The Steelers' offense has struggled mightily through the first seven games of the season, and Mike Tomlin is confident the "dam's going to break" in terms of producing more splash on offense.
During his media availability at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex Thursday morning, Matt Canada doubled down on that mindset.
"For sure. It's not just this week," Canada said about trying to produce more chunk plays. "We've been talking about it every week. We've gotta make them when we get the chance to make them."
There are a lot of fans calling for Canada's job. He's in charge of an offense that ranks dead last in the NFL with 4.8 yards per play, 31st with 15.3 points per game and 30th with 298.6 yards per game. Players such as Chase Claypool, Kenny Pickett and Diontae Johnson have been openly critical about needing to improve in certain areas, specifically the need to create more plays that move down the field quicker.
Canada talked openly about the offense "fighting and struggling" to find the best ways to maximize the talents the Steelers have on offense and to minimize the weaknesses they have as well. But, it simply doesn't matter how much they try to find answers if it doesn't produce results.
"All that matters on the offense is winning, and our job to do that is to score points," Canada said. "We're not scoring enough points."
Just a few seconds later, Canada put his full faith in his ability to turn the ship around, even with the midway mark of the season rapidly approaching.
"I'll continue to say it. This is going to be a tremendous offense," Canada said. "We've got great talent. We've gotta get balls down the field to them. We've gotta block a little better. We've gotta get our run game -- our run game efficiency is coming, but it's not enough. It's still in those threes instead of those 4.5- to 5-yard averages because we haver to get a few more of those bigger plays. We had a couple. We're going to keep working at it. We haven't found it yet. We haven't found the execution. We haven't got on tape what we want to see yet."
All the talk of the offense getting closer to being where they need to be without producing tangible results has put a lot of heat on Canada's job. The Steelers knew it was going to take time for this offense to figure things out while it transitions away from Ben Roethlisberger to Mitch Trubisky, only to have Kenny Pickett take over before the conclusion of the fourth game of the season. It does take time to gel.
However, that hasn't stopped the rumors from swirling that Canada's job may be on the line if the offense doesn't have a good showing in Philadelphia this week. Tomlin has never fired a coach midseason, so it would be unprecedented for him to show Canada the door at any point before early January.
Canada isn't allowing the rumors to distract him from what ultimately needs to happen if his job is to remain secure.
"I don't see a lot of it," Canada said regarding the criticism. "Obviously with the way you guys are so fond of me, I don't read anything. That would be very unhealthy. But, I've got family and people that care about me, so I'm not naive to it. I have a job that everybody talks about. I wouldn't want to have any other job. I'm not happy with our production. I'm not happy with where we are. But, I certainly believe in the course."
MORE FROM THE SOUTH SIDE
• Canada's optimism for the offense isn't completely blind. He knows and has admitted throughout the season how the offense has failed across the board. He also knows talk is cheap.
There was one striking quote that really stood out -- just before the "tremendous offense" quote above -- that not only acknowledges how he is ultimately responsible for the offense's production, but also reveals he's not the only one putting together game plans week in and week out.
"It’s all me, I’ll take all the bad stuff, but as a staff, every coach has an area of expertise that we work at. Everybody’s responsible. I ultimately meet with them, we talk about it as a staff, we put it in, and all of us are fighting and struggling and trying to find what we can do better to maximize the talents we have and minimize the weaknesses we have," Canada said. "I can sit here and go through and say, “What about this here?” That’s not what anybody wants to do and that’s not what we’re doing. We’re here all the time, doing whatever we can, looking, grinding through it, trying to find it, looking at plays. Coach [Tomlin] does a great job of meeting with us and giving us ideas. We go through and we always feel like the plan’s what it is. We’re just not quite there."
• A source confirmed with me Thursday that Calvin Austin's 21-day window expired because of injury and was not physically able to play. So, any notion that he isn't playing because Tomlin or Canada don't know how or refuse to use him in the offense or on special teams is a complete farce.
• Alex Stumpf has been a wonderful welcome as help on the Steelers beat this week. I loved working with Alex on the Pirates beat, and he's brought the same high level of work in just a couple days here. I'm glad the end of the Pirates' season has allowed him to utilize his talents on the South Side. He's got a separate piece on Teryl Austin explaining why the defense hasn't blitzed as often as originally thought without T.J. Watt.
• Montravius Adams (hamstring), Pat Freiermuth (ankle), Steven Sims (hamstring) joined Ahkello Witherspoon (hamstring) as full participants in Thursday's practice. It's the second day in a row for Witherspoon to fully practice, which bodes well for his return to the lineup. He's been out since injuring his hamstring in Week 3 at Cleveland.
After not practicing Wednesday, Josh Jackson (groin) was able to practice as a limited participant Thursday. Larry Ogunjobi (knee) and Levi Wallace (shoulder) did not practice for the second day in a row. Without any participation Friday, it'll be difficult to see how either Ogunjobi or Wallace will be able to dress Sunday in Philadelphia.
• Cam Heyward was also added to the injury report Thursday, but was given a veteran rest day. No need to worry about his availability.
