MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- "No chance."
In the two ticks it took for Kenny Pickett's pass to travel toward George Pickens, I had the time to utter those two words to no one in particular in Hard Rock Stadium's press box, long enough to complete the thought.
Long enough, also, to be really wrong:
Watch it again. And again.
Watch how Pickett rainbows the ball into a space only Pickens can reach. How Miami's Noah Igbinoghene paws Pickens from the snap to the conclusion, never conceding an inch of space. How Pickens contorts through the air as if borrowing it for leverage the way a swimmer would with water. And maybe most impressive, how, upon landing his left foot, he manages to pounds the front of his right foot into the ground a split-second before his left hand braces his fall out of bounds.
That's not good, my friends. That's not even great. That's elite.
That's special.
I asked the kid, who I've gotten to know a bit on and off the field, if he'd preferred Pickett throwing that ball away from him that way.
"I know what you're saying," he'd reply before adding, with a slight shake of the head, "but for me, you can throw it anywhere."
Yeah, seems that way. Through seven games of his rookie NFL season, he's made 20 catches on 34 targets, and most of those that couldn't connect were uncatchable. On those catches, he's averaged 13.9 yards for a total of 277.
On this day, he'd go 6 for 6 for 61 yards, with these being the other five:
The Steelers lost this game to the Dolphins, 16-10. They're 2-5 and back in the AFC North basement after a brief respite the previous week against Tom Brady and the Buccaneers. Their offense is the league's fourth-worst in yards per game at 298.6, second-worst in points per game at 15.3.
And that extraordinary talent wasn't targeted in the second half of this airtight affair, when one big play looked to be all it'd take for either side, until a 9-yard completion with 5:43 left in the fourth quarter. After that beautiful touchdown, with 1:55 left in the first half, this offense went through five full series -- all ending in a punt, by the way -- and 27 total snaps without once involving him in any way, shape or form.
Fire this coordinator.
Not after the season. Not in the bye week. Not five freaking minutes from now.
____________________
No, I'm not getting into blame-ranking for what all went awry for this game that, after a rough start, wound up feeling oh-so-winnable. Whoever wants to point to those four dropped potential picks by the defense, not least of whom was Tomlin emphatically, man, go nuts. Same for Pickett and his three picks, two of which were terrible. Or the two late penalties that stunted the final drive before that final pick. Or Najee Harris' bizarre, failed leap on a fourth-and-1 that required nothing more than being a 235-pound running back.
Being blunt, I'm a bit beaten down by the blow-by-blow anymore, if only because, generally speaking, when a team's got this many things backfiring, the most brutal assessment -- that it's just a bad team right now -- tends to be most accurate.
This is a bad team right now.
This is a bad offense right now.
But I've got something to say here that I'm betting won't be too popular: Both could be a bunch better. Also right now.
Don't dare let Matt Canada off any figurative hook by delving too much into week-by-week minutiae. That's just noise. That's a distraction. And his tenure doesn't deserve it.
Since taking over in 2021, he's handcuffed Ben Roethlisberger, for which he was mostly given a pass since Ben was 38 and on his last leg. He then had all summer to work with a quarterback in Mitch Trubisky who'd appeared to be a better fit for whatever constitutes a Canada offense, and Mitch was benched within a month. And he now has Pickett, the organization's own obvious choice to be Ben's real successor, getting similar results from the same uninspired, unimaginative, even un-changing schemes.
Come on, let's do this in unison ...
First down: Najee for 2 yards. To the right side. Every time.
Second down: Something that only Canada could think constitutes a surprise, but, in reality, is yet another inside shovel pass to Zach Gentry, yet another end-around to Chase Claypool, or yet another jet sweep by yet another not-fast-enough guy who doesn't find even one of the several openings that are supposed to become available.
To repeat for dramatic effect: INSIDE SHOVEL PASS TO GENTRY. FOURTH QUARTER. GAME ON THE LINE. PICKENS BORED OUT OF HIS SKULL. TIME TO GET GENTRY GOING, YOU GUYS.
Third down: Pass. Sideways. Or to Diontae Johnson but always at the sideline. But leave the middle of the field untouched, even for routing/decoy effect, because ... there are land mines there?
Fourth down: Pressley Harvin shank!
It's embarrassing. All of it. Or at least it should be.
