when he hit Drew Lock from behind for a sack that forced a fumble late in the game that the Steelers recovered.
But as mentioned, especially for Robinson, special teams play is critical. And special teams coach Danny Smith is demanding.
"He's a hard man to please," Robinson said.
• The Steelers didn't use Chris Boswell or Pressley Harvin in this game, allowing Nick Sciba and Cameron Nizialek to handle the kicking and punting duties.
That will change in the next two games. The team wanted to do right by both of those players and allow them to put some things on tape that might help them get picked up by other teams once they're released.
• All in all, this was a good start to the preseason. Despite backup safety Karl Joseph being on crutches after the game after leaving early, there were no other major injuries. And the offense, which had a tough start to practices the opening week of training camp, moved the ball pretty consistently.
The defense? Its first major test will come next weekend in Jacksonville.