Everyone on the outside sees it. And infinitely more important, everyone on the inside does, too. I've heard nonstop for more than a month now, from current and former players alike, that Canada's offense is so basic, so elementary that opponents' coaches have to be laughing at them. One of those former players called the failure to utilize play-action or even different looks "a (freaking) joke." Another told me he couldn't recall ever seeing someone at an NFL coordinator's post who'd been so visibly in over his head.
But hey, no need to bother with off-the-record comments from past players when Claypool stood tall in the locker room on this night, after most of the place had cleared, and said the quiet parts out loud.
On whether the offense is getting close: "I mean, I feel like I've heard that every week, you know? How close are we? I think it's too late in the season to be close to anything. I think if we're close, we have to get there next week."
On the need for a young, more mistake-prone offense to chase bigger chunks of yardage: "It's a little harder to score when it's, like, a 10-15 play drive, because everything has to go right. If you're nickel-and-diming, you get 5 yards a play, which is fine for time of possession, but sometimes we just want to go score now."
On how those chunks could happen: "I just think we need more go balls. Like, damn, not enough go balls. We've got playmakers. I haven't had a go ball all year. George needs more, 'Tae needs more. I'm not saying that's on the playcalling, I'm just saying we need to try to find a way to scheme it up."
Ha! And who, pray tell, might be singularly in charge of such a thing?
This stuff's everywhere now. Canada's lost these players. And it's way worse than what anyone would speak before a camera or microphone. They're now talking about it not only with each other but also with family and friends, all of whom also share. And however anyone might feel about that -- including that too many of the players have under-performed in their own right -- the greater concern would always be that it's an untenable situation.
Not to mention unsalvageable.
So, what's the wait?
____________________
I'll try to tackle that from the opposite avenue, actually: Why isn't there urgency toward addressing this?
I asked Tomlin afterward if he'd felt his offense was forming an identity, imagining he'd understand I wasn't focused on the interceptions. And the 11-second answer needs to be seen/heard to be fully appreciated:
"I feel like we are," he answered a question I'd been almost sure he wouldn't answer at all. "But we didn't make the necessary splash plays today to secure victory. But I certainly feel like we are. Certainly."
Does he really?
Because if he does, and he values the future of the franchise as much as the present, he's got to grasp that this coordinator's doing damage to both. And to whatever extent Tomlin might be gun-shy about further unsettling this season by changing the offensive play calls or even some schematics at midstream, he can't possibly prioritize that over the steady development of Pickett, Pickens, Harris and others. He just can't. They've got to come through, if not right away then in the very near future. They're just too big an investment, individually and collectively.
Look, I get that the quarterback position's the sexy subject most weeks, and especially this season. And I'll reiterate that Pickett's last two picks were terrible:
Claypool fell on the first, but the second was aimed for Johnson through an ambitious window with not nearly enough zip, and the third really should've just been a scramble for the sideline, where there was room enough for a first down and a stopped clock.
"I just wanted give 'Tae a chance to make a play," Pickett recalled. "Just a miscommunication. I thought he was going to come back down. He ended up going vertical. I wanted to put it high and outside and give him a chance to make a play. But that's on me. I've got to run it there and get out of bounds or just throw it out, throw it away, and play another down and give us a better chance."
He'll get there. Fresh off the first concussion of his football life, he'd go 32 of 44 for 257 yards. He'd also be the one who, just before that pick, made a pristine pass to Pat Freiermuth for a 21-yard gain on fourth-and-6, or we wouldn't be talking about any of this.
Najee'll get there, too. He rushed 17 times for 65 yards, caught three passes for 15 more. Some good, some bad.
And Pickens ... my goodness, he might already be there.
I asked if he's ready for more, and it was easy to see he knew where I was going with it:
"Oh, yeah," he'd beam back with a broad smile. "It's just the opportunities that come my way. Next game, same thing: I'm just trying to do my best."
His best's already good enough. But one can only hope the next game won't more of the same thing, in that he'll have a coordinator who recognizes him without a nameplate.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
THE INJURIES
Hurt in the game: CB Levi Wallace (collarbone) was injured when the Dolphins' Tyreek Hill fell on him in the fourth quarter. Chris Halicke has a full report.
The inactives: WR Steven Sims (hamstring), CB Ahkello Witherspoon (hamstring), QB Mason Rudolph, G Kendrick Green, LB Mark Robinson
THE SCHEDULE
There'll be no media access period Monday, marking a first for this season. Next up's the trip to Philadelphia, then the bye week.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything from our football staff of Halicke, Eddie Provident, Ramon Foster, Matt Williamson and myself. Ramon's material will be up later Monday because of the night game.
